Lexmark International, Inc.

Friedbert R Becker

Christopher Gregory Chee

William Joseph Thornhill

A stack of envelopes has its lowermost envelope advanced from the stack by two sets of longitudinally spaced kick rollers, which are driven through a gear train by a unidirectional motor. A separator, which includes a feed roll and a restraint roll driven by the unidirectional motor, allows only one envelope to pass therethrough. The gear train includes two sets of interrupted teeth on a gear for stopping advancement of each of the two sets of kick rollers so that another envelope is not advanced from the stack during a cycle of operation. The gear has a third set of interrupted teeth for stopping the feed and restraint rolls after the envelope has passed the separator. The envelope is advanced to a printer by drive rolls, which cooperate with spring biased back-up rolls to form a nip, driven by the unidirectional motor. When the envelope enters the drive rolls, a latch holds the gear having the interrupted teeth from rotating. When the envelope passes the drive rolls, the unidirectional motor is stopped, and the latch is released.

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Lexington, KY, United States of America

Friedbert R Becker