Method and apparatus for feeding envelopes to a printing press
OwnerElmer R. Thomseninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vertical stack of envelopes is produced adjacent the infeed end of a printing press, for removal one at a time by envelope infeed mechanism of the printing press, the stack being maintained by adding envelopes one at a time to the bottom end of the stack when the height of the stack or number of envelopes in the stack is reduced to a predetermined magnitude, the rear end of the stack being elevated to facilitate insertion of added envelopes to the bottom of the stack. The envelopes are removed one at a time by operation of the envelope infeed mechanism of the printing press. The addition of envelopes to the stack is stopped when the height of the stack or number of envelopes in the stack is increased to a predetermined magnitude.
Claims15
Apparatus for feeding envelopes to a printing press having envelope infeed mechanism operable to delivery envelopes one at a time to the press, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) a frame having an envelope delivery end adapted to be positioned adjacent the infeed of a printing press,
- (b) an envelope storage tray on the frame,
- (c) an envelope delivery conveyor on the frame operable to move envelopes toward the envelope delivery end of the frame,
- (d) an electric drive motor on the frame engaging the delivery end of the frame,
- (e) an envelope feed roll on the frame coupled to the drive motor for operation concurrently with the delivery conveyor for feeding envelopes from the storage tray to the delivery conveyor,
- (f) spacer means on the frame adjustable toward and away form the feed roll for adjusting the space therebetween for limiting the number of envelopes movable through said space at the same time to two envelopes, the spacer means engaging the underlapping envelope and retarding its forward movement relative to the overlapping preceding envelope, whereby to feed envelopes forwardly to the delivery conveyor in a succession of lapped envelopes with each succeeding envelope underlapping the next preceding envelope,
- (g) an envelope stacking station on the frame at the envelope delivery end thereof for receiving said lapping envelopes one at a time from the delivery conveyor and forming a vertical stack of a plurality of said envelopes, and
- (h) elevating means at the stacking station arranged to raise the rear end of the bottom envelope of the stack for receiving the next succeeding underlapping envelope under said bottom envelope, whereby to form a vertical stack of envelopes from the bottom and allowing the envelopes to be delivered to the printing press one at a time from the top of the stack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.