Pitney Bowes Inc.

Mailcode Inc.

David W Purcell

Brad Swinford

Robert J Allen

Thomas M Lyga

Richard F Stengl

Steven J DaCunha

David P Chastain

Adam W Fleming

Boris Rozenfeld

Christopher A Baker

Peter N Baker

Donald Caddy

Brad A Swinford

A stacking assembly is operative to protect stacked mailpieces from damage due to abrasion. The stacking assembly includes a support blade moveably mounted to a bin for accepting a stack of mailpieces and an ingestion assembly including a Leading Edge (LE) urge roller and Trailing Edge (TE) alignment device. The LE urge roller is operative to accept mailpieces from a supply of mailpieces, and urge a leading edge portion thereof toward a sidewall of the stacking bin. The TE alignment device includes a first cam driven about an axis of rotation by a digital rotary positioning device which cam defines a surface operative to urge the trailing edge portion of each mailpiece into parallel alignment with the support blade. The stacking assembly also includes an anti-abrasion linkage responsive to rotation of the digital rotary positioning device to forcibly displace a surface of the stacked mailpieces away from a moving surface of the ingestion assembly.

Anti-abrasion assembly for mailpiece stacking assembly

A divert assembly is described for a mailpiece sorter operative to sort mailpieces into one of a plurality of sortation bins. The divert assembly comprising a re-direct mechanism for selectively re-directing mailpieces travelling along a feed path into the sortation bin and causing each selected mailpiece to be re-directed at an angle relative to the stack of mailpieces to be accumulated in the sortation bin. The divert assembly also including a stacking assembly including a Leading Edge (LE) urge roller, a support blade, and a Trailing Edge (TE) alignment device. The LE urge roller accepts and urges each of the selected mailpieces toward a sidewall of the sortation bin while the support blade holds each of the selected mailpieces between the urge roller and the support blade and in an on-edge parallel relationship relative thereto. The support blade is moveably mounted relative to the LE urge roller to allow the accumulation of additional mailpieces between the LE urge roller and the support blade. The TE alignment device includes a stepper motor rotationally driving a cam about a rotational axis. The cam defines a surface operative to urge the trailing edge portion of each selected mailpiece toward the support blade and into alignment with the stack.

Stacking assembly for a mailpiece sorter

An apparatus including a belt support system having a first belt support roller and a system for automatically moving the first belt support roller. The belt support system partially wraps a continuous belt on a belt drive roller. The belt support system includes the first belt support roller at an upstream side of the belt drive roller and a second belt support roller at a downstream side. The system for moving the first belt support roller moves the first roller from a first location relative to the belt drive roller to a second different location, based upon a predetermined load of the belt on the first belt support roller to thereby reduce an amount of wrap of the belt on the belt drive roller and reduce a length of the belt located proximate to the belt drive roller between the first and second belt support rollers.

Belt overload device

A method of singulating overlapping items includes receiving the overlapping items in a singulation device, the device including a first transport element configured for rotation in a first direction and a second transport element in opposing relation to the first transport element, wherein the second transport element is configured for rotation in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The method further includes rotating the first transport element at a first transport speed, rotating the second transport element at a second transport speed substantially equal to the first transport speed, conveying the overlapping items between the transport elements along a transport path, decreasing the second transport speed to singulate the overlapping items, decreasing the first transport speed to reduce a speed of a lead item, and transporting the lead item away from the singulation device.

Transport for singulating items

A method of transporting items includes receiving a group of one or more items in a singulation device, implementing a singulation routine, measuring a speed of a first portion of the group, measuring a speed of a second portion of the group, and comparing the speed of the first portion with the speed of the second portion. The method may further include continuing the singulation routine where the speed of the first portion is not equal to the speed of the second portion, and terminating the singulation routine where the speed of the first portion is equal to the speed of the second portion. The method may also include transporting a lead item away from the singulation device. The singulation device may include opposing transport elements.

Item transport with singulation detection

A backing plate support system is provided for a mailpiece feeder mechanism wherein mailpieces are conveyed vertically, on-edge along a transport deck to a transfer station for subsequent sortation and delivery. The backing plate support system includes a guide track disposed along and adjacent to the transport deck and a plurality of backing plates each having a guide support fitting at its base. The guide support fitting engages the guide track and supports the backing plate in an orthogonal position relative to the transport deck. The backing plate support system, furthermore, includes an advancing belt disposed adjacent the guide track and adapted to be driven linearly along the transport deck and a mechanism for coupling each backing plate to the advancing belt. The mechanism facilitates relative movement of the backing support plate relative to the advancing belt in one direction while inhibiting relative motion thereof in an opposing direction. Furthermore, the mechanism facilitates optimum spacing between pairs of backing plates when mailpieces are stacked therebetween by a system operator. In one embodiment of the invention, a controller is operable to preposition each of the backing plates such that the operator may stack mailpieces against one backing plate and, on the command of the operator, introduce a second backing plate to support any thickness of stacked mailpieces.

Backing plate support system for a mailpiece feeder

A system for processing and encoding mail including a bin configured to hold mail and a transport coupled to said bin to receive mail therefrom. The transport displays multiple moving pieces of mail to an operator. The system includes a data entry device operable to enter data from mail moving on the transport and a coding device to receive mail from the conveyor. A controller is operatively coupled to the transport, data entry device, and coding device. The controller includes an address signal corresponding to at least a portion of an address of a mail piece entered with the data entry device by the operator, a routing code signal determined in accordance with the address signal, a performance signal corresponding to data entry capability of the operator, and a transport speed signal corresponding to speed of the transport. The controller adjusts speed of the conveyor as a function of the performance signal and the conveyor speed signal, and the coding device places a routing code on the mail piece in response to the routing code signal.

Growing community of inventors

Crawfordsville, IN, United States of America

David W Purcell