The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 31, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 18, 1996
George Branecky, Bethel, CT (US);
Edward M Ifkovits, Jr, New Fairfield, CT (US);
Michael R Ifkovits, Danbury, CT (US);
Karel J Janatka, Southbury, CT (US);
Douglas P Sprenger, Dover Plains, NY (US);
Shahzad H Malick, Fairfield, CT (US);
Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
An separating and staging machine is disclosed which is used in conjunction with high speed document processing apparatus in which a succession of collations of insert material moving along an insert material feed path to an insert location are inserted into envelopes fed to the insert location. The machine of the present invention feeds envelopes from a storage hopper to a feed path which is long enough to accommodate a plurality of staging locations at which individual envelopes are maintained until one is fed to the insert location, after which the envelopes at each staging location are advanced to the next staging location, and a new envelope is fed from the storage hopper to the first of the staging locations. With this arrangement the distance between successive envelopes moving through the staging locations is approximately equal to the distance between successive collations moving along the insert material feed path, thereby increasing the rate at which envelopes can be fed to the insert location.