Sheet feeding or delivering – Special articles – Envelope
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-25
2004-06-29
Bollinger, David H. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Special articles
Envelope
C271S246000, C270S058060
Reexamination Certificate
active
06755411
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to a mail inserting system and, more particularly, to an envelope transport module to be used in the envelope insertion station in the mail inserting system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a typical mail inserting system, a plurality of enclosure feeders are used to release enclosure documents onto a chassis or deck. The released documents are collated into stacks and pushed from an upstream direction to a downstream direction into an envelope inserting station where each stack of the collated documents is inserted into an envelope. Mail inserting systems are known in the art. For example, Roetter et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,341) discloses a mail inserting system consisting of a document collating section and an envelope insertion section, wherein a plurality of document feeders are used to release documents onto a continuous conveying mechanism that collects and collates the documents and then conveys the collated documents to the envelope insertion section in a continuous manner. Auerbach et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,030) discloses a high speed envelope inserting station wherein a plurality of depressor fingers are used for applying pressure to the envelope flap during the insertion of the enclosure material. At the same time, a pair of throat openers are used to keep the throat of the envelope opened by separating the bottom side of the envelope from the upper side. Belec et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,044) discloses an envelope inserting device wherein a plurality of rotatable stops are used to register the envelope at the insertion location. The rotatable stops can be rotated away to allow a stuffed envelope to move downstream. Before the envelope is stuffed, it is moved into the insertion location by a plurality of endless belts. After being stuffed, the envelope is moved away from the insertion station by the same belts. Furthermore, a rotatable vacuum drum and a fixed vacuum deck are used to provide a vacuum suction force to the envelope for urging the envelope to press against the endless belts.
In general, a mail inserting system
1
, as shown in
FIG. 1
, comprises an envelope supply module
10
, an envelope insertion station
20
and an enclosure material supply module
30
. In the envelope supply module
10
, an envelope feeder (not shown) is used to retrieve one envelope
12
at a time from a stack
13
and release the retrieved envelope to the envelope insertion station. The envelope
12
, after being fed from below a transport module
50
through an exit path
22
, is moved to an insertion location defined by a plurality of rotatable stops
82
. The flap of the envelope
12
stays opened as the enclosure material
32
is moved from the enclosure supply module
30
into the envelope insertion station
20
to be inserted into the envelope
12
. After the insertion, the rotatable stops
82
are rotated away so that the stuffed envelope
42
can be moved out of the envelope insertion station
20
.
In Belec et al., the vacuum ports on the vacuum deck are distributed over a large area so that the vacuum suction force can be applied to a large envelope as well as a small envelope. On the one hand, when a small envelope is positioned at the insertion location, a considerable part of the vacuum suction force is wasted because the envelope only covers a small number of vacuum ports. On the other hand, when a large envelope is used, it covers a large number of vacuum ports. Consequently, the suction force exerting on the large envelope may be too large, rendering the moving of the envelope from the upstream end to the insertion location difficult.
FIGS. 2
to
5
are schematic representations of a prior art transport module
50
, wherein a plurality of endless belts
58
, driven by rollers
54
,
56
, are used to move an envelope from the upstream end to the downstream end along a direction
250
. There is a gap
60
between a plurality of adjacent endless belts
58
, running along the belts from the upstream end to the downstream end. A registration mechanism
80
having a plurality of rotatable stops
82
is used to stop the envelope at an insertion location
240
so that enclosure material can be inserted into the envelope. Each of the rotatable stops
82
protrudes above the surface of the endless belts
58
through the gap
60
into the moving path of the incoming envelope. As shown in
FIG. 3
, when the rotatable stops
82
are oriented at an upright position, the edge
84
of each rotatable stop
82
provides a registration point to the envelope to be inserted with enclosure material. After the envelope is inserted with enclosure material, the rotatable stops will be rotated in a clockwise direction by 90 degrees so as to allow the stuffed envelope to move out of the insertion location along the moving direction
250
. As shown in
FIG. 4
, the envelope
12
has a leading edge
14
, a trailing edge
16
and a flap
18
at the trailing edge. The leading edge
14
of the envelope
12
is stopped by the rotatable stops
82
. In order to hold down the envelope
12
for insertion, a vacuum module
70
is used to provide a suction force on the envelope
12
. As shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3
, the vacuum module
70
comprises a plurality of vacuum ports
72
along the gaps
60
. The vacuum module
70
has two air outlets
74
from which the air in the vacuum module
70
is drawn in order to create a negative pressure in the vacuum module
70
. When the vacuum ports
72
are covered by the envelope
12
, the covered vacuum ports
72
provide a vacuum suction force
272
through the gaps
60
for urging the envelope
12
to press against the endless belts
58
. In addition to holding down the envelope
12
during the envelope insertion process, the suction force
272
provided by the vacuum ports
72
is also necessary for the movement of the envelope
12
to the insertion location
240
. It should be noted that that after an envelope is released by the envelope supply module
10
through the exit path
22
(FIG.
1
), the transport module
50
must pick up the envelope
12
and move it toward the downstream end. As the suction force
272
exerted through the vacuum ports
72
causes the envelope
12
to press against the surface of the endless belts
58
, frictional force between the envelope
12
and the surface of the endless belts
58
is developed, and this frictional force renders it possible for the endless belts
58
to carry the envelope
12
along the moving direction
250
until the leading edge
14
of the envelope
12
registers with the edge
84
of the rotatable stops
82
(see FIG.
3
).
The envelope must be positioned at the insertion location in order to receive the enclosure material for insertion. To accommodate envelopes of different sizes, the position of the registration mechanism
80
must be adjustable so that the rotatable stops
82
can be moved toward the upstream end or toward the downstream end according to the size of the envelope. For registration purposes, the size of the envelope
12
is defined by the leading edge
14
and the trailing edge
16
of the envelope. To register a large envelope
12
′, as shown in
FIG. 5
, the registration mechanism
80
is moved closer to the downstream end. A large envelope
12
′ covers a large number of vacuum ports
72
. While this coverage reduces the waste of the vacuum suction, it may create excessive frictional force between the envelope
12
and the surface of the endless belts
58
hindering the movement of the envelope
12
′. In order to avoid this excessive frictional force problem, one could reduce the negative pressure in the vacuum module
70
. However, the reduction of negative pressure may result in insufficient frictional force for a small envelope.
Thus, it is desirable and advantageous to provide a transport module wherein the vacuum suction force is more properly provided to the envelope at the insertion location, while the transport module can accommodate a wide range of envelope sizes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a prima
Janatka Karel J.
Rozenfeld Boris
Sussmeier John W.
Vassallo Joseph R
Bollinger David H.
Chaclas Angelo N.
Cummings Michael J.
Malandra, Jr. Charles R.
Pitney Bowes Inc.
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