Apparatus for altering the orientation and/or direction of sheet material in mailpiece fabrication systems

A method for changing the orientation and/or re-directing a mailpiece, comprising the steps of:

• conveying the mailpiece along an input feed path to an input deck;
• re-directing the mailpiece at a substantially right angle from the input deck to an orbit nip roller assembly, the orbit nip roller assembly having a primary roller, a secondary roller, and a carriage assembly adapted to bi-directionally displace the secondary roller about the rotational axis of the primary roller from a first radial position adjacent the input deck to a second radial position adjacent the output conveyance deck, the primary and secondary rollers defining a roller nip therebetween;
• receiving the mailpiece into the roller nip when in the first radial position such the trailing edge of the mailpiece is proximal to the roller nip and is free to rotate about the rotational axis of the primary roller without contacting an edge of the input deck;
• simultaneously driving the primary roller and carriage assemblies about the rotational axis of the primary roller to displace the secondary roller from the first radial position to the second radial position, the carriage assembly being driven such that the secondary roller orbits the primary roller about the rotational axis thereof while, furthermore, effecting relative motion between the rollers such that the leading edge of the mailpiece moves toward the roller nip as the orbit nip roller assembly is displaced from the first to the second radial position;
• and,
• driving the primary roller assembly to convey the mailpiece toward the output conveyance deck when the orbit nip roller assembly is in the second radial position, the mailpiece is, furthermore, directed at a substantially right angle to the output feed path delivered to a registration/conveyance.