METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR JOGGING AND EDGING OF MAIL AND OTHER FLAT ARTICLES

摘要

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for jogging and edging mail or other flat articles in preparation for feeding to a processing machine. Conventionally, when feeding articles into a sorting machine, an operator had to manually grab a bundle of mail to be sorted and manually shake the mail to align the bottom edges. The operator then placed the aligned stack against a feed member of the sorting machine. The present invention overcomes the inefficiency of manually shaking the flat articles by providing an automatic edging device. Specifically, the edging device (350) includes a plurality of generally spaced-apart upstanding fingers (355) which are forwardly translatable with a group of flat products between them. Each of the fingers is rockable back and forth across a vertical centerline as the fingers are forwardly translated to jostle the flat articles to align their bottom edges.