Paper Shredder Having Interchangeable Feed Belt Cartridges

摘要

An auto-feed paper shredder operates by using counter-rotating belts to grasp sheets of paper from the bottom of a stack of paper and push the sheet into a shredding mechanism. Successive sheets are pulled from the stack and shredded so that an entire stack of several hundred sheets can be shredded without operator intervention. The belts that accomplish the auto-feeding are housed in roller belt assemblies that can be easily removed from and reinserted into the paper shredder. In this way when the belts become worn and no longer effectively grasp the paper, the user simply removes the assembly and inserts a new one. The worn assemblies can be returned to the manufacturer to be refurbished.

主权项

1. An auto-feed paper shredder comprising:
a shredding mechanism having a longitudinally disposed series of shredding blades; a paper compartment for holding a stack of papers disposed above the shredding mechanism; a feed slot in a lower surface of the paper compartment aligned with the longitudinally disposed series shredding blades; at least one pair of conveyor feed belts, one belt of each pair disposed on a first side of the feed slot and the second belt of each pair disposed on a second side of the feed slot, wherein the belts are powered so that the belts on the first side of the feed slot move towards the feed slot and the belts on the second side of the feed slot also move towards the feed slot, and wherein the conveyor feed belts are disposed in at least one cartridge which at least one cartridge can be easily removed and replaced with a new cartridge for rapid replacement of a worn conveyor feed belt; and a hinged door to close the paper compartment and apply pressure to the stack of papers.