An envelope-filling station for mail-processing systems, the envelope-filling station comprising:
- a feeding device for horizontally feeding enclosures or sets of enclosures along a conveying path to a push-in arrangement, the push-in direction of which is in the conveying direction of the conveying path;
- an envelope-separating arrangement for separating envelopes from an envelope stack and for producing a sequence of separated envelopes;
- an envelope-conveying device which runs parallel to the conveying path, alongside the latter, and is intended for receiving the sequence of separated envelopes and for transferring the same to an intermediate envelope-conveying device wherein the intermediate envelope-conveying device transports the envelopes, once they have been received from the envelope-conveying device, essentially parallel to the plane of the conveying path upstream of the push-in arrangement;
- and
- an aligning means by which an envelope which is to be filled in each case is positioned precisely upstream of the push-in arrangement wherein, at least in an end section which is adjacent to the intermediate envelope-conveying device, the envelope-conveying device is designed such that, with driving frictional action of the envelope-conveying device in its conveying direction, the envelope can be driven by the intermediate envelope-conveying device to produce a movement with a horizontal component transverse to the conveying direction of the envelope-conveying device;
- wherein, the intermediate envelope-conveying device has a conveying direction running at an angle in the range of from 15° to 750 to the conveying direction of the envelope-conveying device and, in a region which is adjacent to the envelope-conveying device, acts on the leading border of the envelope such that, when the intermediate envelope-conveying device acts on it, this envelope can be moved without a movement component transverse to the conveying direction of the intermediate envelope-conveying device, and, in a section which is adjacent to the push-in arrangement, the intermediate envelope-conveying device is designed such that a conveyed envelope can be displaced in its plane relative to the intermediate envelope-conveying device, frictional forces being overcome in the process;
- wherein, provided at the end of the intermediate envelope-conveying device, in the position opposite the push-in arrangement, is an angled stop arrangement which can be switched at will to the active or inactive state and against which, in its active position, the envelope can be positioned, by way of two abutting edges, with alignment in the direction of its precise position by the intermediate envelope-conveying device;
- wherein, once the envelope has been filled with an enclosure or a set of enclosures, the angled stop arrangement can then be switched to the inactive state by the push-in arrangement such that the filled envelope can be conveyed away from the envelope-filing station by an envelope-advancing device;
- and
- wherein, once it has been switched to the active state and before being switched to the inactive state, the angled stop arrangement can be moved into an intermediate stop position in which at least one angled stop part, against which the envelope edge which is perpendicular to the push-in direction of the push-in arrangement is positioned, is moved back, by a comparatively small distance in relation to the push-in movement, in the push-in direction such that, under the driving frictional action of the intermediate envelope-conveying device, the filled envelope comes free of the push-in arrangement in the push-in direction.