Even for small businesses, paper shredders are important to have as basic office supplies. Paper shredders are ideal because they help companies remove the concerns of security and privacy issues of their physical documents. These devices are the go-to office supply to help destroy copies that have passed their necessary retention needs.
Security isn’t the only feature to consider when shopping for paper shredders. Depending on your office or home office needs, there are many other factors to consider, including the size, cut, and maintenance of the shredder.
If you’re unsure what paper will meet your needs, this guide casn help you narrow down your purchasing selections. Let’s explore three of the best paper shredders for small businesses.
Strip-cut shredder
The strip-cut shredder is an affordable and low-level security device for your home office or small business office. Strip-cut shredders are also known as ribbon-cut, spaghetti-cut, or straight-cut shredders. Regardless of the name you identify it with, this type of machine contains a single blade designed to cut paper vertically when fed through the top of the shredder.
Strip-cut shredders are the fastest ones on the market and also require the least amount of maintenance. However, the small machines are the least secure type of shredders, as well as the most inexpensive, due to their simple version of cutting paper. Typically cutting paper into strips approximately a half-inch wide, this shredder makes the pieces of paper hard to piece back together again.
A strip-cut shredder cuts your documents into long, vertical strips rather than short paper or confetti-style shreds. These strips are likely to contain legible pieces of text, graphics, signatures, or photos. Therefore, this type of shredding machine is perfect for disposing of nonconfidential documents, such as unclassified documents, public information documents, and media mail.
Cross-cut shredder
A cross-cut shredder is sometimes called a confetti-cut shredder. This type of machine cuts your paper documents vertically and horizontally, resulting in smaller paper particles. Thanks to this cross-cut technology, these shredders offer far more data security than the strip-cut shredder varieties.
These paper shredders provide enough security for shredding standard confidential documents at your small business. This type of shredder offers classified and sensitive disposal safety. Therefore, many business owners prefer cross-cut shredders because of their more secure and enhanced data destruction capabilities.
Because there are more complex pieces in these machines that shred documents into confetti-size pieces, they are more costly. However, the higher price is worth the higher value of secure paper disposal.
Super cross-cut shredder
This is another model of the cross-cut shredder. While the purpose and design of these types of shredders are the same, super cross-cut shredders produce more minor cuts than regular cross-cut shredders. Super cross-cut shredders are ideal for highly sensitive and confidential documents that need to be destroyed. Additionally, they can shred smaller than standard cross-cut shredders and make up to 400 cuts per paper.
Both the cross-cut and super cross-cut shredder varieties require more routine maintenance than strip-cut shredders. In order to keep this type of machine running smoothly and efficiently, it’s recommended to oil it regularly.
Micro-cut shredder
With a micro-cut paper shredder, your small business gets more document disposal security than it would from either a strip-cut or cross-cut shredder. A micro-cut shredder still uses a cross-cut shredding mechanism, but it’s a more advanced device that offers greater security for destroying confidential data.
Officially, a micro-cut shredder is classified as providing the highest level of information security. These varieties are recommended for destroying and disposing of personal and sensitive documents, such as personally identifiable information on paper and documents from government organizations.
The paper particles produced from these devices are more microscopic than standard cross-cut and strip-cut shredder models. Therefore, any information that was on the documents is essentially unreadable and nearly impossible to reconstruct. One copy through this type of shredder can equate to over 2,000 tiny paper particles.
Micro-cut shredders require the most maintenance, and therefore, regular oiling of the machines is necessary. It’s also important to note that due to the more significant amount of cuts needed, these devices run at a slower pace than other varieties. This is because of the lower sheet capacity and slower shredding speed of the machines.
Best office paper shredders
These are the three common types of paper shredders used for document disposal. It’s essential to know that these are the best paper shredders on the market and some include add-ons, such as wastebaskets and auto-shredding features.
Whether you need to destroy unclassified documents or confidential materials, you’ll find a paper shredder is the best resource to dispose of all documents securely. No matter what your needs are for your small business, secure document removal is important and can increase the value of the paper shredder you choose.
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