Demand document feeder

摘要

A device for feeding envelopes from a hopper to an envelope reading station upon demand. A pair of drive rollers are mounted on a first drive shaft by means of a one-way clutch which allows the rollers to rotate only in a feeding direction. Mounted below the drive rollers are a pair of driven rollers which have a brake applying a force to them counter to the feeding direction. The braking force minimizes the possibility of feeding two documents at the same time. A second substantially identical set of rollers are mounted downstream of the first set of rollers. Upon demand envelopes are fed through the feeder and retained in the nip of the second set of rollers with a portion of the envelope extending into an envelope reading area. An operator reads address indicia from the envelope and keys it into envelope processing apparatus. Upon demand, the envelope is dropped from the feeder onto document transport means and the next succeeding document is fed into the second set of rollers wherein it is stopped so that it can be read. The cycle is repeated by control of the operator.