Mail piece feeder control system and method

A feeder for feeding flat articles, comprising:

• a take off device for conveying flat articles from a stack of flat articles advance on edge against the take off device;
• a feeder conveyor for conveying a stack of flat articles positioned on edge to the take off device;
• a sensor for determining whether a foremost flat article in the stack is positioned to be conveyed by the take off device;
• a motor for advancing the feeder conveyor an incremental amount when the sensor fails to detect a flat article positioned for conveying by the take off device;
• a jogger for feeding the stack of flat articles to the feeder conveyor;
• the jogger comprising a plurality of fingers between which the flat articles are received;
• and
• a controller that counts each incremental advance of the feed conveyor and incrementally advances the jogger to feed additional articles into the feeder conveyor when a predetermined number of incremental advances of the feeder conveyor has occurred.

A method of singulating and feeding mail pieces, comprising:

• (a) sensing whether the foremost mail piece in a stack of mail pieces positioned on edge on a horizontal feeder conveyor is engaged with an upright take off device for conveying from the stack;
• (b) advancing the feed conveyor an incremental step to place the first of a series of mail pieces positioned on edge in a position for removal from the feed conveyor each time the sensor fails to detect a mail piece engaged with an upright take off device for conveying from the stack;
• (c) counting each incremental advance of the feed conveyor;
• (d) incrementally advancing the stack of mail pieces with a jogger driven by a second motor steps to load additional mail pieces on the feed conveyor after the feed conveyor has advanced a predetermined number of increments;
• and
• (e) repeating steps (a)-(d) while sequentially removing mail pieces from the feed conveyor on a one-by-one basis with the take off device as the feed conveyor is advanced.

A method of singulating and feeding mail pieces to a mail processing apparatus wherein a stack of mail pieces are fed to the mail processing apparatus on a one-by-one basis for processing, comprising:

• sensing whether a mail piece is positioned on a feeder conveyor in a position for removal from the feeder conveyor with a take off conveyor;
• advancing the feeder conveyor an incremental step with a first motor when no mail piece is detected in a position for removal from the feed conveyor and counting each incremental advance of the feed conveyor;
• and
• incrementally advancing the stack of mail pieces with a jogger driven by a second motor after the feed conveyor has moved a predetermined number of incremental steps to load additional mail pieces on the feed conveyor, the jogger imparting a bouncing motion to the stack of mail pieces as the mail pieces are advanced.