Office Equipment Blog from Office Zone

Some of our customers, interested in shrink wrap machines and film, are often caught off guard when we ask them what type of shrink film they want. PVC is the most common shrink wrap film. Best of all, it’s the least expensive. PVC is ideal for individual product wrapping, such as CD packages, DVDs, software boxes, etc. PVC film is durable, yet brittle.

Now, if you happen to be wrapping multiple items together, or you simply want to shrink wrap food — produce and meat would be a good example — then polyolefin film is the way to go. Polyolefin film is more stretchy than PVC film. Polyolefin is often found wrapped around all kinds of food because it will not emit harmful chemicals when it’s heated. Several of our customers in the grocery business use polyolefin film.

Coercivity is a term commonly used with photo ID cards made of PVC. Coercivity basically identifies the strength of the magnetic intensity used to encode an ID card. Most ID card readers can read both high and low coercivity cards, but not all ID card writers can encode in both.

Low coercivity is typically used when a card is written and re-written several times over. High coercivity is used for long-term encoding. Low coercivity cards include gift cards, hotel keys, photo ID cards, college ID’s, or other temporary-use cards. A low-coercivity card has a magnetic strip (typically located on the back of the card) this is commonly light brown in color.

High coercivity is typically used with credit cards. Pull your credit card out of your wallet and take a look. The stripe on the back of the card should have a dark brown to black look to it. For more information about photo ID cards and magnetic readers and writers, be sure to take a look at our Photo ID Guide.

We are often asked what a paper drill is used for. Quite simply, paper drills will punch or bore holes in large stacks of paper, unlike hole punches that do a few sheets at a time.

People wonder why a common power drill cannot be used to drill a stack of paper. This never works because hand drills do not use a hollow drill bit that lets the drilled paper pass through.

Hand drills use drill bits that will tear, grab and burn your stack of paper. Paper drills use a specially coated hollow paper drill bit that smoothly slices through a stack of paper much like a razor blade would.

The nice thing about paper drilling machines is that they require little maintenance and can greatly increase the document processing effeciency of your office.

Do you use an office paper shredder? If so, how often? With today’s widespread use of e-mail, cell phones, texting, and online chats, have you found your office using less and less paper? Or, have all of these new communication channels spawned more paper for your office to deal with? For years, several so-called futurists have said paper would be a thing of the past. They told us the paperless office was just right around the corner. But if your office is like ours, we’re practically swimming in paper that needs shredding. Is that how it is at your office?

Ever heard of a cardboard shredder? If not, you can take a look at one here. For the benefit of the uninformed, a cardboard shredder can chew up a cardboard box and spit it out as inexpensive packaging material. If you don’t believe me, you can watach a demonstration here.

Most of our customers buy cardboard shredders to create packaging material. However, we do stumble upon the occasional customer who actually wants to use a cardboard shredder for something rather unusual. Take horse bedding for example. We have sold cardboard shredders to horse owners looking for a economical way to make bedding for their horse.

We have even sold cardboard shredders to pet store owners. If you take a shredded piece of cardboard, that looks somewhat akin to a braided rug, and then run it through the shredder a second time, it chops the cardboard into little pieces. These pieces can then be used inexpensively to line most any pet cage. Who would have thought!

If you own or use a paper shredder, then I have a quick question for you. How often do you oil your shredder? The reason I ask is I wonder how many people actually know that they should be oiling their shredder on a consistent basis.

Oil helps lubricate the paper shredder heads. Your shredder will then run smoother and quieter if you oil it. It will also extend the life of the shredder. After learning this handy little tip, customers then ask us, “How often should I oil my shredder?” A good rule of thumb is to oil it every time you change the shredder bag.

So, how often do you oil your shredder?