Pitney Bowes Inc.

Christopher V Hibberd

Ian R Jenkins

Walter J Kulpa

Chiping Sye

Howard M Stevens

The moistening system is used in combination with a postage meter system, wherein the postage meter system includes a horizontal extend deck supported by a meter housing. A portion of the deck defines a printing station. The moistening system includes a housing defining a first chamber. A horizontally extending feed deck is detachably mounted to the housing enclosing the first chamber. A second chamber defined by the housing includes a latching mechanism for detachably mounting the housing and feed deck to the postage meter such that the feed deck is aligned contiguous to the deck of the postage meter. A reservoir container is removably mounted within the first chamber of the housing and has an aperture aligned to an aperture formed in the feed deck. A wick assembly includes a support brace is detachably mounted to the feed deck, a wick and a cap. The support brace has a first section extending into the reservoir and the wick has a first section confined by the first section of the support brace to extend into the reservoir. The support brace also has a second section extending horizontally in spaced apart relation to the feed deck and supporting a second section of the wick such that a portion of the wick extends horizontally beyond the second section of the brace. A cap is detachably mounted to the second section of the brace to securely position the second section of the wick therebetween.

Moistener for a postage meter

An envelope sealing and feeding device has upper and lower interfitting parts defining a reservoir for a liquid to be used in the sealing operation and a substantially horizontal slot through which an envelope to be sealed can be fed. These parts co-operate with a wetter assembly which includes a wetter blade extending across the slot and a tubular structure containing wicking material and extending substantially vertically downwardly through the upper part and into the liquid reservoir. With this arrangement, replacement of the wetter assembly is made easier. Assembly and dis-assembly of the relevant parts of the machine in order to obtain access to the interior of the liquid reservoir can be done without difficulty. The upper and lower parts can be joined together readily merely by using two bolts or screws, and once joined the wetter assembly can be added easily due to the simple structure, which allows easy preparation of the sub-assembly and then straightforward insertion of a tubular structure thereof in a slot in the upper part. In addition, attachment of the envelope sealer-feeder device onto a postage meter is made particularly easy by the use of a bracket.

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Essex, United Kingdom

Christopher V Hibberd