Patent ID: 8113451

Claim:
A method for operating a shredder comprising a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded, a thickness detector for detecting a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded inserted in the throat, and 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 drive the cutter elements in a shredding direction so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein; the method comprising: detecting with the thickness detector a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded inserted into the throat; if the detected thickness is less than a predetermined maximum thickness threshold, operating the motor to drive the cutter elements in the shredding direction to shred the at least one article; detecting during operation of the motor a performance characteristic of the motor; and reducing the predetermined maximum thickness threshold based on the detected performance characteristic of the motor.