Collection: Medium Office Paper Shredders

Medium office machines are the workhorses of the catalogue. They are steel-cased, floor-standing or cabinet-mounted, and built for a team rather than a person — longer duty cycles, wider throats and considerably bigger bins than a desk-side unit.

Typical figures in this range: throats of 12 to 16 inches, bins of 32 to 46 gallons, and sheet capacities of 10 to 50 depending on security level. The intimus 120, 130 and 175 series covers P-4 at 3.8 x 36 mm and 4 x 40 mm and P-5 at 1.9 x 15 mm; the HSM SECURIO B-series and Dahle's 50000 line sit alongside them at similar levels. Most offices with a compliance obligation land on P-4 for general paperwork, or P-5 where personal, medical or financial records are involved.

The specification most often got wrong at this size is duty cycle. A machine rated 10 minutes on / 30 off will not survive a department that shreds for an hour on a Friday afternoon; look for 30/30 or better, and treat published sheet capacity as a ceiling rather than a working number. Some models here carry an automatic oiler, which removes the most commonly skipped piece of maintenance — see how to oil a paper shredder. Compare specific models on the comparison page.