Shredders

A shredder or paper shredder is an essential part of any business or home office to ensure privacy, confidentiality, and data protection is maintained.

Cromwell stock a wide range of paper shredders from trusted brands including Fellowes®, Rexel®, and QConnect®.

What are shredders?

Shredders are machines primarily used in offices and homes to permanently destroy documents in a way that they can't be read. This helps to maintain privacy and confidentiality, whilst also making sure you are following regulation.

Why use shredders?

With the increase in corporate espionage and identity theft, shredders have become an essential part of offices and homes due to their ability to maintain privacy and confidentiality. Depending on the level of cut, a paper shredder can cut documents from strips into fine particles of over 2000 pieces. This can also help maintain regulations such as UK Data Protection Act and GDPR.

Shredder security levels

There are multiple security levels of shredder cuts. We have put this in a easy to digest format for you:

• DIN 1 - Low Security - Acceptable for home use. Typically cuts an A4 paper into 40 12mm parts.
• DIN 2 - Low to Medium Security - Similar to DIN 1, it is acceptable for home use. It cuts paper into strips but are even thinner, allowing for around 100 6mm strips per A4 sheet.
• Din 3 - Medium security - This shredder will cut even thinner strips than Din 2, or will be a cross-cut, turning the paper into confetti. You would get strips of 2mm strips or up to 300 particles per A4 sheet.
• Din 4 - Medium to high Security - All DIN 4 models must cut documents into cross-cut particles of at least 2 x 15mm in size. You would get between 300 to 2000 particles per A4 page.
• DIN 5 - High Security - DIN 5 machines must cut documents into particles of 0.8x12mm in size. This is highest official level of cuts and is the most secure. You would expect over 2000 particles per A4 sheet.

Considerations when choosing shredders

There are some factors to consider when choosing paper shredders to ensure you get the maximum benefit and convenience whilst also ensuring your confidentiality:

• Security level - This is also known as the DIN-level, and this determines how securely documents are destroyed. The higher the Din-level, the more secure.
• Cut Type - This determines the type of cut the shredder makes. Strip-cut is the least secure, cross-cut and mini-cut are medium and highly secure respectively. Micro-cut is the most secure.
• Sheet capacity - Determines the maximum number of sheets at a time. The higher the sheet capacity, the more sheets can be cut at once, reducing the wait time at the shredder.
• Other consideration - Alongside the above considerations bin capacity and additional materials that can be cut (such as staples, CDs/DVDs, and credit cards) should also be considered to ensure you are getting the most use out of your shredder.

FAQs

Why is shredding documents important?

Shredding documents and other media is important to ensuring that sensitive data is effectively destroyed in an environmental way and helps maintain privacy and confidentiality.

Why use shredder oil?

Using shredder oil lubricates the cutting blades to ensure that they run smoothly and can help the extend the lifespan of your shredder. Shredder oils are available in different forms such as bottles and oil papers. Shredder oil papers are extremely convenient as they lubricate the blades whilst being shredded like a normal sheet of paper. You can find our range of shredder oils and accessories here.