Lese- und Transportvorrichtung fuer Schriftgut

摘要

1,207,578. Feeding and delivering sheets. TOKYO SHIBAURA ELECTRIC CO. Ltd. 30 Jan., 1968 [4 Feb., 1967; 20 March, 1967 (2); 9 Sept., 1967], No. 4803/68. Heading B8R. [Also in Division G4] A reading device 9, Fig. 3, operating through a window 4 in the front plate of a magazine containing mail 15 to be sorted, senses information on the foremost envelope 15a before it is fed out of the magazine by means of holes 10a-10c in a belt 10 coming into alignment with ports 8 in a vacuum chamber 6. The envelopes are urged towards belt 10 by belts 21, the foremost envelope being held against the front wall by ports 23a in a vacuum chamber 23, while separation of the envelopes in the magazine is effected by air ejected from ports 24a. The front plate of the magazine may provide a gap between its lower edge and the front pulleys of belts 21 so that the front envelopes in the stack are slightly shingled, Fig. 6 (not shown). Separation rollers 14 prevent feeding of more than one envelope at a time. Photodetector 35 starts each reading operation as holes 10a-10c become aligned with it, and a detector 36 controls a braking device to stop the belt 10 in a predetermined position when the drive is switched off. In another embodiment, Figs. 1, 2 (not shown), belt 10 includes a window for reading device 9 and associated vacuum ports to draw the foremost envelope against the belt for reading. The envelopes are subsequently fed between belt 10 and a co-operating endless belt 30, Fig. 4, and a deflector 45 controlled by the reading device then directs the envelopes to one or other of two series of receptacles 25, 26 by way of belts 31-33. Individual receptacles 25, 26 are selected by actuation of the corresponding deflectors 34.