Manually loaded envelope feeder

An envelope feeder for use with a printer of the type that has a printing station wherein pieces of stationery may be positioned for printing, and a removable platen roll that is rotatable about a first axis of rotation relative to drive components of the printer, the envelope feeder being substitutable for the printer's removable platen roll, being connectable to drive components of the printer, and being operable to serially feed envelopes to the printer's printing station in response to operation of drive components of the printer so that envelopes may be addressed one at a time while they are in the printing station, the envelope feeder comprising:

• (a) housing means including an elongate upstanding housing having structure that defines an upper end region, a lower end region, and opposed front and rear guide surfaces that extend between the upper and lower end regions, the front and rear guide surfaces extending substantially parallel to each other and each having a spaced pair of grooves formed therein that extend between the upper and lower end regions;
• (b) replacement platen roll means rotatably connected to the lower end region of the housing and including a replacement platen roll that is configured to be received by and drivingly connected to drive components of the printer in substitution for the printer's removable platen roll, and to be rotated by the printer's drive components about the first axis of rotation;
• (c) idler roll means including an idler roll that is rotatably connected to the upper end region of the housing for rotation about a second axis of rotation that extends substantially parallel to the first axis of rotation;
• (d) each of the replacement platen roll and the idler roll having a generally cylindrical central portion with toothed drive pulley means located at opposed ends of the central portions, the drive pulley means being aligned with the grooves formed in the front and rear guide surfaces of the housing means;
• (e) transport belt means including at least two transport belts that have reaches which extend along the grooves of the front and rear guide surfaces of the housing, and that extend around and are held taut by the toothed drive pulley means, the transport belts having outer surface portions that extend substantially contiguously with the front and rear guide surfaces of the housing means and with the cylindrical central portion of the replacement platen roll, to cooperate therewith in defining a travel path that extends along the front and rear guide surfaces of the housing means and around the replacement platen roll and the idler roll, the belts additionally having inner surfaces that are toothed to drivingly engage the toothed drive pulley means to drivingly interconnect the replacement platen roll and the idler roll;
• (f) receiving means defining a loading station located along the front guide surface of the housing means, the receiving means including door means movably connected to the housing means for pivotal movement relative thereto between an open position wherein an envelope to be addressed can be inserted between the door means and the front guide surface, and a closed position wherein an inner guide surface defined by the door means extends parallel to the front guide surface of the housing means and cooperates therewith to position an inserted envelope along the travel path;
• (g) drive formation means carried by the transport belts for engaging trailing edge portions of envelopes that are positioned along the travel path for moving envelopes sequentially along the travel path from the loading station to the printing station and thence to a discharge station as the belts are caused to move in response to rotation of the replacement platen roll by the printer;
• (h) guide means for cooperating with the transport belts, with the replacement platen roll, with the idler roll, and with the housing means to maintain positioning of envelopes along the travel path as the envelopes are being moved from the loading station to the printing station and thence to the discharge station;
• and,
• (i) the printing, discharge and loading stations being located forwardly with respect to the front guide surface and at closely spaced positions along the travel path, with the loading station being located above the printing station, and with the discharge station being located between the loading and printing stations, whereby an operator can readily attend to both manual loading of envelopes one at a time at the loading station and manual removal of envelopes one at a time at the discharge station while also monitoring the addressing of envelopes as it takes place at the printing station.