High Speed Inserter Fed From Roll Material

This invention relates to a high speed envelope contents inserter and more particularly to an inserter that stores envelopes and letter contents in a roll form prior to insertion.

A large volume of the world s mail comprises letters fed into envelopes using a machine called an inserter. Large volume inserters have been manufactured by companies such as Bell & Howell and Pitney-Bowes. Traditionally, the automatic feeding of letters into envelopes involved the positioning of stacks of paper or a stream of continuous paper on a raceway that carries various sheets of paper in a predetermined manner to the inserter which holds a stack of at least 500 envelopes in a hopper that may be more than 15" high. When each set of combined sheets reaches the inserter, the sheets are folded and placed into a waiting envelope. The envelope may then be sealed or left open for further contents insertion and output from the inserter.

In the past, each piece of material to be fed into a particular envelope had to be sent down the raceway to the envelope one piece at a time in a prechosen order until the envelope was filled. More recently industry has developed means for gathering different sheets and materials in a separate sub-hopper that receives the various contents to be inserted from a variety of sources, gathers them into one packet (such as a multiple page letter or statement) and then transfers this packet down the raceway to the inserter. Such secondary gathering speeds the overall process of insertion by allowing all sheets to enter the inserter simultaneously.

Even more recently, devices for transferring a number of webs from a roll to a common cutting point where the webs are cut and folded into one packet have been employed by high volume mailers. The transferred webs are all fed and cut simultaneously. One of the cut webs is, in fact, the envelope which is subsequently formed and wrapped around other sheets in the group. Finally, the folded sheets for insertion have been fed from large rolls and nested with each other to create a single insert that has, generally, been utilized as part of the contents of a magazine or a newspaper.

However, to date it has not been possible to feed printed webs from a plurality of rolls to a single device that selectively cuts some or all of them, based upon a preprogrammed sequence, and subsequently inserts them into a separate envelope. Additionally, the opening of envelopes for insertion has been problematic. Highly specialized equipment has been necessary to spread an envelope opening sufficiently to allow insertion of contents.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for high speed insertion of contents from rolls into separately fed envelopes.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus that allows insertion of preselected contents from a plurality of converging rolls with separate control of each roll.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus that allows individual scanning of fed webs to determine appropriate contents to be inserted into a given envelope.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus that eliminated the need to separate envelopes into different stacks on the basis of type of envelope or contents.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus that allows larger containers of bulk envelopes to be processed at one time.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide an apparatus that allows quick opening of envelopes for contents insertion as they are fed to an insertion location.

An apparatus and method for selective high speed insertion of sheets from a plurality of webs according to a preferred embodiment features folding and inserting of sheets into preformed envelopes. Preformed envelopes are provided, for folding and inserting of contents thereinto, from a source that may include a roll having a retaining strip to maintain the envelopes in a predetermined alignment. A plurality of sheets are fed for folding and inserting into the envelopes. The sheets are selected from leading sheet sections of each of a plurality of continuous webs. The leading sheet sections of continuous webs are selectively cut at a collection point at which all of the webs converge. The cut sheets are subsequently transferred in a stack to be folded and inserted into envelopes. The selecting of sheets and the feeding of the sheets for cutting is accomplished by means of a CPU that ma include web disposed bar codes and overlying bar code detectors or similar preprogrammed instructions in order to determine which sheets are fed and cut for a particular insertion into an envelope.

The method and apparatus may further comprise a system for spreading the opening sides of an envelope to facilitate quicker insertion of contents thereto. This spreading may be accomplished by means of a strip disposed along each of the envelopes in a stream and having a fold positioned in each of the openings whereby a downstream-most envelope would be spread by pulling upon the downstream most end of the strip.

According to an alternative embodiment, the spreading of an enveloping sides may be accomplished by means of tabs disposed along one opening side that may be gripped by a finger or similar device to pull one opening side away from the other. The tabs may be removable by a variety of methods including perforations and removal of adhesive-backed tabs.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more clear with reference to the following detailed description and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for high speed insertion of contents into envelopes according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a more detailed schematic side view of the cutting and feeding of individual sheets in the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the cutting and feeding of three elements of FIG. 2 showing the feeding of sheets from a first rolls;

FIG. 4 is a more detailed schematic side view of the cutting and feeding elements of FIG. 3 showing subsequent feeding of sheets from a third roll;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing an alternative embodiment of the cutting and feeding elements of FIG. 3 including a reciprocating knife and tractor pin feed web drives;

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of a system for widening the openings of envelopes to facilitate insertion of contents according to this invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view illustrating the widening of an envelope opening taken along line 7--7 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view of an alternative embodiment of a system for widening the openings of envelopes wherein the flaps are closed prior to widening of the opening;

FIG. 9 is schematic side view illustrating the widening of an envelope opening taken along line 9--9 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is schematic perspective view of another alternative embodiment of a system for widening the openings of envelopes to facilitate insertion of contents utilizing removable tabs upon an opening edge of the envelope;

FIG. 11 is yet another alternative embodiment of a system for widening the openings of envelopes utilizing tabs that are attached by adhesive according to this invention; and

FIG. 12 is a further alternative embodiment of a system for widening the openings of envelopes utilizing tabs that are integrally attached to a side of the envelope according to this invention.

An overview of a high speed inserter for placing multiple independently selected sheets into individual envelopes is depicted schematically in FIG. 1. The apparatus 20 comprises a folder/inserter unit 22 that is fed simultaneously by a continuous roll 24 of finished folded envelopes 26 and, in this embodiment, three overlaid rolls 28 (first roll 25, second roll 27 and third roll 29) of printed web 30.

The envelopes 26 are mounted on a roll stand 32 that may be similar to that disclosed and claimed in Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,893,763 and 5,000,394. The envelopes 26 themselves are mounted in a roll 24 using a tensioned retaining strap 34 that holds them against the roll 24 and that unwinds as the envelopes 26 are unrolled. Such a system is also described in Applicant's co-pending patent application Ser. No. 07/714,232.

The web rolls 26 in this embodiment may be mounted upon a multi-roll stand 36 as shown or may be mounted on individual roll stands as described in the above identified patents. These webs are mounted in such a manner that their leader sections 38 overlap one another and all converge at one side of the folder/inserter unit 22. In particular, the webs 30 overlie each other at a feeding, cutting and folding portion 40 of the folder/inserter at which, in this example, includes a rotary blade 42. At the feeding, cutting and folding section, leader or end sheet sections 38 of each web are combined and overlaid upon one another. The overlaying, in this embodiment, particularly occurs at a conveyor 44 that is depicted as conventional belt 46 in this example. Each web leader 38 is fed in response to a command by a set of web drive feed rollers 48 or similar drivers to the conveyor. At this point the web leader's rear (upstream) edge is disposed proximate the blade and is cut to create an appropriately sized sheet at the overlay position. The conveyor moves the overlaid (stacked) pieces into a folder 50 that folds the sheets into a three fold standard letter or other folded configuration for insertion into appropriate sized envelopes.

The actual insertion of folded sheets into envelopes occurs in the inserter section 52 of the folder/inserter unit 22 and is performed by conventional methods (not shown). The completed envelopes are moved in a stream out of the unit 22 at an outlet port 54.

With further reference to FIG. 1, each of the folder/inserter 22 , rotary blade 42 and web feed drives (as well as the envelope feed drive) 48 are controlled by a programmable central processing unit (CPU) 54 in this embodiment. The CPU may carry preprogrammed parameters for loading predetermined contents from each of webs 30 into predetermined envelopes 26 as they are fed. If the CPU 54 does have such instructions, as each envelope is fed to the inserter 52, the CPU 54 instructs the feed rollers to advance certain desired printed leader sections under the blade 42 and then to cut the leader into separated sheets as they overlay the conveyor 44. Alternatively, the envelopes and web sheet sections may pass through a bar code or similar code detection device 56 that is interconnected with the CPU 54. Predetermined bar codes 58 upon each of the envelopes and web sections may serve to signal the CPU 54 to perform feeding and cutting operations based upon a preprogrammed sequence. An example of such and envelope/sheet insertion detection system, using a single web roll only, is described in Applicant's co-pending patent application Ser. No. 07/714,232. Note that such a system, utilizing bar codes on both envelopes and webs may serve to maintain an error checking comparison between envelopes and their contents to ensure a correct match up.

The mechanics of the web feeding and cutting system 40 according to this invention are detailed in FIGS. 2-4. FIG. 2 depicts a stack of sheets 60 positioned upon the conveyor 44. The conveyor belt 46 moves in a downstream direction as depicted by the arrow 62. The leading section of each sheet is fed to the overlay position upon the conveyor 44 by means of pairs of independent feed rollers 48 that move according to the arrows to drive each corresponding web. The first or upper web 64 in this embodiment, optionally includes a slit and merged web that is separated, as shown, into two sections 64 and 66 and, thus, requires two corresponding sets of feed rollers 48 in this example. Both of these sets of feed rollers 48 would act simultaneously. It is possible to provide only one set of feed rollers 48 for the slit and merged web sections 64 and 66 prior to their separation point according to an alternative embodiment.

Each set of feed rollers 48, as noted, acts independently allowing any of the three webs (upper 64 and 66, middle 68, and lower 70) to be fed to the overlay position on the conveyor 44 at any time. This facilitates selective ordering of sheets in a given stack. In this embodiment, the first sheets to be fed from any of the web rolls will lie at the bottom while subsequent sheets will cover these bottom sheets and stand at the top of the stack. It is possible, to have three sheets in a row fed from one web roll and then only one or no sheets fed from another roll to form a particular stack. Such an ordering may be determined, as noted above, by the specific bar code instructions on fed web sections that are detected at each detector. In addition, if two or three overlaid leading web sections from different rolls are presented simultaneously to the cutter 42, it is possible to feed all of these leaders forwardly onto the overlay position at the same time, and cut all three of them into sheets simultaneously creating a finished stack. In other words, it is not necessary to feed each sheet independently, one at a time, and cut it independently when a predetermined order already exists at the overlapped uncut leader sections of the webs.

A particular example of a feeding order according to this embodiment is depicted in FIGS. 3-4. In FIG. 3, two sheets 72 have already been fed onto the conveyor 44 by one or more of the web rolls. At this time, the feed rollers 48 move the leading edge of the upwardmost disposed slit and merged web sections 64 and 66 into position. When the sheets 74 from the upper web 64 and 66 have been fed forward a sufficient distance, the cutter 42 is then activated, separating the leading overlapping sheets 74 from the remaining web. Since this cutter is a rotary blade, this operation, according to this embodiment, will occur as the web moves downstream. In FIG. 4, the four sheets 72, 74 are already in position and a fifth sheet 76 from the third web 70 is now fed and cut in a position overlying sheets 72 and 74. As clearly shown, the particular order of webs at their convergence (collection point 78) has no bearing upon the final stacking order of web sheets on the conveyor 44. In this example, a bottom web (third roll 29) places a top sheet 76 on the stack while the top web (first roll 25) places the bottom sheets 72, 74 on the stack. Again, sheets from more than one web may be fed simultaneously and cut simultaneously if the predetermined order of stacking is already present within the leader sheets of the webs themselves as they overlie each other at the collection point 78 during feeding.

While feed rollers 48 and a rotary blade 42 are utilized for feeding and cutting, respectively, according to one embodiment of this invention; it is equally possible to utilize tractor pin feed belts 80 in conjunction with tractor pin hole edged web sections 82 according to an alternative embodiment as shown in FIG. 5. Similarly, sheets may be cut by a reciprocating knife blade 84 and anvil 86 arrangement that would, necessarily, require the web to stop briefly during cutting sequences. Regardless of the type of web cutting and feeding systems employed, it is important in this and the FIG. 1-4 embodiment primarily that the contents of each web be known by the system and that the programmed stacking sequence be maintained by the CPU. To this end, detectors 88 are positioned over each fed web in FIG. 5 for determining the contents of each web and a desired feeding and cutting sequence or lack of sequence if a web is to be held in place during a particular cycle) for each web.

Since rapid and efficient feeding of envelopes to the inserter, is also important to this invention, FIGS. 6-12 detail particular improvements to the envelope insertion process. As noted, a common problem in inserting contents into envelopes is that the opening in each envelope is too narrow and closely spaced in order to quickly and effectively insert the folded sheets. As such, special machines are often utilized by inserters to spread the envelope opening sides wide enough to allow contents insertion. This process takes time and requires additional expensive equipment that is prone to breakage and frequent maintenance. FIGS. 6-7, however, depict a relatively inexpensive and reliable system for opening each envelope in turn as it is presented to the inserter. The system relies upon the natural rigidity of folded paper (or similar semi rigid web) to spread the opening sides of each envelope. In particular, a narrow material strip 90 is disposed across the top of each envelope 92 on a side of the envelope in a stream of envelopes opposite the side that contacts the tensioned roll retaining strap 94. A small fold 96 of the strip 90 is inserted inside each envelope between its opening sides 98, 100 in the stream. This strip may be as long as the entire roll of envelopes or may comprise several joined overlapping strip pieces disposed along the length of the rolled envelopes. In this embodiment, a relatively narrow strip is utilized in order to minimize material waste. As noted, either paper or similar reusable strip material may be utilized according to this embodiment as long as the material exhibits sufficient rigidity.

The upstream end 102 of the folded strip 90 is held relatively stationary by the preceding envelopes in the stream while the downstream end 104 of the strip 90, proximate the leading envelope 106, is relatively free to move forwardly in a downstream direction (arrow 110). As such, force may be exerted to pull the free downstream end 104 of the strip 90 while the upstream end 102 exiting the envelope opening remains stationary. Thus, as shown in FIG. 7, an upwardly disposed resulting force (arrow 111) occurs within the fold 112 inside the envelope 106 causing the upwardly disposed opening side 98 to spread from the lower disposed (flap carrying) opening side 100. Simultaneously, a group of folded sheets 114 may be inserted (arrow 116) between the strip 90 and the lower disposed opening side 100 with ample room for snagless insertion. The strip 90, in this embodiment, acts somewhat as a guide to aid contents insertion. As may be discerned from FIG. 7, the strip fold within each envelope opening must be sufficiently long to provide a desired widening of the envelope opening upon extension of the downstream strip end.

It may be desirable to fold the flaps of each envelope into a closed position prior to insertion. This may help to preserve the gumming on the envelopes and, otherwise, reduce the space required between envelopes in a roll mounted stream, thus optimizing space. As such, an alternative embodiment is depicted in FIGS. 8-9 in which each envelope flap 118 is closed in the fed stream of envelopes 119 and a secondary fold 120 in the strip 122 is disposed around each closed flap. As the leading downstream end 124 of the strip 122 is pulled (arrow 126), the flap 118 of the leading 128 envelope first opens and then the strip fold 130 within the opening 132 causes a spread between the opening sides 134, 136. Contents may then be inserted into the widened envelope in a manner similar to that shown in FIGS. 6-7.

FIGS. 10-12 disclose an alternative embodiment of a system for quickly spreading the opening sides of an envelope prior to insertion. Tabs are positioned along the upwardly disposed opening side of the envelope. As the leading envelope 138 reaches the contents inserter 140, a pincer-like finger grips 141 each tab 142 in a manner depicted in FIG. 10 and moves upwardly to spread the upper and lower (flap carrying) disposed envelope opening sides 144 and 146 respectively. A folded group of sheets 148 may then be inserted easily into the envelope opening 150. The tab 142 according to this embodiment may be sized such that it is sufficiently large for grasping by the finger 141, but no larger. In this way, material waste is minimized. Tabs may be small enough that the folding of the flap upon sealing of the envelope merely folds and covers the existing tab upon each envelope. In this manner, no further operations must be performed to the tab. However, it may be desirable to remove the tab prior to contents insertion in order to prevent interference with the sealing process and, otherwise, to create a neater package. As such, the tabs 142 as depicted in FIG. 10 include precut perforations 152 that allow their easy removal by means of the pincer like finger 141 or similar gripping and pulling device.

An alternative embodiment for an envelope opening tab is depicted in FIG. 11. This tab 154 includes a tacky adhesive 156 that joins the tab 154 to the upwardly disposed envelope opening side 158. The adhesive may be strong enough to allow a finger to separate and widen the spacing between the opening sides, but may also allow easy removal of the tab upon application a predetermined pressure in a predetermined direction. For example, if the finger pulls the envelope tab 154 open at an angle, it will spread the opening sides and allow easy contents insertion. Subsequent to insertion, the finger may move directly upwardly while the envelope is held down in a fixed position. In this manner, the tab 154 could be removed from the envelope without any damage thereto. Removed tabs could be recycled or, in a case of certain resilient materials, reused for minimization of waste.

Finally, FIG. 12 depicts a second alternative embodiment of a tab system according to this invention. In this embodiment, the tabs 160 are simply extensions of the upwardly disposed envelope opening side 162. Such tabs 160 may, as described above, be folded over during sealing, or may be cut from the opening side 162 of the envelope by means of a blade subsequent to contents insertion. Again, these tabs could be recycled to minimize waste.

The foregoing has been merely a detailed description of preferred embodiments. Various modifications and alterations may be made to this invention without departing from its spirit and scope. The foregoing description is to be taken only by way of example and not in any way to limit the scope or subject matter of the invention. Rather, the invention should only be taken as limited by the following claims.