Pitney Bowes Deutschland Gmbh

Bell & Howell, LLC

Pitney Bowes Inc.

Axel Brauneis

Martin Sting

Eddy Edel

Dieter Sonnack

Wolfgang Hartl

In the case of a mail-processing machine having a conveying path () which contains a circulating conveying chain and conveys onto a handling station (), easy changeover to a variety of processing tasks and good adaptability to constricted space conditions are achieved in that, by a switchable actuating arrangement, manipulator fingers () articulated on a manipulator hand (), in the handling station (), can be switched both into the operating position both for the forward stroke of the manipulator hand and for the return stroke of the manipulator hand and into the return position both for the return stroke of the manipulator hand and for the forward stroke of the manipulator hand. Free through-passage-channel areas () for sheet like article and sets thereof which are to be processed further or are to be inserted into envelopes are provided in the handling station, not only with regard to the direction (F) from the feeding conveying chain and to a laterally adjacent first processing arrangement but also in the opposite direction perpendicular to the feed direction of the first conveying chain.

Mail-processing machine

A drive apparatus for a mail-processing system is specified, which apparatus has an enclosure-collating path, which is intermittently driven at least in one end section, an adjoining inserting station for sets of enclosures and an envelope-filling table, which extends parallel to the enclosure-collating path and in front of the inserting station and over which envelopes pulled from a stack of envelopes are pulled by means of an envelope-gripper chain in front of the inserting station and held open there and, once filled with the sets of enclosures, are conveyed away by the gripper chain. A reduction of mass moments of inertia of the drive for the envelope-gripper chain together with simplification of the structure of this drive and a conveying system of a modular design are achieved by a drive section as a chain drive or toothed-belt drive being guided downwards from an intermittently rotating drive shaft out of the region of the enclosure-collating path to a chain wheel or a belt pulley which is mounted in a substructure of the envelope-filling table. From there, a chain drive or toothed-belt drive leads in the substructure of the envelope-filling table to a chain wheel or a toothed-belt pulley which is mounted at the free end of a rocker, the free end of the rocker undergoing an approximately vertically oriented guidance in the substructure of the installation, while the upper end of the rocker is supported and mounted coaxially in relation to a drive shaft for the envelope-gripper chain on the envelope-filling table which is displaceable in relation to the substructure. A chain drive transmits the intermittent drive movement finally from the lower end of the rocker to the upper end of the rocker, onto the drive shaft which is coaxial to the rocker pivoting axis and is intended for the driving-chain wheel of the envelope-gripper chain.

Drive apparatus for a mail-processing system

A simplification of the drive for an inserting station for envelope-filling machines is achieved by a carrier on which inserting fingers for inserting material for envelopes into opened envelopes held ready next to a base plate are articulated having the form of a carriage which is horizontally displaceable, transversely in relation to the conveying direction of an enclosure-collating path charging the base plate with enclosures or sets of enclosures, on pushing-guiding paths freely spanning the base plate, the carriage being coupled by means of a link connected to it in an articulated manner to a rocking lever, which is fastened on a rocking shaft which is mounted on the machine frame at a specific distance above the base plate and the carriage, is parallel to the conveying direction of the enclosure-collating path and forms in particular part of a rocking drive shaft, on which the gripping arms of the enclosure and discharge stations lined up along the enclosure-collating path are fastened.

Inserting station for envelope-filling machines

In an envelope-filling machine, a clear and simplified construction of the drive system is achieved for the enclosure-collating path, for the enclosure-feeding stations and for the parts of the envelope-filling station, in that a drive motor and a step-down gear mechanism, a bevel gear mechanism and a step-by-step motion linkage are arranged in a row along a main shaft which extends in the longitudinal direction of the machine and is arranged so as to be offset out of the region below the enclosure cassettes of the enclosure-feeding station, and the main shaft is guided through the step-down gear mechanism and the bevel gear mechanism as far as a coupling point for a crank mechanism in order to actuate a pivoting shaft which is common to the gripper arms of the enclosure-feeding stations.

Envelope-filling machine

The invention proposes a handling apparatus for moving sheet-like articles, in particular an inserter for pushing inserts into envelopes, in which apparatus a link hand, which forms part of a rectilinear-guidance mechanism formed from three links, has spring-loaded fingers which are articulated at the free end of the link hand and slide over a base plate during the operating stroke, while, during a return stroke, the fingers are raised off together from the base plate by means of a control guide arrangement. Said apparatus operates at high cycle speeds without disruption and requires the arrangement as a whole to be of just a small overall height.

Handling unit, especially inserter

In a drive system for a mail processing machine a comparatively simple and clear design of the driving tracks and of the bearings for the respective shafts is obtained by feeding drive energy from a common drive motor to a bevel gear drive and a step gear drive. Thereby, the output shafts of the bevel gear drive and the step gear drive have identical sense of rotation because of the sense of rotation reversal within the respective gear drive. The bevel gear drive, at its output, provides a continuous rotation, and the step gear drive provides an intermittent rotation. From the output shafts of the bevel gear drive and of the step gear drive, respectively, driving connections can be led to the driving shafts for a continuously moved conveyor chain for documents and to an intermittently moved conveyor chain for documents, respectively.

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Munzenberg Gambach, Germany

Axel Brauneis