Envelope opener

An envelope opener comprising:

• a first conveyor belt for transporting at least one envelope in a first correction,
• a feed station disposed above said first belt for storing plural envelopes and for successively depositing the envelopes on said first belt,
• a first shear station disposed downstream of said first belt for sequentially aligning an envelope by contacting a first edge thereof and shearing said first edge,
• a second conveyor belt disposed below the elevation of said first shear station for transporting said envelope in a second correction opposite to said first direction,
• a second shear station disposed downstream of said second belt for sequentially aligning the envelope by contacting a second edge thereof and shearing said second edge,
• a third conveyor belt for transporting said envelope in a third direction transverse to said first and second directions,
• a third shear station disposed downstream of said third belt for sequentially aligning the envelope by contacting a third edge thereof and shearing said third edge,
• control means for causing said shear stations to successively align and shear said envelope edges one edge at a time,
• means for monitoring the advance of said envelope past said shear stations, and
• means for detecting whether the envelope has advanced a preselected distance over at least one preselected interval of time and for automatically stopping said conveyor belts.

A method of automatically opening an envelope, comprising:

• (a) automatically transporting at least one envelope from a feed station to a delivery point,
• (b) automatically aligning the envelope as it is being transported between said feed station and delivery point by contacting an edge thereof and then shearing the contacted edge,
• (c) cyclicly repeating step (b) to successively shear at least three edges of the envelope one edge at a time,
• (d) automatically monitoring the advance of said envelope from the feed station to the delivery point, and
• (e) automatically detecting whether said envelope has advanced a preselected distance over at least one preselected interval of time and automatically inhibiting said steps (a)-(c).