EP2292540B1 - Supply device with improved envelope separation - Google Patents

Abstract

The device has a clutch unit for actuating drive rollers that support a stack of mailpieces of various formats. An optical sensor detects passage of the mailpieces entering into a separation zone that individually selects the mailpieces. A control unit controls forced deactivation followed by an activation/deactivation series of the clutch unit as long as the sensor is not activated, to cause a rapid succession of horizontal movements generating jerky motion on the stack of mailpieces for facilitating mutual separation of the mailpieces. An independent claim is also included for a method for controlling a clutch unit for actuating drive rollers supporting a stack of mailpieces.

Description

Field of the art

The present invention relates exclusively to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to a device for supplying mail items for a franking machine ensuring improved separation of mail items.

Prior art

Conventionally, a franking machine must be adapted to receive different types of mail items such as documents, folds or envelopes with varying dimensions. For this, it often includes upstream automatic feeding device for particular the conveying of these mail items at rates adapted to their processing by the franking machine. This automatic feeding device, or feeder, on the receiving tray which is arranged a stack of mail items of variable size usually comprises means for unstacking, separating, transporting and optionally closing the mail items which must then be treated by the franking machine. The EP0856484 proposes such an automatic feeding device.

The role of the stripping means consisting of motorized drive rollers is to deliver to the selection means a small packet of mail items extracted from the pile of mail items present on the receiving tray of the feeder so that those they separate them one by one while ensuring a predetermined interval between two successive mail items.

This separation interval between two adjacent mail items is particularly important because, if it is too small, the franking machine will not have time to calculate the thumbprint and it will have to stop and, if it is too big, the franking rate of mail items will be significantly reduced.

However, the size of the stack of mail items and therefore its weight has a great influence on the ease of unfiltering because when this stack is heavy, it is very difficult to separate the first items of mail from the following under the pile of mail items.

A typical solution to this problem of separation of mail items is to increase the rotational speed of the motorized drive rollers to increase the coefficient of friction with the stack of mail items. However, this solution is ineffective when a loss of adhesion has occurred between the rollers and the pile of mail items they support. That is why the patent EP0 581 392 proposed to mount these drive rollers on eccentrics to shake the battery vertically and thus facilitate its unstacking. However, in practice this device is not satisfactory because this vertical movement jerks does not affect the adhesion between them of the different mail items of the stack but, on the contrary, decreases the adhesion of the drive rollers with the first mail item from this pile.

Object and definition of the invention

The present invention therefore essentially aims to overcome the aforementioned drawback by providing a particularly reliable courier supply device that allow effective separation one by one mail items. Another object of the invention is to make it possible to limit as much as possible the structural modifications made to conventional feeders.

These objects are achieved by a mailpiece supply device for mounting upstream of a postage meter and having at least one mailpiece supply area for receiving a stack of mailpieces of different sizes. formats supported by a first plurality of drive rollers and a separation area for individually selecting said mail items and having a second plurality of drive rollers, at least one first clutch means being provided for actuating said first plurality of drive rollers, characterized in that it comprises at least one sensor for detecting the passage of said mail items at the entrance of said separation zone and control means for controlling a forced deactivation followed by a series of activation / deactivation of said first clutch means as long as said CN sensor is not activated, so as to pro evoke a quick succession horizontal movements creating a jerky movement on said stack to facilitate the separation of said mail items between them.

By this specific structure requiring only a sensor at the entrance of the separation zone and a suitable clutch control, it is possible to simply manage the separation of the mail items by acting on the only drive rollers of the zone d. 'food.

According to the embodiment envisaged, said first clutching means is activated / deactivated at least once during a predetermined short duration (said short duration being between 20ms and 40ms) or said first clutching means is activated / deactivated at minus once for a predetermined longer duration (said longer duration being between 40ms and 60ms) if said CN sensor is not activated after said first clutch means has been activated / deactivated at least once for a period of time short predetermined.

Each short-duration activation / deactivation as well as each long-duration activation / deactivation is separated by a stop of a predetermined short duration (preferably between 10ms and 30ms) and a series of activation / deactivation is separated from another series of activation / deactivation by a stop of a predetermined long duration (preferably between 30ms and 50ms).

Preferably, said sensor is constituted by an optical sensor actuated by the passage of the front of a mailpiece.

The invention also relates to a method of controlling a clutch means for actuating drive rollers supporting a stack of mail items of different sizes at a feed zone of an article feeder. mailpiece intended to be mounted upstream of a franking machine, according to the state of a sensor CN for detecting the passage of said mail items at the entrance of a separation zone making an individual selection of these items delivery of said feed zone, a method of controlling a forced deactivation followed by a series of activation / deactivation of said clutch means until said CN sensor is activated, so as to cause a rapid succession of horizontal movements creating a jerky movement on said stack to facilitate the separation of said mail items between them.

Said series of activation / deactivation of said clutch means may comprise a first series of activation / deactivation of short duration followed by a second series of activation / deactivation of longer duration and a third series of activation / deactivation also longer duration.

Preferably, the first activation period of the clutch E3 ending in said forced deactivation is of the same duration as the periods of activation of short duration that follows.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 est une vue schématique en perspective d'un dispositif d'alimentation en articles de courrier selon l'invention,
• la figure 2 est une vue de dessus de la structure interne du dispositif de la figure 1,
• la figure 3 est un organigramme explicitant le fonctionnement du dispositif d'alimentation selon l'invention, et
• la figure 4 est un exemple de diagramme des temps de la commande de l'embrayage des rouleaux d'entrainement de la zone d'alimentation du dispositif d'alimentation selon l'invention.

Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge more clearly from the following description, given by way of non-limiting indication, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

• the figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a device for supplying mail items according to the invention,
• the figure 2 is a top view of the internal structure of the device of the figure 1 ,
• the figure 3 is a flowchart explaining the operation of the feed device according to the invention, and
• the figure 4 is an example of timing diagram of the control of the clutch of the drive rollers of the feed zone of the feed device according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The automatic feeding device for mail items of the figure 1 comprises a feed zone 10 formed essentially of a receiving plate 12 and a longitudinal reference wall 14 and intended to receive a stack of mail items arranged in particular in bulk (so-called mixed mail) and therefore able to present variable dimensions and weights. This zone comprises means of transport comprising a first plurality of drive rollers 16 for moving mailpieces downstream at a separation zone 18 comprising selection means comprising a presser and a die (no shown) cooperating with a second plurality of drive rollers 20 and from which these items are individually extracted from the stack. Finally, conveying means superposed having a third plurality of drive rollers 22 (the associated upper free rollers are not shown) are provided in a conveying zone 24 at the exit of this separation zone to transfer to the postage meter arranged downstream the articles of mail thus extracted one by one.

The supply device further comprises various known control and control means (not shown with the exception of a main drive motor 28 and a microprocessor control box 30) necessary for its operation, in particular for the actuation of the different drive rollers 16, 20, 22 during the movement of the mail items along a transport path 32, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe here in more detail.

The figures 2 and 3 show more precisely the management mechanism of the different drive rollers of the automatic feeding device. This comprises successively, in the direction of advance of a mail piece along the transport path 32, three sets 100, 102, 104 of three drive rollers 16 mounted in parallel on three axes of rotation 106, 108, 110 disposed perpendicularly to the transport path 32 at the feed zone 10, two sets 180, 182 of three drive rollers 20 also mounted parallel on two axes of rotation 184, 186 arranged perpendicularly to the transport path 32 at the area of selection 18, and two sets 240, 242 of three rear and front drive rollers 22 mounted on two parallel shafts 244, 246 at the conveying area 24.

These different drive rollers are actuated from the main motor 28 through a kinematic formed of pinions, belts and clutches. For example, the output gear 34 of the output shaft of the motor 28 is connected via a pinion connection 36 to a pinion 38 of the shaft 246 for holding the forward conveying rollers 22; 242 and this shaft is itself connected to the shaft 244 for holding the rear conveying rollers 22; 240 through a first belt 40. The pinion gear 36 also drives a first transmission shaft 42 which through a second belt 44 drives a second transmission shaft 46 on which is mounted a first clutch 48 and a pinion gear. 50 training. This training gear 50 meshes with both gears 52, 54 of the axes of rotation 184, 186 carrying the transport rollers 20 of the selection zone 18.

The actuation of all the rollers of the separation zone (which are then driven with the rollers of the conveying zone) is thus only possible if the first clutch 48 (also referenced E1) which controls them simultaneously is activated.

The gear 52 mounted on the axis of rotation 184 closest to the feed zone 10 meshes with a first intermediate gear 56 which in turn meshes with a pinion 58 mounted on a fifth transmission shaft 60 which also carries a second gear. clutch 62 (also referenced E2). Another gear 64 also mounted on this fifth shaft 60 meshes through a second intermediate gear 66 on a pinion 68 integral with the axis 110 for holding the feed rollers 16; 104 located closest to the separation zone 18. This axis comprises another pinion 70 which in turn drives, via a third intermediate gear 72, a pinion 74 mounted on a sixth transmission shaft 76 which also carries a third clutch 78 (referenced also E3). This sixth transmission shaft further comprises another gear 80 which meshes through a fourth intermediate gear 82 on a pinion 84 secured to the axis 108 for holding the second set (or central assembly) of feed rollers 16; 102. This pinion 84 drives a pinion 86 driving the axis 106 for holding the feed rollers 16; 100 located at the inlet of the feed zone 10, via three other intermediate gears 88, 90, 92.

Note that the second clutch E2, when activated, drives the rollers of the last set 104 (those arranged at the outlet of the feed zone) simultaneously with those of the separation and conveying zones and that the third clutch E3 drives all the rollers of the feed zone together with those of the two other zones of the device, when it is in turn activated.

Freewheels 51, 65, 81 may be disposed on the drive shafts 50, 64, 80 to allow easy evacuation of the mail item downstream despite the sequenced stop clutches E3, E2, E1.

The assembly 240 of drive rollers 22 of the conveying zone located closest to the selection zone 18 comprises a first sensor 120 (C1) for detecting the presence of a mailpiece at the entrance to this conveying zone. 24. Likewise, the set 186 of drive rollers 20 of the selection zone 18 located closer to the exit of the conveying zone, comprises a second sensor 122 (C2) for detecting the presence of an article. mail in the separation zone, preferably at the exit of this zone. These two sensors, which are advantageously of the optical type, may in the opto-mechanical variant illustrated each comprise, for example, a flag or flap 120A, 122A which is actuated at the passage of a front of the article of mail and whose rotation interrupts the light path of a diode (or between two diodes) electroluminescent contained in a housing 120B, 122B secured to the body of the supply device.

At the level of the supply zone 10 and perpendicular to the reference wall 14 and preferably at the outlet of this supply zone at the third set 104 of drive rollers 16, three other sensors may be arranged. detect the format of mail items. A third sensor 124 (C3) for the detection of small mail items (ie up to about 160 mm) is placed closer to this wall and a fourth sensor 126 (C4) is placed substantially to the middle part of this zone for the detection of medium format mailpieces (that is to say between about 160 mm and about 240 mm) and finally a fifth sensor 128 (C5), even further from the wall 14, for the detection of large format articles (ie beyond about 240 mm). Of course, the number and location of these sensors is in no way limiting. Indeed, it is quite possible to have a number of sensors more or less important and in particular to have as many sensors that it is desired to detect formats of mail items.

According to the invention, there is provided an additional sensor 130 (CN) in the separation zone 18, more precisely on the assembly 184 of drive rollers 20 located at the entrance of this zone, to detect the presence of an article incoming mail the separation area. This sensor, which is advantageously of the optical type, may also comprise in the opto-mechanical variant illustrated a flag or flap 130A which is actuated at the passage of a front of the mail article and whose rotation interrupts the light path of a diode (or between two diodes) electroluminescent contained in a housing 130B integral with the body of the supply device. Its purpose is to determine if a mail piece has left the feed zone 10 and entered the separation zone 18 and, if it is not, to act on the clutch E3 so as to enable the advancement of this mail item.

To do this and according to the invention, the clutch E3 (and correspondingly the clutch E2 which follows it with delay) is not, as in the devices of the prior art, operated continuously until an article of mail leaves the separation zone 20 detected by the sensor 122 but is deactivated and then undergoes a series of successive activation / deactivation until the appearance of the front of this mail item at the additional sensor 130 , so as to cause a rapid succession of horizontal displacements creating a jerky movement likely to separate the mail items between them. This succession of displacements causes repeated acceleration sequences which thus artificially increase the coefficient of friction and provide effective assistance in separating the mail items from the stack.

The figure 3 is a flowchart detailing the different control steps of the clutch E3 and correlatively E2 depending on the state of the sensor 130.

After an initial initialization step 1000 of various counters necessary for the operation of the device and after which the main motor 28 is turned on, it is proceeded in a step 1002 to the control of the clutch E3, which has the effect of advancing the mail items from the feed zone 10 to the selection zone 18, then in a next step 1004, after a predetermined time delay, for example 10ms, to that of the clutch E2 (these two clutches that do not have the same speed are not activated at the same time). The next step 1006 is a test step in which the state of the sensor CN is read and, depending on whether it is activated or not, it is normally done and directly deactivated (yes response to the test of the sensor). step 1006) E3 clutches and E2, which then cease their driving action (step 1008 corresponding to a normal operation of the supply device in which the CN sensor is activated for example after 20 ms for a transport speed of mail items of 1, 5m.s) or to a forced deactivation of the clutch E3 (for example 25ms after its activation in the case where the normal deactivation should have occurred at the end of the previous 20ms but a forced deactivation of shorter duration independent of this normal time is also possible) followed by a first series of short activation / deactivation of the E3 clutch to attempt to separate the mail items, the clutch E2 being disabled with the clutch E3 and then also submitted to the same series activation / deactivation (step 1010). If this first succession of start and stop did not give the expected result, ie the advance of a mail item to obtain the masking of the CN sensor (not answer to the test of the step 1012), a second series, this time of longer duration, of activation / deactivation of the clutch E3 (and correlatively of E2) is continued to attempt again to separate the mail items (step 1014). If again no result is obtained after this second series (response not to the CN sensor masking test in step 1016) or even after a third series of activation / deactivation of long duration (not shown on the flowchart) , clutches E3 and E2 are then permanently stopped as well as the drive motor 28 and an error message is reported in a step 1018.

The different sets of activation / deactivation of the clutch E3 (and E2) can be for example each of the number of 10 and, in each series of 10, whether of short duration or of longer duration, each activation period is separated from the next by a short stopping time identical and determined preferably equal to at least half the activation time of the clutch E3. For example, we can choose this short stop time between 10ms and 30ms for a short period of activation between 20ms and 40ms. On the other hand, each series of activation / deactivation is separated from the next one by a long, identical and determined stop time preferably equal at most equal to the activation time of the clutch E3. For example, we can choose this long downtime between 30ms and 50ms for a long period of activation between 40ms and 60ms. Preferably, the first activation period of the clutch E3 ending in the forced deactivation is of the same duration as the periods of activation of short duration that follows.

So, for example, as shown in the figure 4 (The dotted level shows the control of E3 which is continuous as long as the CN sensor is not activated in the feed devices of the prior art), the duration of a complete cycle for a short activation of 25ms, a long activation of 40 ms, a short stop of 10 ms and a long stop of 50 ms, can thus be calculated at: $$\mathrm{745}\mathrm{ms}\mathrm{=}\left(\mathrm{5}\mathrm{*}\mathrm{25}\mathrm{+}\mathrm{4}\mathrm{*}\mathrm{10}\right)\mathrm{+}\mathrm{2}\mathrm{*}\mathrm{50}\mathrm{+}\mathrm{2}\left(\mathrm{5}\mathrm{*}\mathrm{40}\mathrm{+}\mathrm{4}\mathrm{*}\mathrm{10}\right)\mathrm{.}$$

Of course, this decomposition relating to a series of 5 short activation periods of two sets of 5 long activation periods is given for information only and other relationships between short and long series or between numbers of short and long series. are possible.

Once the CN sensor is activated, the control of the clutch E1 continues as in the devices of the prior art with, if necessary, a delay of a predetermined duration (for example a duration of 47 ms for envelopes over 210 mm length moving at a speed of 1.5m.s) depending on the size of the mail items and their transport speed.

Thus, with the invention, the structure of a conventional feeder is little changed since, at the hardware level, it is simply added an additional sensor and, at the software level, it is simply defined a different sequencing for the control of the clutch E3 (the activation of the clutch E2 remaining as in the prior art modeled on the activation of E3). Thus, the reliability of the feed device according to the invention is not changed and the separation of mail items especially in case of strong stack is significantly improved.

Claims (15)

1. A mailpiece feed device designed to be mounted upstream from a franking machine, and comprising at least a mailpiece feed zone (10) for receiving a stack of mailpieces of various formats supported by a first plurality of drive rollers (16) and a separation zone (18) for individually selecting the mailpieces and having a second plurality of drive rollers (20), at least first clutch means (E3) being provided for actuating said first plurality of drive rollers, characterized in that said mailpiece feed device further comprises at least one sensor (130) for detecting passage of said mailpieces as they enter said separation zone, and control means (30) for subjecting said first clutch means to forced deactivation followed by an activation/deactivation series so long as the sensor (130) is not activated, so as to cause a rapid succession of horizontal movements generating jerky motion on said stack, conducive to facilitating mutual separation of said mailpieces.
2. A feed device according to claim 1, characterized in that said first clutch means are activated/deactivated at least once for a predetermined short duration.
3. A feed device according to claim 2, characterized in that said short duration lies in the range 20 ms to 40 ms.
4. A feed device according to claim 2, characterized in that each short activation/deactivation is separated from the next by an off period of predetermined short duration.
5. A feed device according to claim 4, characterized in that said short off duration lies in the range 10 ms to 30 ms.
6. A feed device according to claim 4, characterized in that said first clutch means are activated/deactivated at least once for a longer predetermined duration if said sensor (130) is not activated after said first clutch means have been activated/deactivated at least once for a predetermined short duration.
7. A feed device according to claim 6, characterized in that said longer duration lies in the range 40 ms to 60 ms.
8. A feed device according to claim 4, characterized in that each long activation/deactivation is separated from the next by an off period of said predetermined short duration.
9. A feed device according to claim 4, characterized in that an activation/deactivation series is separated from another activation/deactivation series by an off period of predetermined long duration.
10. A feed device according to claim 9, characterized in that said long off duration lies in the range 30 ms to 50 ms.
11. A feed device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that it further comprises means for emitting an error message when said succession of short and long activation/deactivation series becomes greater than a predetermined number.
12. A feed device according to claim 1, characterized in that said sensor is constituted by an optical sensor actuated by passage of an edge of a mailpiece.
13. A control method of controlling clutch means for actuating drive rollers supporting a stack of mailpieces of various formats at a feed zone of a mailpiece feed device designed to be mounted upstream from a franking machine, characterized in that, as a function of the state of a sensor designed to detect passage of said mailpieces as they enter a separation zone that individually selects the mailpieces at the outlet of said feed zone, said control method consists in subjecting said clutch means to forced deactivation followed by an activation/deactivation series so long as said sensor is not activated, so as to cause a rapid succession of horizontal movements generating jerky motion on said stack, conducive to facilitating mutual separation of said mailpieces.
14. A control method according to claim 13, characterized in that said activation/deactivation series of said clutch means comprises a first activation/deactivation series that is of short duration, followed by a second activation/deactivation series that is of longer duration, and by a third activation/deactivation series that is also of longer duration.
15. A control method according to claim 13 or claim 14, characterized in that the first period of activation of said clutch means (E3) ending with said forced deactivation is of the same duration as the periods of activation of short duration that follow.

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