Apparatus for opening and printing indicia upon envelopes

An apparatus for printing indicia upon envelopes containing contents, comprising:

• an input bin dimensioned and arranged to receive and support a stack of envelopes;
• a conveyor for forwardly conveying each envelope of the stack along an envelope path toward a discharge;
• an inkjet cartridge retainer having electrical contacts for providing electrical connectivity to an inkjet cartridge defining a 1×M array of inkjet printing nozzles, the inkjet cartridge retainer being dimensioned and arranged to retain the inkjet cartridge in an orientation permitting ink droplets to be ejected onto an envelope being forwardly conveyed along the envelope path;
• and
• a controller electrically coupled to the electrical contacts of the inkjet cartridge retainer, the controller configured to activate the inkjet printing nozzles of a retained inkjet cartridge to deposit ink droplets according to a predetermined duty cycle able to cause printing, on an envelope conveyed at a first feed rate, a first indicium having a resolution of M dots per inch in a first direction transverse to the envelope path and a resolution of N dots per inch in a second direction parallel to the envelope path, where N is an integer less than or equal to M;
• wherein the conveyor is configured to convey envelopes at a second feed rate greater than the first feed rate, whereby deposition of ink droplets onto a forwardly conveyed envelope results in printing the first indicium with a resolution of M dots per inch in the first direction and less than N dots per inch in the second direction.

A method for processing envelopes containing contents, comprising the steps of:

• providing a stack of envelopes containing contents;
• conveying a first envelope from the stack along an envelope path, the conveying including transporting the envelope at a second feed rate greater than a first feed rate;
• operating a controller to activate selected inkjet printing nozzles of a 1×M array of inkjet printing nozzles defined by an inkjet cartridge, the inkjet printing nozzles being activated according to a predetermined duty cycle able to cause printing, on an envelope conveyed at the first feed rate, a first indicium having a resolution of M dots per inch in a first direction transverse to the envelope path and a resolution of N dots per inch in a second direction parallel to the envelope path, where N is an integer less than or equal to M;
• and
• conveying the first envelope at the second feed rate during the operating whereby deposition of ink droplets onto a forwardly conveyed envelope results in printing the first indicium with a resolution of M dots per inch in the first direction and less than N dots per inch in the second direction.