Check strip attachment and removal apparatus

Abstract

An apparatus for selectively attaching strips of an encodable material bearing a heat activatable adhesive to a document or for removing the strips therefrom generally comprises a strip attachment assembly and a strip removal assembly. The attachment assembly includes a set of document feed rollers and strip feed rollers which deliver the documents and the strips to an alignment subassembly where the document and the strip are properly aligned. A cutter cuts the strip to match the length of the document and the aligned document and strip pass by a heater which heats the heat activatable adhesive. The strip secured to the document by the heat activatable adhesive is sealed thereto by a pair of sealing rollers. The strip removal assembly comprises a passageway having a heater extending along one side and an obstruction extending across a portion of the passageway. A document having a strip secured thereto may be advanced along the passageway so that the heater heats the heat activatable adhesive connecting the strip to the document. The obstruction engaging only the strip then biases the strip away from the document so as to remove the strip.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.