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US 2021/0039905 A1Published application
Document shredding machine
AssigneeShred Holdings, LLC
InventorsPaul Kaufmann, Kurt Melia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A stand-alone self-service document shredding machine that receives the documents, shreds them, and securely stores the shredded documents in a receiving bin for later removal. There is a feeder mechanism that feeds the documents yet protects the user from injury when the shredder machine is operating. The shredded documents are disbursed across the receiving bin. The user interfaces with the shredding machine by means of a touch screen and can pay with a credit or debit card or an account set up online.
Claims10
A self-contained paper shredding machine comprising:
- an enclosure having a front, back, a left side, and a right side;
- a motor mounted in the enclosure;
- a paper shredding mechanism mounted within the enclosure and driven by the motor;
- a door on the front of the enclosure;
- a document receiving tray adapted for receiving a stack of individual documents, the receiving tray mounted on a track for movement from a first position within the enclosure and in proximity to the paper shredding mechanism to a second position outside the enclosure and adjacent to the door on the front of the enclosure;
- drive means for moving the document receiving tray from the first position to the second position, and for retracting the document receiving tray from the second position to the first position;
- sensor means mounted in the enclosure for determining the quantity of documents in the document receiving tray;
- document feeding means for feeding the individual documents from the document receiving tray into the paper shredding mechanism where the documents are shredded, the document feeding means comprising at least one vacuum cup operatively mounted on a carriage, the carriage moving from a first position above the document receiving tray in which the vacuum cup engages the document, to a second position in which the document is fed into the paper shredding mechanism;
- a shredded document receiving container having an open top, the shredded document receiving container positioned below the paper shredding mechanism for receiving the shredded documents;
- and
- a shredded document disbursing mechanism positioned above the shredded document receiving container for spreading the shredded documents across the shredded document receiving container.
8 more elements
A method of shredding documents comprising the following steps:
- providing an enclosure having a front, back, a left side, and a right side;
- providing a motor mounted in the enclosure;
- providing a paper shredding mechanism mounted within the enclosure and driving the paper shredding mechanism with the motor;
- providing a door on the front of the enclosure;
- providing a document receiving tray;
- moving the receiving tray from a first position within the enclosure and in proximity to the paper shredding mechanism to a second position outside the enclosure and adjacent to the door on the front of the enclosure;
- loading a stack of individual documents in the receiving tray;
- moving the document receiving tray from the second position to the first position;
- sensing the quantity of documents in the document receiving tray;
- feeding the documents from the document receiving tray into the paper shredding mechanism where the documents are shredded,
- orienting a shredded document receiving container having an open top below the paper shredding mechanism
- receiving the shredded documents in the container;
- and
- providing a shredded documents disbursing mechanism above the shredded document receiving container and spreading the shredded documents across the shredded document receiving container.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.