Document sorting machine
AssigneeNational Presort, Inc.
InventorsBrent A. Daboub, Federico Ayala
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A machine and method to sort documents in a plurality of pockets includes a stacker having a tier of the plurality of pockets and two magazines positioned at the same end of the stacker. A first transport and a second transport are operably associated with the first magazine and the second magazine, respectively, and are adapted to carry the documents through the stacker. The method includes separating the documents into a first portion and a second portion, the first portion being carried by a first transport through a first end of a stacker, the second portion being carried by a second transport and through a second end of the stacker, and merging the second portion with the first portion.
Claims20
A machine to sort documents, comprising:
- an elongated stacker section having:
- a first end and a second opposing end;
- and
- a first tier extending from the first end and the second opposing end, the first tier having:
- a plurality of pockets, the pockets being adapted to store the documents;
- a first magazine and a second magazine, both the first magazine and the second magazine being positioned at the first end of the elongated stacker;
- a first transport operably associated with the first magazine, the first transport being adapted to carry documents to the plurality of pockets through the first end of the stacker;
- a second transport operably associated with the second magazine, the second transport being adapted to carry documents to the plurality of pockets through the second opposing end of the stacker;
- and
- a feeder operably associate with the first magazine and the second magazine;
- wherein the first magazine feds documents through the feeder to the first transport and the second magazine feds documents through the feeder to the second transport.
A machine to sort document, comprising:
- a stacker section having:
- a first tier of pockets;
- and
- a second tier of pockets;
- a transport operably associated with the stacker, the transport being adapted to carry documents to the first tier of pockets and the second tier of pockets;
- and
- a purge system operably associated with the transport, the purge system being adapted to remove documents from the transport, the purge system having:
- a pocket positioned upstream of a merge point between a first document merging onto the transport and a second document already being transported on the transport;
- wherein the purge system is configured to purge the first document into the purge pocket.
A method to sort documents, comprising:
- separating the documents into a first portion of documents and a second portion of documents;
- carrying the first portion of documents with a first transport, the first transport being adapted to carry the first portion of documents through a first end of a tier of pockets;
- sorting the first portion of documents in the tier of pockets;
- feeding the first portion of documents and the second portion of documents through a feeder positioned at the first end;
- carrying the second portion of documents with a second transport, the second transport being adapted to carry the second portion of documents through a second end of the tier of pockets;
- and
- merging the second portion of documents with a stream of already sorted documents from the first portion of documents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.