Apparatus for franking flat items of mail transported individually or from a supplied stack, such as envelopes, mailers, cards, printed products, sleeves, labels or the like, on a processing line

An apparatus for franking flat items of mail removed individually or at an underside of a supplied stack and guided in a transport direction at one side edge, comprising:

• a frame;
• a feeder for the items of mail;
• a separating device;
• a downstream processing line of a franking machine, following in a conveying manner in a transport direction of the items of mail, for franking/printing the separated items of mail, wherein the processing line in the transport region between the feeder and the separating device includes a plurality of driven transport rollers mounted in the frame to form a horizontal transport plane for receiving an item of mail or a respective lowest item of mail from a stack, the separating device including a motor for driving the transport rollers in the transport direction of the items of mail transversely and beside one another and in a common direction and with a common or different peripheral speed;
• and a support roller arranged to support rear ends of the stacked items of mail, as viewed in the transport direction, on a periphery of the support roller so that the rear ends are raised above the transport plane along a plane running vertically through an axis of the support roller.