Systems and methods for residue collection

A residue collection system comprising:

• at least two cull conveyors each creating a mail stream having a first depth;
• at least two delayering conveyors, each of said delayering conveyors reducing the depth of one of said mail streams to a second stream of generally single item depth;
• and
• at least two aerosol chambers each of said aerosol chambers taking in one of said second streams, each of said aerosol chambers including:
• an outer shell defining an internal volume, said outer shell having an entrance port for allowing mail to enter said internal volume and an exit port for allowing mail to exit said internal volume, but otherwise substantially sealing said volume;
• an intake within said outer shell;
• and
• a pair of pinch rollers, said pair of pinch rollers being capable of compressing said mail pieces so as to aerosolize a residue present in one of said mail pieces;
• wherein each of said intakes is capable of maintaining the associated aerosol chamber at a negative pressure;
• and
• wherein each of said intakes is attached to an air sampling system capable of transporting said air from said aerosol chamber to a detector capable of detecting said residue.

A residue collection system comprising:

• means for separating and removing thicks from a stream of mail pieces;
• means for arranging said remaining mail pieces horizontally in a singular layer;
• means for allowing gravity to pull said single layer of mail pieces into a chamber, said chamber having an internal volume, an entrance means for allowing said mail pieces to enter said internal volume, and an exit means for allowing said mail pieces to exit said internal volume, but otherwise being substantially sealed;
• means for compressing said mail pieces while they are within said chamber so as to aerosolize a residue present on one of said mail pieces into said internal volume;
• means for collecting air from said internal volume, said means for collecting air maintaining said chamber at a negative pressure and transporting said air and said aerosolized residue to a means for detecting said residue.