La Poste

Laurent Baufreton

Didier Thieriot

Pierre Darchis

Henri Barjolle

Device for automatically filling a container for collecting flat objects, such as mail envelopes, including a receiving location where the envelopes are delivered one by one, preferably in a vertical position and stood up on their edge, from a conveyor, in particular with driving belts pinching the envelopes between them until the moment when they are released into the location in order progressively to form a stack, this location including at least one and preferably two opposite parallel jogging edges extending perpendicularly to the planes of the successive envelopes in the stack formed between these edges, and a horizontal bearing sole, the first envelope in the stack furthermore being pressed against a moving stop which moves in a horizontal direction as the stack is formed, wherein the bearing sole consists of two retractable flaps placed facing one another in the same horizontal plane in order to support the stack of envelopes, these flaps being mounted so that they can pivot about two parallel axles and operated in synchronism from a mechanism able to cause them to tilt simultaneously about these axles so that the stack thus released drops under gravity between the separated flaps into the collecting container located underneath these flaps at the receiving location.

Device for automatically filling a container for collecting flat objects

A device which forms a stack of flat articles such as envelopes is disclosed. A conveyor delivers flat articles to a movable carriage. The movable carriage includes a horizontal support and vertical support for aligning flat articles received. A stacking head supported on the movable carriage comprises four rotary rollers positioned at the vertices of a parallelogram. Two non-adjacent rollers are movable but maintained a fixed distance apart. The rollers support a belt which transfers received flat articles from the conveyor onto the horizontal and vertical supports. A strain-sensitive detector is coupled to the movable rollers for providing a signal to control carriage movement as the stack of accumulated flat articles increases.

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Nantes, France

Laurent Baufreton