Apparatus for Recognizing User Identifying Data, Stored on a Support, and for Joining this Support to a Corresponding Document to be Sent to the User

An apparatus for recognizing user identifying data, stored in a support, and for joining the support to a corresponding document to be sent to the user, with said document being moved along a feeding line (A), which is controlled by a control unit (C), and which contains personal pieces of information to be sent to the user, characterized in that it includes:

• at least one magazine (10) for storing a series of supports (11), with each of said supports (11) containing identifying data of a relevant user and being joined to a corresponding document of said documents (D);
• a plurality of reading devices (12) for reading and recognizing the data stored in said supports (11);
• a work unit (L), situated near said feeding line (A) and having a work surface (13), on which said reading devices (12) are placed, with said unit (L) operating said work surface (13) into rotation in a rotating direction ({acute over (ω)}), to convey angularly the reading devices (12), so that each of them is placed, for each complete rotation of said surface (13), subsequently in positions corresponding to a first section (S1) and to a second section (S2) of said unit (L);
• first conveying means (T1), which are situated between said magazine (10) and said first section (S1) of the unit (L), and which convey said supports (11), one after another, from the magazine (10) to a respective reading device (12) and which subsequently introduce said supports into said reading device (12), which reading device (12) has been in the meantime placed by the unit (L) in a position corresponding to the first section (S1), to recognize the data stored in the supports (11);
• second conveying means (T2), which are situated between the second section (S2) of the unit (L) and a section (20) of said feeding line (A), and which convey said supports (11), one after another, from a relative reading device (12) to said section (20), after the recognition of the relative data by the reading device (12), performed during the support passage from the first section (S1) to the second section (S2), by the unit (L), and as a consequence of the relative removal of the support from the device (12), so as to join said support (11) to a corresponding document (D), fed by said feeding line (A) to the section (20).