Method and apparatus for handling documents at a high volume scanner.

摘要

Documents before and after scanning are handled by providing a document container (10) having: a bottom (14), two side walls (16,18), and one end wall (20); a lid (22) hinged to the body near the one end wall, the lid defining a top and an opposite end wall; the bottom having a cutout (34) opposite the one end wall to facilitate manually removing a stack of documents from the container when the lid is open; and a latch for releasable holding the lid closed against the body. The document container is supported at an angle with its lid open and the one end wall at the top on a container support having a pair of tabs for aligning a bottom edge of documents placed in the container and limiting the height of a stack of documents placed in the container. A stack of documents is loaded in the document container and the container is closed and latched. The container is then transported with the aligned edge of the documents down to a document scanner input station. The documents are removed from the container and the stack of documents is placed in the scanner input station with the aligned edge toward a set of feed rollers. A document receiving container is provided at an output station of the document scanner for receiving scanned documents in the order of scanning. After the documents are scanned, the document receiving container is removed from the output station and stored.