Formax FD 8902B Industrial Conveyor Shredder With Baler

The FD 8902B may be the mother of all shredders. It's a large and powerful machine with some stated capabilities that we find impressive indeed. Although our testers didn't get a chance to try all of the materials Formax claims this machine can handle (which include whole folders up to 650 pages, DV and audio cassettes, compact discs. floppies and Zip discs), we see no reason why this monster of a machine wouldn't handle all of these items with ease. The motor is specially geared and extremely powerful, and the cutting heads are made of heat treated solid steel, milled for easy maintenance, and guaranteed for the life of the machine.

Although you will likely want to make sure that everyone who uses the FD 8902B undergoes at least a few minutes of training, we found that this was an extremely simple machine to operate. The control panel is easy to read, and offers (optical sensor-enabled) automatic start and stop or manual operation. There's also an LED gauge that will let the user know if he or she is loading the machine within its capacity, and if there is ever an overfeed, an automatic reverse function will help prevent a paper jam.

With such a powerful machine, we want to see some serious attention paid to safety features, and in our opinion, the FD 8902B delivers impressively. First of all, there's the lock and key system which allows you to restrict operation to authorized personnel. There's also a large orange safety bar across the front of the conveyor belt that will stop the machine immediately when it is pushed. Other safety features include power cutoff if the waste bin door is opened, or when the shred container is full, auto reverse in the event of a paper jam, and the FD 8902B even has its own circuit breaker to help prevent electrical issues.

The FD 8902B's most innovative feature is the self baling unit. What the system does is to compact the waste shred particles into 154-gallon compressed bales which are loaded into specially-designed plastic bags. The system increases productivity by decreasing downtime associated with the emptying of shredder waste.

The automatic oiling system (optional on most Formax shredders but standard on the FD 8902B) makes maintenance of the cutting heads a very simple process, and there's also a automatic cleaning mode to clear the cutting heads of collected particles.

There are not a lot of glaring weaknesses on the FD 8902B, but you should be aware that it has some special power requirements. You will need a three-phase, 220V 50/60 Hz, dedicated line, along with a CS8369 receptacle. A CS8365 plug is included with the machine.

The FD 8902B is a huge, 3,000 lb. machine, and when it arrives, you will need to have a forklift on hand to install it. Again, this is not a weakness per se, but is something you should definitely be aware of before you purchase the FD 8902B.