Express Business News

Invention Competition Honoring Pulitzer Prize Winner Seeks A New Way To Shred Paper

Fellowes, Inc., the nation's leading shredder company, announced today that it will sponsor the 23rd annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on April 1 at Indiana's Purdue University. This year's design challenge is to create a machine or shredder that cuts or shreds five sheets of 8 1/2-by-11-inch, 20 pound paper into strips, in a minimum of 20 steps.

Fellowes, Inc., the category leader and innovator for shredders, today unveiled a new national advertising campaign featuring a new icon - a bulldog - as the ultimate protector of one's identity. The campaign's creative direction relies on a theme of "powerful protection," as the bulldog embodies Fellowes' positioning as the watchdog of a consumer's good name and good credit. The campaign's tagline is "Fellowes: The World's Toughest Shredders."

The competition is organized by the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau, the National Student Engineering Organization, and will host college and university teams from across the U.S. Regional winners will be determined during competitions on March 4 with winners competing at the national contest on April 1.

Inspired by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Reuben Lucius Goldberg, the contest is designed to pull students out of the conventional problem-solving mind set and compel them to use creativity to solve a problem. Instead of just "solving" the problem, participants will have to use convoluted and complicated steps to get the task done. For example, last year's winners took 125 steps to change the batteries in a flashlight and turn it on. Past challenges include shutting off an alarm clock, toasting a slice of bread, and putting toothpaste on a toothbrush.

"The Rube Goldberg design challenges often coincide with world and cultural events; for example, the election ballot machines contest in 2004. Today's news often involves identity theft and the need to shred documents, so sponsoring this year's shredder contest is a perfect fit, as well as a great opportunity, for Fellowes," said Jude Rake, an engineering graduate of Purdue University and president and chief operating officer for Fellowes, Inc. "As the leading shredder manufacturer, we have a strong interest not only in the contest's challenge, but also in the future engineers that will be displaying their talents at Purdue's College of Engineering."

About Fellowes
Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, Fellowes, Inc. offers an impressive range of products to equip the workspace, including paper shredders, binders and laminators, desktop accessories and record storage solutions. Fellowes, Inc. owns and operates subsidiaries in Canada, United Kingdom, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Australia. The company employs more than 1,200 people throughout the world and expects global sales in excess of $700 million this year.

GBC, a market leader in the manufacturing and distribution of laminating and binding products, announces the new GBC Orca 4064WF laminator designed for laminating and mounting large format prints up to 64” wide. Offering the latest in efficient lamination technology, including a new patented safety system, the Orca 4064WF is the premier model offered by GBC for professional print providers. It utilizes pneumatic controls and provides bi-directional capabilities to maximize workflow.

The Advanced Electrical Safety System encompasses three components – fiber optic detection, dynamic braking, and dual processing – working together to detect encroachment at the nip and immediately stop the rollers if fingers get too close. The design provides optimum operator safety while allowing superior control during lamination.

The Orca 4064WF features eight unwind and rewind shafts to provide maximum versatility for bi-directional and roll-to-roll operation. Bi-directional features permit hot and cold laminates to run consecutively without waiting for heated rollers to cool down. A full-functioning control panel can swivel to either side of the unit for added flexibility during operation. The foot pedal is also repositionable and offers variable speeds for finer control when mounting graphics.

The GBC 4064WF laminator is designed to create a full range of rigid and flexible applications including trade show graphics, backlit images, and POP displays.

For more information about GBC’s Orca 4064WF, visit www.factory-express.com or call 1-800-399-2564.

GBC, an ACCO Brands Company, is a world leader with over 50 years’ experience in products that bind, laminate and display information. The GBC Commercial Products Group is an innovative technology leader in providing thermal and pressure-sensitive laminating films and equipment and professional-grade binding solutions for the commercial and digital printing markets. For corporate and print-for-pay markets, GBC offers a full range of products and services, from custom presentation solutions and technical service to high-end binding and laminating systems and supplies. ACCO Brands Corporation, (NYSE: ABD) is a world leader in branded office products with annual revenues of nearly $2 billion. Its industry-leading brands include Swingline, Kensington, Wilson Jones, Quartet, GBC and Day-Timer, among others.

©2005 ACCO Brands Corporation

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