Picking an industrial shredder comes down to a handful of decisions — what you're shredding, how much, how small it needs to end up, and how it fits your floor. Here's how we'd walk you through it, in the order that matters.
The material decides the line more than anything else. Paper and cardboard at volume run on the paper series; hard drives on the hard-drive line; hard drives and SSDs on SelecShred™; plastics, product, packaging and e-scrap on Particle Cut or core shredders; cardboard cores and bottles on the core line. Mixed or unusual material is where a custom-engineered system earns its place. If you're processing more than one material, tell us all of them — it changes the recommendation.
Throughput sets the chamber size and horsepower. Be concrete about volume the way you measure it — sheets or pounds per hour, drives per day, tons per week — and whether it's occasional or all-shift. The range runs from compact units for lower volume up to continuous-duty lines built to run a full floor every shift; the honest match depends on your real numbers, so we'd rather size it to those than quote a headline figure.
How small the output needs to be is a security and downstream decision. Strip-cut gives the highest throughput at a larger piece; cross-cut is smaller and more secure; particle-cut is the finest and handles mixed bulk material. For media, SelecShred™ takes hard drives to a 1-1/2″ (38.1 mm) strip and SSDs to a 3/16″ × 3/8″ (4.8 × 9.5 mm) cross-cut. If you work to a standard — NIST SP 800-88, DIN 66399, HIPAA — tell us and we'll confirm the configuration that meets it.
Industrial shredders typically run on 230V or 460V, 3-phase, 60 Hz — we confirm the exact requirement per model. Just as important is the space: the cutting chamber, infeed and discharge, and room to work around it. Send us your floor dimensions and we'll design around them, in CAD, before a part is cut.
A shredder rarely works alone. Tippers load it without manual lifting, infeed and auto-feed conveyors keep it fed, output conveyors move the product, and balers compact it for transport or resale. Decide early whether you're buying a machine or engineering a line — it's cheaper to plan the handling in than to add it later.
Allegheny sells direct from the manufacturer — no dealer markup — and builds heavy so the machines last. The number that matters over a decade is cost to run: uptime, wear parts and service, all of which come direct from the plant in Delmont. Factor those in alongside the purchase price.
| If you're shredding… | The line | Typical cut |
|---|---|---|
| Paper & cardboard at volume | Paper series (16–36) | Strip · cross · particle |
| Hard drives | Hard Drive line | 1-1/2″ (38.1 mm) strip |
| Hard drives + SSDs | SelecShred™ | HDD strip + SSD cross-cut |
| Plastics, product & packaging | Particle Cut · Core | Particle · 2″ (50.8 mm) strip |
| E-scrap (incl. circuit boards) | Particle Cut | 1/2″ × variable (12.7 mm × variable) particle |
| Cardboard cores & bottles | Cardboard & Core | 2″ (50.8 mm) strip |
| Mixed, bulk or unusual | Custom-engineered system | Specified to you |
Tell us the material, how much you process (sheets/hour, drives/day, tons/week), the finished size you need and your floor space. We size the machine to those — from compact units to continuous-duty lines.
Strip-cut is highest throughput at a larger piece; cross-cut is smaller and more secure; particle-cut is finest and best for mixed bulk material. Your security standard and downstream use decide it.
Either. A machine can run standalone, or we engineer a complete line — tippers, conveyors, auto-feed and baling — around your floor and volume.
Typically 230V or 460V, 3-phase, 60 Hz. We confirm the exact requirement for your model.
Material, volume and floor space — we'll size the machine (or design the line) and reply fast.
Material, volume, and the result you need at the end. Help us understand your space — direct from the people who build the machine.
