Kobra 400 WB

The Kobra 400 WB is a hopper-fed P-4 shredder: staff tip a full wastebasket of paper into the tall hopper, close the lid, and revolving flaps feed the load down to a 3.9 x 40 mm (approx. 0.15 x 1.57 in) cross-cut head. It keeps a conventional 16 in (400 mm) throat for stapled files and media, and collects waste in a 53-gallon (200-liter) steel cabinet. It is built for sites where confidential paper is collected in bins and destroyed in one place, without anyone feeding sheets by hand.

Kobra 400 WB at a glance

• Bulk hopper with automatic revolving flaps
• Accepts crumpled paper, as well as flat sheets
• P-4 cross cut, 156 mm² per particle
• 40-42 sheets per pass through the manual throat (80 g/m²)
• 64.2 in (163 cm) tall, 271 lb (123 kg)

How the hopper changes the workflow

A standard shredder needs someone to stand and feed sheets. On the 400 WB the hopper does that job. Paper is tipped in loose, and the revolving flaps release it to the knives at a rate the 2,100 W motor can handle instead of dropping the whole load at once. Crumpled paper, which never lies flat in a normal throat, is on Kobra's list of accepted materials for this model. The result suits end-of-day routines where an assistant or cleaner empties confidential waste bins into one machine.

P-4 security, same as the 400 C4

The cutting head is the one used in the 400 C4, so the convenience costs nothing in security. Particles of 156 mm² fall inside the 160 mm² DIN 66399 limit for P-4, and the complete rating is P-4 O-3 T-4 E-3 F-1. Cards, chip cards, films, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, floppy disks and USB pen drives are best fed one at a time through the manual throat rather than dropped loose into the hopper.

Planning for size and upkeep

The hopper raises the height to 64.2 in, so check ceiling clearance for opening the lid, plus doorways and lifts on delivery. The footprint, 23.5 x 19 in, matches the rest of the 400 family. The motor is rated for 24-hour continuous running. Waste bags and shredder oil are not included; a cross-cut head fed in bulk should be oiled regularly, so order both with the machine. Keep binder clips, ring mechanisms and general trash out of the confidential bins that feed the hopper.

Kobra 400 WB specifications

400 WB, 400 C4 or an autofeed model?

• Kobra 400 C4: the identical P-4 head, throat and bin in a 36.5 in cabinet without the hopper. Better value if documents are fed by hand anyway.
• KOBRA AF.1 C4: P-4 with an autofeed tray that takes 300 sheets (80 g/m²) of neat stacked paper, in a smaller cabinet.
• Kobra 430 TS C2 AO: a conveyor-fed P-5 machine for far larger, continuous volumes.

Who the 400 WB is for

It suits bank branches, clinics, school offices and similar sites that gather confidential waste in bins across the building and destroy it centrally at P-4. It is not worth the premium if everyone already feeds paper by hand, and the height rules it out for low ceilings or under-counter spaces.