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AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorsCarlos DeFigueiredo, Linda A. Howard, John W. Sussmeier, William J. Wright, Karel J. Janatka
Estimating the term…
A method and system for transporting envelopes from an envelope feeder to an envelope staging area in an envelope insertion machine. The envelope transport system includes two envelope bins and two envelope supply paths linking the envelope bins to an envelope feeder. Each of the bins is used to temporarily store an envelope before that envelope is moved to the staging area. The envelope supply paths are controlled by a flipper gate which alternately opens one path and closes another so as to allow an envelope to enter one envelope bin while another envelope in the other envelope bin is moved to the staging area. With the dual envelope bins connected to the dual supply paths to receive envelopes released by the envelope feeder, the envelope feeder does not have to slow down substantially in order to wait for the released envelope to clear the feeding path.
A system for transporting envelopes in an envelope insertion device having an envelope feeder to release envelopes, at least one enclosure feeder to release enclosure documents, and an envelope staging area where released enclosure documents are inserted into the released envelopes, said system comprising a first envelope bin with a first transport mechanism and a second envelope bin with a second transport mechanism for alternately receiving one envelope at a time from the envelope feeder, whereby the first and second transport mechanisms are controlled to decelerate a first envelope in one of the envelope bins while a preceding envelope in the other envelope bin is transported to the envelope staging area by the other transport mechanism.
A method of improving the throughput of an envelope insertion device having an envelope feeder to release envelopes, at least one enclosure feeder to release enclosure documents, and an envelope staging area where the released enclosure documents are inserted into the released envelopes, said method comprising the steps of (a)alternately feeding the released envelopes into one of two envelope supply paths located between the envelope feeder and the envelope staging area, (b) allowing the envelope released into one envelope path to slow down while waiting for the further step of (c) transporting a preceding envelope released into the other envelope path to the envelope staging area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.