Moore Business Forms, Inc.

John Van De Ven

Henk Haan

John A Sabatowski

R Joseph Varieur

Rebecca L Parker

Michael S Kalisiak

Richard S Downing

David G Wagner

Daniel F Pustelnik

Franklin L Burket

I Gerald Doane

Frederick J Facklam

A vertical pressure sealing assembly is disclosed for sealing four edges of a business form. The assembly defines a business form path in a single vertical plane. The assembly includes two sealing modules each having a frame to support upper and lower sealing wheels. The sealing wheels are aligned with the outer edges of the business form. Each sealing module includes a first and second pair of upper/lower sealing wheels on each side of the module frame. The first frame is positioned vertically above and offset from the second sealing module. The second sealing module is orthogonal to the first module. A form chute between the two sealing modules is positioned immediately below the first sealing module and adjacent the second sealing module. Conveyor belts and drive wheels are used to move the business form through the vertical pressure sealing assembly.

Vertical pressure sealer apparatus

The folding, and accumulation in configurations simulating a booklet, of flexible sheets (such as paper sheets) is accomplished in a simple, straight-forward, yet effective manner. A movable bar is pivotally mounted at a first end adjacent a cutter from which it receives paper sheets. A plurality of first pulleys having a circumferential periphery with a concave substantially V-shape are mounted by the movable bar and cooperate with a second plurality of pulleys on a stationary V-shaped bar. The second pulleys have convex substantially V-shaped circumferential peripheries with a groove for receipt of a circular cross-section conveyor belt which extends between the sets of pulleys and drives sheets for folding between them. At the discharge end of the folder is a downwardly sloping convex substantially V-shaped accumulator bar which cooperates with a guide (having a concave V-shape) and an automatically movable stop. After a plurality of folded paper sheets in a configuration simulating a booklet are collected, the stop is released and they are transmitted to a binder.

Apparatus for accumulating sheets for a booklet

Apparatus of accumulating sheets for a booklet

A method and apparatus are capable of producing sealed mailers from sheets of paper at speeds in excess of 200 documents per minute (e.g. 400 documents per minute or more) in an inexpensive manner, including by variably non-impact duplex printing the faces of each sheet with up to thirty six lines of variable data with each line up to ten inches long. The sheets are fed one at a time from a stack and then immediately aligned. Immediately after alignment the first face of each sheet is ink jet printed with variable data, the sheets are inverted and then immediately the second face of each sheet is ink jet printed with variable data. The printed sheets are immediately folded, and if they have adhesive (such as pressure activated adhesive) they are immediately sealed. They may then be sorted, stacked, and tied into bundles. Control of all of the operations is provided by a central computer control which ensures that the processing speed is consistent throughout. The method is particularly suited for producing simple mailer type business forms such as IRS 1099 forms, statements, notices, and advertisements.

High throughput, low cost, non-impact printing

Documents printed by high speed laser printers are automatically handled to verify, track, handle, and deposit them in appropriate shipping containers. The system is modular so that it can be configured to suit the needs of a wide variety of users, and includes document transport conveyors, transfer conveyors, and container transport conveyors. A paper sheet having bar coding is associated with each group of documents and the bar coding is sensed to determine where to route the document (what shipping container it should be placed in), and also optionally other document handling procedures, such as plastic shrink wrapping and/or banding. Documents are conveyed to a number of different filling stations with containers passing underneath the filling stations. When the destination bar coding on a group of documents at a filling station matches the bar coding on the container underneath that filling station, dump paddles are activated to drop the group of documents into the container. Prior to operation of the dump paddles, the size of the group of documents and the remaining volume in the container are both sensed to be sure the group of documents will fit in the container. Containers that are determined to be full are transferred to a shipping loop for transportation by trucks or other shipping options.

Automated document handling system

Business form components are stacked to separate them into different jobs, and after stacking are synchronously conveyed together to a pressure sealer, or similar device, for sealing the components together into a business form or are conveyed to subsequent operations such as secondary stacking into larger stacks. Each component moves from an aligner/feeder to a stacker, moving up an incline of a continuously running conveyor belt so that each successive component passes underneath any previous components in a stack. When a movable stop against which the components are held rotates out of the way, a top roller near the trailing ends of the components pinches them against a bottom roller so that the components move together away from the stacker in register with each other. A sensor senses each component as it passes to the stacker, and when the desired number for a stack have moved past the sensor, a controller controls the operation of the stop and top roller to allow the continuously running conveyor belt to move the stacked components out of the stacker.

Growing community of inventors

Grand Island, NY, United States of America

John Van De Ven