Method and apparatus for controlling feeding of sheets
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorsSteven J DaCunha, Thomas P Nash
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for correcting the skew in mail-related items, which are caused to move by a driving mechanism in the mailing machine. The driving mechanism comprises at least two driving belts to drive the mail-related items by friction. A plurality of openings are provided on the driving belts so that air pressure can be applied to the mail-related items in order to change the friction between different driving belts and the mail-related items. The air pressure can be positive or negative and it can be applied on the left or right side, or on both sides but with different pressures.
Claims12
A method for correcting movement of a plurality of serially fed flat items in a mailing machine, said method comprising the steps of:
- frictionally driving the flat items along a predetermined path, the predetermined path comprised of first and second parallel portions along a length of the path, the first and second parallel portions providing parallel frictional driving forces to the flat items;
- detecting a skew of the items in the predetermined path, the skew being characterized such that an item is positioned so that a leading edge of the item is tilted relative to the path and the leading edge in the first parallel portion of the path is ahead of the leading edge in the second parallel portion of the path, and
- reducing the skew if the skew exceeds a predetermined value by applying differing air pressure from the first or second parallel portions of the path to the skewed item, the differing air pressure acting to alter relative frictional forces on the skewed item from the first and second parallel portions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.