Design of Paper Shredder

Introduction
A paper shredder is used to shred/torn important and confidential documents. It is mostly used
in offices. Also, paper shredding is a practice of tearing paper instead of burning and causing
pollution. The torn paper can be recycled back into the paper industry. There are many other
reasons of designing this machine such as identity theft problems and eliminating old useless
record of some management team.

Design Components
Since the purpose of a paper shredder is known so in order to cut the paper, blades are required.
For the rotation of the shaft on which the blades are mounted a motor or most probably belt
and pulley mechanism can be used in case there is no electricity or if it is just designed to work
manually. The components of the design are discussed below:
Cutting Blades
The Blades are designed using the tearing and shear strength of the paper, the number of papers
that are to be shredded at the same time and the width of the flakes.

Mounting Shaft
The Shaft on which the blades are mounted is designed using the torsional strength. Since it
has to rotate while cutting the papers, it will experience torsional load. This torsional load will
describe the fatigue life of the rotating shaft. The shaft shall have to rotate freely during the
shredding process. To provide it with less friction bearings are used at the ends. The bearings
are also designed using the fatigue life analysis and the kind of loading it will bear. The
maximum revolutions a bearing can bear are calculated and then decided either it can be used
or not.
Mechanical Gears
A combination of Gear and Pinion are used in a paper shredder, since the two shafts are required
to rotate in opposite directions. The mounting diameter of the gear set will be same as the
diameter of the shaft which are to be rotated using the mechanism. Gear ratio defines the speed
of the two shafts. Since the two shafts are to rotate at same angular velocity the gear ratio is
usually 1. The bending stresses in gears are not so common but the surface stress is what effects
their performance. Due to the meshing of gears the teeth might break or wear out after certain
revolutions, so the surface stresses are calculated before the design is ready to work. A safety
factor is considered to be achieved at the end of the process. Normally, Spur gears are used in
a paper shredder.

Motor or Belt and pulley:

A motor can be used to rotate the shafts. The motor is attached to only one gear. When motor
start the whole mechanism works due to gears in mesh. In most of the designed there is only
electrical input or just the mechanical input. A paper shredder can be designed to have both
kinds of inputs. The belt and pulley mechanism can be disengaged when it is running using the
motor. When there is no electricity, the belt and pulley can be rotated using a holder and it
doesn’t matter if the motor is also rotating in the process.
Benefits
Everyone has the right to protect personal and confidential information. Sometimes this
information is with the person in the form of documents. This could include, ownership
documents, bank statements, marketing plans. To dispose them off and get rid of them some
might tear the documents but to make the documents tear in really small and unreadable slices
an invention had to be made.
Industrial paper shredders are powerful, technologically-advanced and heavy-duty shredding
machines competent to shred office documents in bulk.
With the help of a standard office shredder, small documents are shred whereas confidential
documents or information stored in discs, folders, etc., are shred with industrial shredders.
These machines facilitate high volume shredding by shredding 10 to 20 sheets per pass.
People have these in houses and offices that makes it easier for them to dispose off any
confidential or useless document.
The paper and pulp industry ranks among those 5 heavy industries which consume the most
energy in its processes. Papers are made of cellulose obtained from tree logs. From note books
to newspaper everything requires cutting of trees. This cutting down of trees is affecting the
nature and human life badly. According to a research about 250 Million tons’ paper is made
every year. Along with that 10 liters of water is used to make one A4 sized paper. Not just
these but many other resources are used in paper production. Only in UK about 12.5 Million
tons of paper is wasted after its use every year. In this time of crises, it is a practice to
temporarily waste paper and then recycle it. It will help in getting rid of a large junk within no
time.