Method and apparatus for processing envelopes containing contents
First Claim
1. An apparatus for processing a batch of pieces of mail having contents, comprising:
- an input bin for receiving the batch of mail;
a feeder for serially feeding a piece of mail from the input bin;
a transport for transporting the pieces of mail;
a cutter positioned along the transport, and operable to cut at least one edge of the piece of mail;
a pair of opposing arms positioned along the transport, wherein the piece of mail comprises an envelope having a first face and a second face, and the arms are operable to engage the piece of mail pull the first face away from the second face;
a thickness detector operable to detect the thickness of the piece of mail while the arms engage the piece of mail;
a controller operable to control the transport such that the transport automatically conveys the piece of mail away from the extraction station when the detected thickness for the piece of mail is below a threshold, wherein the controller determines the threshold by averaging the detected thicknesses of selected pieces of mail preceding the piece of mail in the batch.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing mail is provided. Mail is placed into an input bin having a conveyor that conveys the mail towards a feeder. The feeder serially feeds the envelopes by engaging the lead envelope in the stack of mail and displacing the lead envelope transverse the stack of mail. The mail is fed into a shuttle that vertically displaces the envelopes to position the envelopes for entering a justifier. The justifier justifies the top edge of the envelopes and conveys the envelopes to a cutter that severs the top edge of the envelopes. A transport conveys the envelopes from the top cutter to an extractor. The extractor opens the edge-severed mail and presents the contents of the envelopes to an operator who manually extracts the contents. The transport conveys the empty envelopes from the extractor to a verifier that verifies that all of the contents have been removed from the envelope before the envelope is discarded. The transport is vertically adjustable, and a vertical drive motor is provided to vertically adjust the conveyor.
-
Citations
35 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for processing a batch of pieces of mail having contents, comprising:
-
an input bin for receiving the batch of mail;
a feeder for serially feeding a piece of mail from the input bin;
a transport for transporting the pieces of mail;
a cutter positioned along the transport, and operable to cut at least one edge of the piece of mail;
a pair of opposing arms positioned along the transport, wherein the piece of mail comprises an envelope having a first face and a second face, and the arms are operable to engage the piece of mail pull the first face away from the second face;
a thickness detector operable to detect the thickness of the piece of mail while the arms engage the piece of mail;
a controller operable to control the transport such that the transport automatically conveys the piece of mail away from the extraction station when the detected thickness for the piece of mail is below a threshold, wherein the controller determines the threshold by averaging the detected thicknesses of selected pieces of mail preceding the piece of mail in the batch. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
9. An apparatus for processing a batch of pieces of mail having contents, comprising:
-
an extraction station for extracting the contents from a piece of mail;
a thickness detector operable to detect the thickness of the piece of mail while the piece of mail is in the extraction station;
a transport operable to convey the piece of mail away from the extraction station;
a controller operable to control the transport such that the transport automatically conveys the piece of mail away from the extraction station when the detected thickness for the piece of mail is below a threshold, wherein the controller determines the threshold by averaging the detected thicknesses of selected pieces of mail preceding the piece of mail in the batch. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
19. A method for processing a batch of pieces of mail having contents, comprising the steps of:
-
extracting contents from a piece of mail;
measuring the thickness of the piece of mail during the step of extraction of contents;
determining a thickness threshold by averaging the detected thicknesses of selected pieces of mail in the batch that precede the piece of mail; and
conveying the piece of mail toward a discharge area in response to an indication that the measured thickness for the piece of mail is below the determined thickness threshold. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
24. An apparatus for processing a batch of pieces of mail having contents, comprising:
-
an extraction station for extracting the contents from a piece of mail;
a thickness detector operable to detect the thickness of the piece of mail while the piece of mail is in the extraction station;
a transport operable to convey the piece of mail away from the extraction station;
a controller operable to control the transport such that the transport automatically conveys the piece of mail away from the extraction station when the detected thickness for the piece of mail is below a threshold, wherein the controller determines the threshold by averaging the detected thicknesses of pieces of mail preceding the piece of mail in the batch; and
a second thickness detector spaced apart from the extraction station, operable to verify that the contents have been extracted from the piece of mail if the second thickness detector detects a thickness that is below a verification threshold thickness wherein the verification threshold thickness is calculated according to criteria that are different than the criteria used to calculate the thickness threshold. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
-
Specification