Fellowes, Inc. Receives 2007 Chicago Innovation Award

Fellowes, Inc. was recently named a recipient of the 2007 Chicago Innovation Award for its Powershred DS1 personal shredder that provides best-in-class safety features and superior performance. The award was presented to the company on Monday, Oct. 22 at a private ceremony held at the Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago.

“We are honored to be recognized as a leading innovator in the Chicagoland-area,” said Nancy Heaton, senior global marketing manager for Fellowes, Inc. “This award marks our strong commitment to safety, which has always been a top priority for our company. The DS1 personal shredder is a true testament of our dedication to continuously enhancing our products to have the safest features possible.”

This year marks the sixth annual Chicago Innovation Awards competition, which was co-founded in 2002 by Kuczmarski & Associates and the Chicago Sun-Times, and is designed to honor significant innovations introduced by Chicago-area companies.

Award nominees were judged based on the success of products and services introduced between May 2006 and July 2007 that uniquely satisfied unmet needs in the marketplace. The Fellowes Powershred DS1 personal shredder was one of 10 winners, chosen from nearly 250 nominees.

The Powershred DS1 features patented SafeSense™ technology that protects the safety of the user, including children and larger pets, by automatically disabling the shredder when sensing hands or pets are too close to the paper entry. An electronic sensor surrounds the shredder’s paper entry and shuts down the machine immediately when it comes in contact with the energy field created by humans and large pets. The cross-cut machine also shreds 11 sheets of paper per pass, along with staples, paper clips and credit cards.

After its launch in August 2005, the Powershred DS1 quickly became Fellowes’ best-selling personal shredder, outselling Fellowes other personal shredders by more than 50 percent. Due to the DS1’s success, Fellowes has gone on to add its SafeSense technology into nine additional shredder models and plans to roll out seven new models in 2008.

About Fellowes
Headquartered in Itasca, Ill., Fellowes, Inc. offers an impressive range of products to equip the workspace, including paper shredders, binders and laminators, desktop accessories and record storage solutions. Fellowes, Inc. owns and operates subsidiaries in Canada, United Kingdom, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and Australia, the company employs more than 2,700 people throughout the world and expects global sales in excess of $700 million this year.

About the Chicago Innovation Awards
Kuczmarski & Associates and the Chicago Sun-Times established the Chicago Innovation Awards in 2002 as an annual program to honor significant innovations introduced by Chicago-area companies. Each year the Chicago Innovation Awards honor 10 winners who have introduced products or services that uniquely fill unmet needs, generate a competitive response in the marketplace, exceed market expectations and achieve financial success. For more information, visit www.ChicagoInnovationAwards.com.

Fixing Your Jammed Paper Shredder

How to fix your jammed paper shredder:

WARNING! Never attempt to remove paper manually from a jammed shredder plugged into power. ALWAYS unplug the shredder before attempting any manual maintenance.

If your shredder just shuts down without any apparent jamming, make sure the circuit breaker for the shredder outlet is on. If the shredder has power and there’s no apparent jam, it probably overheated. Turn it off and let it sit idle for about an hour. This should cure an overheating problem.

If the shredder doesn’t appear to be jammed with paper, it may be seizing up because the cutting cylinder blades need oiling. 

If you suspect the blades need oiling, refer to the owner’s manual for instructions on how to oil them. NEVER use WD40, a petroleum-based oil, or otherwise flammable oil on cutting blades. Use vegetable-based oil like Canola or corn oil.

• Hold down the reverse button and squirt oil into the paper entry area in a sweeping motion from one side to the other and back.
• Place the shredder in the FORWARD position and allow the shredder to run for three to five seconds.
• Do the same in the REVERSE position.
• Repeat these last two steps about three times.

NOTE:
Continually attempting to run the shredder motor with the shredder in a jammed state can burn out the motor. Cease to apply power to the motor the instant you are fairly certain the jam will not clear up, and then proceed to a manual approach. 

If the shredder is obviously jammed, turn it off, study the situation for a moment, and refer to your owner’s manual for instructions on how to proceed. 

Short of that, turn the shredder back on and move the control switch to the REVERSE position to see if the paper backs out. This step usually solves the problem. If it doesn’t, slowly alternate the control switch between REVERSE and FORWARD a few times for about five seconds each. If this doesn’t work, do the same with the manual feed button in alternating REVERSE and FORWARD positions by holding the manual button down in each position for about five seconds. Repeat this process, as few times as possible, until you are reasonably certain this procedure will not clear the jam.

Turn the shredder off, unplug it from power, and let it cool for a while before you touch any internal parts. Being careful to not cut yourself on the shredder’s blades, manually try to pull as much of the jammed paper as you can from the shredder and try the alternating REVERSE/FORWARD process again. Use a pair of tweezers to remove any small bits of paper if necessary. 

After allowing the shredder to cool, you may be able to pull the paper out while manually turning the motor by hand. Make sure the shredder is off, unplugged from power, and cool to the touch before trying this. 

If everything else fails, you can also soak the jammed paper in shredder oil for fifteen minutes and try the REVERSE/FORDARD alternating procedure again. 

If you’re not comfortable with these two last-ditch efforts, have the shredder serviced by a qualified service technician.