Patent ID: 7594620

Claim:
A shredder having automatically activated shredder blades and an associated safety feature, comprising: a shredder head housing defining a slot adapted to receive material to be shredded; a plurality of shredder blades disposed within the shredder head housing and adapted to shred the material inserted into the slot; a selectable control in communication with the shredder and having an activated state adapted to configure the shredder to automatically activate the plurality of shredder blades when the material is fed into the slot; a controller disposed at least partially within the shredder head housing and, while the selectable control is in the activated state, adapted to detect the material inserted into the shredder through the slot and, upon detection, activates the plurality of shredder blades to shred the detected material; a timer mechanism in communication with the controller and adapted to automatically preventing the plurality of shredder blades from being activated if the selectable control has been in the activated state for a predetermined amount of time without any material being detected for shredding, a shredder basket associated with the shredder head housing for receiving the shredder material; wherein the shredder head housing includes a timer control adapted to allow the predetermined amount of time to be adjusted; the timer control comprises a second selectable control located on an inner surface of the shredder basket.