Patent ID: 8272585

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 into an automatic mode in which the shredder automatically activates 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, configured 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; and a timer mechanism in communication with the controller and configured to automatically prevent 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, wherein the timer mechanism prevents operation of the shredder when the shredder is in the automatic mode for more than the predetermined period of time without having material inserted therein and thereby prevents the rotation of the plurality of shredder blades.