A History Lesson in Shredder Oil Sheets
In the mid 2000’s, the emergence of auto feed paper shredders was in its infancy and was rapidly growing year by year. Looking back, it was the introduction of 50, 100 and 200 sheet capacity auto feed models that propelled the uptake of auto feed paper shredders at lightning speed. Now days for those buying a new paper shredder, no longer is it a question of manual or auto feed? More often the question is which auto feed capacity, shred security level, brand and model will be most fit for purpose.

As friction fed auto feed shredders with rubber rollers were becoming more common place at home and the workplace, so did the need to oil the shredders blades conveniently come under the microscope. Over and above convenience was the need to prevent shredder oil coming into contact with the rubber rollers and belts that direct the paper into the blades, hence the birth of the Shredder Oil Sheet.

Shredder Oil Sheets

As simple and convenient shredder oil sheets are to use, much R&D investment was focussed at designing the oil sheet that:

  • Doesn’t leak until penetrated by shredders blades.
  • Is easy and long enough to feed manually.
  • Includes an anti-burst perimeter design.
  • Is suitable for various security levels.

Substrates that contain the oil inside the oil sheet are composed to tear like paper and not tangle up in the blades when shredding, while releasing the right amount of oil directly onto the shredder’s blades. A characteristic of friction fed auto feed paper shredders is that the blades are located after the rubber paper feed rollers. For this reason, to keep oil from impacting the rubber feed rollers,  oil sheets are the cleanest and most convenient way to oil auto feed paper shredders blades.  

Oil sheets generally are A5 size and long enough to reach the shredders blades when inserted manually. It is very important to note for auto feed shredder users that oil sheets are never to be applied via the auto feeder, they simply won’t feed in and can cause malfunction.

Although shredder oil sheets were always destined for oiling automatic shredders, uptake on this handy way to oil a paper shredder has increased in popularity for manual shredder users driven by the added convenience.

Some Auto Feed Paper Shredder Brands incorporating friction feed technology include:

It should be noted based on feedback and experience, that shredder oil sheets should not be used with straight cut paper shredders, Why? Put simply, stright cut shredders tend to push the oil towards the trailing edge of the oil sheet, compressing it with the possibility of bursting, this is even more of a risk when fed into faster feeding straight cut shredders. Unlike cross cut and micro cut paper shredders, these by nature penetrate the oil sheet without the inherent risk of bursting.