Transport mechanism for a mailing machine and method to register a mail piece in a mailing machine

摘要

A top registration transport mechanism and method for a mailing machine is provided. The transport mechanism (100) includes one or more displaceable rollers (140, 142) that have a diameter larger than the drive/idler rollers (116, 136). A semi-elastic belt (118) is looped around the drive/idler rollers and displaceable rollers. The larger diameter of the displaceable rollers causes a portion of the transport belt in the area of the displaceable rollers to be slightly raised. The registration plate can contact the raised portion of the belt to displace the belt and displaceable rollers, thereby ensuring that very thin mail pieces can be effectively processed by the transport. As thicker mail pieces traverse the transport, the displaceable rollers can be further displaced before the entire transport mechanism must be displaced to maintain registration of the mail piece against the bottom of the registration plate.