Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi – Bending – Folding
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-11
2001-06-26
Gerrity, Stephen F. (Department: 3721)
Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi
Bending
Folding
C493S420000, C493S421000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06251055
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of sheet feeding, folding and accumulating machines, and more particularly to a unified sheet feeding, folding and accumulating machine in which documents fed successively through the machine from a plurality of input sources can be folded or not folded as may be desired, and accumulated within the machine as discrete collations ready to be inserted into envelopes.
High speed document processing and mailing apparatus have become widely accepted in the automated mailing field, particularly in high volume applications where various documents are handled in connection with the preparation of mail at a high rate of speed. During recent decades, the complexities of modern mailing have increased considerably due both to the complex characteristics of individual mail pieces and the volume and speed at which they must be produced.
In a typical situation involving the preparation of individual mail pieces, such as that generated by mass mailers such as banks, insurance companies, mail order catalog businesses, utility companies, book clubs, etc., to name a few, an individual item of mail might consist of a computer generated invoice for a customer consisting of at least one, possibly two or three pages, a return payment envelope, one or more individual advertising flyers, an information announcement of a change in service or policy, a sweepstake entry, and other documents which make up the half a dozen or more individual items which are found in the mailing envelope. Frequently one or some of these documents require that they be folded in order to fit within the mailing envelope, while others are created in a size that will fit into the envelope. Further, it is possible that one or some of the folded items are small enough to require only bi-folding to fit into the mailing envelope, while others may be sufficiently large to require tri-folding in order to fit into the envelope.
In addition to folding, it is often desirable that the individual items included in the mail piece must be collated in a particular manner so that they are in a desired sequence when removed by the recipient from the mailing envelope. This collating feature requires that various types of sheet feeding and accumulating equipment must be provided to arrange all of the items in the mail piece in the desired sequence.
In a typical installation utilizing heretofore known components to accomplish the foregoing steps in the process of creating a plurality of mail pieces, a computer generates a succession of customer invoices on a web of computer paper, which, in the case of a multiple page invoice, is then fed through slitting, separating and accumulating mechanisms to create a properly arranged invoice. The invoice may then either be fed through a folding machine for appropriate folding if required to fit within a mailing envelope, or it can be fed directly along a conveyor past a series of sheet feeding machines which add various types of folded or unfolded insert material, such as those mentioned above, to the invoices, and then into an accumulating machine that appropriately organizes and aligns all of the material as desired to form the ultimate collation of material to be place in a mailing envelope. The collation is then fed into an inserting machine in which an envelope has been previously transported from a storage position to an inserting position at which the throat of the envelope is held open to receive the collation. After the collation is fully inserted into the envelope, the envelope is ejected from the inserting machine and fed into a mailing machine where the flap of the envelope is closed and sealed, and a postage indicia is applied to the envelope, which is then stacked in a suitable manner for mailing or other processing.
It should be understood that all of the foregoing steps in the mailing process are representative of a typical situation, and that some may be omitted an others added, but that, in any event, all of the steps utilized are carried out at a high rate of speed, typically about 4000 mail pieces per hour. To accomplish this, several individual sheet handling components must be assembled together and mechanically and electrically united into an integral sheet handling apparatus, which can involve five or six individual components. While these systems have achieved considerable commercial success, they still have certain disadvantages, of which considerable space requirement and cost of purchase and maintenance are perhaps the most significant. It is not uncommon for a full mail processing apparatus, from computer to envelope stacker, to run many feet in length and cost as much as 15,000 thousand dollars.
Thus, there is an ongoing need to find procedures and to design equipment to carry them out by which various steps in the overall mail processing system can be combined into a single component, thereby decreasing the space requirement and cost of purchase and operation of the full mail processing apparatus.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention substantially obviates if not entirely eliminates the foregoing problems by providing a sheet processing machine which has the capability of performing the functions of at least two, and in some cases three, separate prior art sheet handling components, and doing so in an innovative and highly efficient manner. The machine of the present invention is a dual fold sheet folding machine having at least one integral sheet feeding device adjacent an inlet end of the unified machine and an accumulating device adjacent an outlet end of the folding machine. Thus, the sheet processing machine of the present invention combines into a single machine a folding mechanism for selectively folding or not folding previously processed material passing through the machine, at least one feeding device for adding insert material to the previously processed material passing through the machine, the added material also being selectively folded or not folded as desired, and an accumulating device for accumulating and appropriately organizing all of the material constituting a single collation and feeding the completed collation to an envelope inserting machine. The machine of the present invention thereby eliminates the need for separate machines to accomplish these functions, at least to the extent that no greater number of pieces of insert material is required than that which the feeding devices in the sheet processing machine can provide.
In some its broader aspects, the principles of the present invention are embodied in a sheet processing machine for selectively feeding and folding sheets either stored in the machine or fed to the machine from an external source, and for accumulating the sheets to form collations thereof for further processing. In this environment, the processing machine comprises first and second sets of feeding and folding rollers defining a main path of travel for sheets through a portion of the machine and having upstream and a downstream ends, and a sheet storage and feeding means mounted adjacent the upstream end of the main path of travel for storing sheets to be formed into discrete collations. First and second input feeding means for feeding sheets from the sheet storage and feeding means and from an external source respectively, the first and second input feeding means being disposed adjacent the upstream end of the main path of travel for feeding sheets into the main path of travel from both the sheet storage and feeding means and the external source. The processing machine also includes first and second buckle chutes having inlet ends disposed in operative relationship with the first and second sets of feeding and folding rollers respectively for selectively receiving sheets to be folded from the first and second sets of feeding and folding rollers. A sheet accumulating means is disposed adjacent the downstream end of the main path of travel for accumulating sheets fed either directly through the main path of travel to the accumulating means, or th
Evers James C.
Ross William A.
Salancy William A.
Gerrity Stephen F.
Lemm Brian A.
Melton Michael E.
Pitney Bowes Inc.
Tawfik Sam
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