Cross-Cut vs. Pierce and Tear Shredding

Every once in awhile a customer asks "what type of shredding do you use?" and when we say "mostly pierce and tear!" their response is almost always "how is that different from cross-cut?"

Well, since you've asked, the shredders themselves are different in design and operation. Cross-cut shredders have multiple blades that cut paper in both directions, while pierce-and-tear shredders use a combination of piercing spikes and tearing bars.

Here's a rundown of how each method works:

Cross-Cut Shredding:

The most common type of shredding employed by small office style machines
Cuts paper into small pieces, typically confetti-like in shape
Shredder blades cut both vertically and horizontally, creating multiple small particles
Resulting shredded pieces are difficult to reconstruct, providing a higher level of security compared to traditional strip-cut shredding

Pierce-and-Tear Shredding:

Pierce-and-tear shredding is less common, but offers a higher level of security
Instead of cutting the material into small particles, pierce-and-tear uses a combination of piercing blades and tearing bars to create irregularly shaped pieces
These shredders drive a powerful spike through the material, creating a hole, and then tear the rest of the document apart

And now, of course, your next question is: "which is better?"

It depends on the application, but for professionals like us, pierce and tear has several advantages.

Advantage of pierce and tear shredders:

Generally provide a higher level of security because irregularly shaped pieces are more challenging to reconstruct
Can handle non-paper items like plastic and products
Are faster
Are more energy efficient

So there you have it!

While cross-cut shredding offers adequate security for most situations, and is just fine for a small office shredder, pierce-and-tear is better for highly sensitive or classified materials, and for huge volumes like those destroyed every day on our fleet of American Shredding mobile shred trucks.

Cross-Cut vs. Pierce and Tear Shredding

Recent Posts

Comments