METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING AND SEPARATING OUT OVERWEIGHT LETTERS

摘要

A method and apparatus for separating out overweight letters, wherein the letters are transported serially on their longitudinal edges at a controlled speed into a pinch roller pair driven by a constant torque clutch at a tangential velocity greater than the linear speed of the letters immediately prior to entry into the pinch rollers. The loss of rotational velocity of the pinch rollers caused by the mass of the slower moving letter is automatically compared against a standard loss of rotational velocity by the pinch roller pair for a letter of maximum allowable mass for a given postage, and overweight letters are automatically gated out of the transport stream.