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:
Apr. 30, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 04, 1999
George Cera, Endicott, NY (US);
Wayne Blackwell, Chenango Forks, NY (US);
Lou Taylor, Apalachin, NY (US);
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD (US);
Abstract
A take-away mechanism is provided from a singulation mechanism in a system for handling substantially flat articles of varying size, weight and thickness, and in particular for handling mixed mail. The take-away mechanism includes at least one and preferably more belts which are preferably driven at a rate higher than the rate at which articles are fed to the take-away mechanism, which belt(s) preferably have surfaces in contact with the article of material having a high coefficient of friction. At least two components are provided for applying pressure to articles as they are passed over the belt, the components preferably being spaced along the belt by a distance less than the shortest length of an article to be handled. One of the components may be two or more independently biased rollers and one of the components may be two or more independently biased fingers, the rear component being the rollers and the forward component being fingers for the preferred embodiment. Where there are a plurality of belts, the pressure members are preferably mounted so as to contact articles at a point between adjacent belts rather than over belts.