Document feeding and stacking apparatus

Abstract

A document feeding and stacking apparatus, which may be used in conjunction with a document delivery system, comprises a stacking station having a support platform and an edge aligning barrier projecting perpendicularly from one side of the platform. A document stack, having one side aligned with the barrier, is incrementally built on the platform by adding documents, one at a time, between the stack and platform. In order to do so, the stack is first pushed away from the platform surface and the next succeeding document to be added is then fed between the stack and platform by a planetary device which includes a rotatable spider member, at least one pusher roll mounted on the spider member for free rotation and at least one feed roll also mounted for rotation on the spider member. As the spider member is rotated, the pusher roll first projects through an opening in the support platform that is disposed adjacent to the stack. The pusher roll will push the document stack away from the platform surface to form an inlet gap for an incoming envelope. Immediately thereafter, the feed roll engages the next succeeding document delivered and feeds it between the stack and platform. The feed roll has a greater effective outer peripheral speed than the peripheral speed of the spider member because of its planetary motion with respect to the spider member. Operation of the planetary device is synchronized with the rate of document delivery from the system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.