Process for accumulating unfolded paper sheets and collating with folded sheets

Abstract

A method of collating unfolded sheets of paper into a collation and combining the collation with a folded sheet of paper. The method comprises: feeding a plurality of unfolded sheets of paper seriatim along a feed path from an upstream position to a downstream position; conveying the unfolded sheets seriatim around a drum to cause the unfolded sheets to be conveyed to an upstream position; stopping the unfolded sheets seriatim in a pocket having a back panel and a top panel, the back panel stopping the unfolded sheets from being conveyed further upstream and forming a collation of the unfolded sheets; feeding a folded document having a leading folded edge from an upstream to a downstream position across the top panel on top of the collation of unfolded sheets, thereby forming a single stack of documents; and conveying the single stack of documents to a downstream location.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.