Patent ID: 7500629

Claim:
A shredder having a plurality of shredder blades adapted to shred material fed into the shredder, comprising: a plurality of shredder blades disposed within the shredder and adapted to shred material inserted into the shredder, each of the shredder blades comprising: a shredder blade body generally defining a plane and having opposing major surfaces; the shredder blade body having a central bore therethrough adapted for mounting the shredder blade body onto a shredder shaft, the shredder blade body having an outer perimeter, at least a portion of the outer perimeter forms a first cutting mechanism adapted to rotate through a first generally circumferential path located generally at a first radius as measured from a center of the shredder blade body; and at least one cutting flange located on one of the opposing major surfaces of the shredder blade body and extending outwardly therefrom at an angle with the plane, the at least one cutting flange forming a second cutting mechanism adapted to rotate through a second generally circular path located generally at a second radius from the center of the shredder blade body and adapted to cut the material while the material is outside of the major surface of the shredder blade body, wherein the second radius is less than the first radius such that the shredder blade is adapted to make a lengthwise cut in the material and also at least partially make at least one cross-cut in the material; and wherein the majority of the plurality of shredder blades have at least one major surface that is not in contact with a major surface of an adjacently located shredder blade.