security engineered machinery Archives - Page 8 of 8

Hard Drive Shredders – Which is right for you?

May 8, 2018 at 11:15 am by SEM

Shredding a hard drive just like a paper shredder, how can that be? That’s right, when it comes time to dispose of old hard drives that contain millions of pages of data and information, they can be shredded into strip cut pieces just like a paper shredder. The question is which hard drive shredder best meets an individuals or company’s needs?

Which Hard Drive Shredder is Best?

In order to determine which hard drive shredder is the best solution, a few things must be considered. What is the volume of drives needed to be destroyed? What is the security level required? Do we have the proper power to operate the system? Once these are answered, the search can begin.

SEM offers a variety of hard drive shredders that answer all of these questions. From a low volume, small footprint, office-like system with standard single phase power like the SEM Model 0300 to a larger, industrial size, high volume system with 3-phase power like the SEM Model 0304, SEM has a solution to meet your needs.

Prioritize Your Needs

If SECURITY is your most important priority – the smaller the better. As such, a .75” strip cut is more desirable than 1.0” or 1.5”. Model 0304 have the capabilities to produce all three strip cut sizes.

If VOLUME is more important – any of the systems with a shred size of 1.5” produce the higher volumes that range from 500 to 3500 hard drives per hour.

POWER –The Model 0300 requires standard 120V -20Amp power while the remainder of systems require 3-phase power at 208, 230 or 460V. Therefore, your facility must be able to accommodate this power.

SPACE – The 3-phase power units that can shred high volumes require enough space to accommodate the shredder and the discharge conveyor. A collection container to accept the shredded drives must also be considered. As such, the facility must have enough room to handle these configurations.

What to do With Shredder Drives

Hard drives contain a variety of precious metals such as gold, copper, aluminum, and more. Once the drives are shredded, these can be sold to recyclers who have the capability to separate the metals through a smelting process. When gold prices are up, it doesn’t take much to make these shredded drives very valuable. At the time of this report, a shredded hard drive had a value of about 50 cents per drive.

Ameri-shred shredder hdd — SEM Model 0304

SUMMARY:

If you have need to dispose of hard drives or similar items such as cell phones, blackberries, etc., an SEM hard drive shredder is a clean, simple to operate, highly effective solution. And with so many options available from SEM, there’s always one that fits your needs.

Shredder Training is the Key to Maximizing the Performance and Life of your Destruction Equipment

July 11, 2017 at 1:59 pm by SEM

Shredders, disintegrators, briquettors, optical media destroyers, HDD/SSD shredders, HDD crushers and degaussers are critical components of your overall information security program. Keeping these systems in good working order is extremely important, and easy to do with proper user training.

Probably the biggest factor in the longevity of any equipment is tied to proper training in the operation, daily maintenance and preventative maintenance. Depending on your equipment and site there are programs that can train your people to operate, maintain and troubleshoot so you avoid problems and keep the equipment up and running well.

Training can be done at your site with your equipment during a scheduled PM call, on a specific scheduled visit to your site, or at a training facility where factory service reps will go over all aspects of operation, daily maintenance, preventative maintenance as well as, tips and tricks to get the most of your systems and avoid the pitfalls. At the beginning of the training there will be a Q & A to help identify the issues of greatest concern to the group. During the training all participants are encouraged to ask questions and will have the opportunity to get “hands on” so they thoroughly understand the material being taught. After the training and a final Q & A each participant will be given a certificate of completion designating which equipment they were trained on. This is a great way for users to add additional value to their skill sets and company capabilities.

The training can be specialized to cover any and all the issues you may be having with your specific equipment, and discuss in detail how to fix and mitigate these in the future.

Some of the things your users will learn from attending training:

Changing knives, clearing and preventing jams, servicing dust filters, proper lubrication, testing belt tension, aligning conveyor belts, swapping out shredder heads-(depending on equipment) among many others.

The goal is maximizing machine availability for the organization and imparting the skills to help users diagnose and recognize potential issues before they become bigger problems.

And investment in a proper training program will pay dividends in equipment up time and save your organization money in the long run.

Click here for more information on SEM’s Preventative Maintenance and Service plans or call 800-225-9293.

Understanding the Electrical Requirements of Shredders

December 21, 2010 at 2:09 pm by SEM

When researching and selecting a paper shredder the first instinct is to find a shredder that will produce the right particle size to suit regulatory requirements. But not only does the shredder need to produce the correct particle size, but it also needs to be powered properly. If not powered properly the shredder will not run effectively or possibly not at all. Shredders utilize electricity from the wall to run an electrical motor inside the shredder. This electrical motor is rated by horsepower (HP).

Single Phase Motor 120 Volt, 60Cycle Motor

Horsepower of Motor (HP)	Current Full Load Amperes (AMP)
.25	4
.50	6
.75	8
1.0	10
1.5	14
2.0	18
2.15	19
2.5	22

Note: Values above are ballpark figures and are not considered absolute limits.

Above in the chart are examples of shredders that will be powered by 110-120 volt power sources in North America. Let’s break up the motors above into different groups and outline their power source requirements as follows:

Group 1 (Paper shredder with a 1.0 hp motor or less) This shredder can be plugged into any standard 110/120 volt 15 amp receptacle and can have other items on the same circuit as long as the total between all items does not exceed the 15 amps.

Group 2 (Paper shredder with a motor greater than 1.0 hp and equal to or less than 1.5 hp) This shredder should be plugged into a 20 amp receptacle and can have other items on the same circuit as long as the total between all items does not exceed the 20 amps.

Group 3 (Paper shredder with a motor greater that 1.5 hp and less than or equal to 2.15 hp) This shredder should be plugged into a 20 amp dedicated circuit for best performance.

What exactly is a 20 amp dedicated circuit? What this means is the power feeding this shedder should be one line with a wire of 12 gauge thickness or thicker (smaller the number gauge the thicker the wire) coming directly from the circuit breaker to the receptacle. This line/wire should only be feeding this receptacle and nothing else. Another thing to consider is the length of the line. The shorter the length of the line the less voltage drop. You do not want your voltage drop to be more than 5 percent (Example: 120 volt line with a 5 % drop = 114 volts). If there is too great of a voltage drop or insufficient voltage then your line is too long, the gauge wire may be too thin and or you do not have a dedicated line and there are other receptacles running off this line.

In summary, a well researched paper shredder may meet all of the technical requirements needed, but always ensure the electrical requirements and or horsepower of the shredders motor are met as well. Know ahead of time where it may be plugged in and or get an electrician involved to understand what is required to obtain the proper power. If the power source is insufficient you will not get the throughput the unit has been rated for, the shredder may also get jammed, stall, or overheat. If additional help is needed selecting the right shredder and or understanding the power requirements for your shredder SEM is here to help, fill out a request and we can get find the perfect solution!

Data Destruction on Ships: Here’s what to Know

at 1:45 pm by SEM

Destruction of classified documents and computer media on ships has always meant extra challenges. Compared to an office environment, shipboard locations have much greater concerns with space requirements, durability, fire resistance, and reparability when at sea.

There are many options for document destruction and information destruction equipment that suit a shipboard location in the major categories of equipment- paper shredders, disintegrators, and degaussers. Careful selection can mean better usability and durability.

For paper shredders, pressboard and plastic cabinets became the standard over the last 10 years. These materials often prove fragile on ships, easily cracking or breaking off hinges. There are now select shredders built with metal cabinets that can much better withstand shaking, bumping, and other hard wear.

Another area where paper shredders have lagged other equipment is in fire resistance. Shredders with wooden cabinets that require shredder oil can certainly be seen as a fire hazard. A new type of shredder was approved by the NSA that needs no oiling. This unit utilizes fiber spacers in the cutting head, instead of metal ones. This eliminates metal on metal friction, eliminating the need for oil. Better yet, this machine, the SEM Model 1201CC, also has a metal cabinet, addressing both fire risks.

A final area of concern is reparability when at sea. The most serious issue for crosscut paper shredders is damage to the cutting head. This type of damage has almost always required a vendor service technician to perform a major repair when in port, or the replacement of the machine. The SEM Model 1201CC has a cutting head that can be swapped out in minutes by ship personnel, with no special tools or skills. Spare cutting heads can be purchased and stored onboard, which can be especially useful when rolling out quantities of shredders throughout a ship.

Devices for destroying non-paper materials also offer some good choices for shipboard environments. Multi-media disintegrators that used to require large spaces can now be found in configurations that are similar to a standard office paper shredder. Yet, these machine allow the destruction of optical media, flash memory, key tape, and a wide range of plastic and light metal materials. One such machine is the Marine 200 disintegrator.

The choices in magnetic media degaussers have also grown, with some models especially good choices for placement on ships. In particular the newer, compact machines with fixed permanent magnets and manual operation are well sized to go onto a ship. Some of these can be rack mounted. The lack of electronic components makes them reliable and durable.

Careful market research can lead to better choices for secure destruction equipment for ships. It is worth the time.

SEM Shred

Tag: security engineered machinery