Patent ID: 8020796

Claim:
A shredder comprising: a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded; a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable in a shredding direction to drive the cutter elements to shred the articles fed therein; a thickness detector configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat; and a controller coupled to the motor and the thickness detector, the controller being configured to determine, prior to operation of the motor, whether the thickness detector detects that the thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat is below or at or above a predetermined maximum thickness threshold, and in response: (a) prevent operation of the motor if the thickness detector detects that the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat is at or above predetermined maximum thickness threshold, and (b) operate the motor in the shredding direction to drive the cutter elements to shred the at least one article being received by the throat if the thickness detector detects that the at least one article is below the predetermined maximum thickness threshold, without preventing the operation of the motor in the shredding direction in response to the thickness detector detecting during the operation of the motor that the thickness of the at least one article is at or above the predetermined maximum thickness threshold to thereby prevent unnecessary motor shut-off due to fluttering of the at least one article being shredded.