Franking machine

Franking machine with at least one print head of an inkjet print mechanism for printing flat postal objects such as letters or postcards insertable into or passing through the machine, comprised of a guide part arranged so as to project about the print head and further relative to its jet opening plane, having correlated therewith a transport device for transporting the postal objects between it and oppositely positioned conveying rollers rotating about axes oriented transverse to the conveying direction, wherein the transport device has two drive rollers connected in driving connection with one another and forming together with the guide part a conveying path, which drive rollers, when viewed in the conveying direction, are arranged before and behind the print head, and has a counterpressure roller arranged opposite thereto, respectively, which exerts a pressure against one drive roller or the postal object transported therebetween and which is reversibly liftable, wherein a sensing wheel (38, 119) is arranged between the drive rollers (32, 33;

• 127, 113) which sensing wheel is driven by the postal object passing along it and is correlated with an encoding device (122) for the purpose of speed and position monitoring of a postal object to be transported, respectively, for controlling printing on a postal object, wherein the encoding device (122) is connected to a control unit connected to a computer, wherein the sensing wheel (38, 119) is in drive connection with the drive roller (33, 113) arranged downstream in the conveying direction.