Shredder with paper separation and advancement mechanism

A method for advancing at least one article from a stack and into cutter elements of a shredder for shredding, the shredder having a shredder mechanism and including a motor and cutter elements, the motor for rotating the cutter elements in an interleaving relationship for shredding articles fed therein, the cutter elements being mounted on a pair of parallel mounting shafts and configured for rotation about parallel axes;

• the housing having a source for holding a stack of articles to be fed into the cutter elements;
• a stack separation mechanism positioned adjacent to the source and comprising a rotatable body configured for rotation relative to the stack, the rotatable body configured such that rotation thereof in an advancing direction causes insertion of at least part of the rotatable body into at least part of the stack to separate at least an edge of at least one article therefrom and advance the at least one separated article towards the cutter elements, the rotatable body being rotatable about a rotational axis that is substantially perpendicular to the axes of the cutter elements;
• a rotating advancement mechanism between the stack and the shredder mechanism for continuing to advance the at least one separated article into the cutter elements, and a drive system constructed to drive the stack separation mechanism by rotating the rotatable body thereof in the advancing direction for said separating and advancing of the at least one separated article from the stack and towards the cutter elements;
• the method comprising:
• rotating the cutter elements in the interleaving relationship;
• driving the drive system to rotate the stack separation mechanism in the advancing direction such that it rotates relative to the stack and causes insertion of at least part of the rotatable body into at least part of the stack to separate at least an edge of at least one article therefrom and advance the at least one separated article towards the cutter elements;
• and
• rotating the rotating advancement mechanism to continue advancing the at least one separated article into the cutter elements.