EP2325808B1 - Device for selecting mail articles with improved levers - Google Patents

Description

Field of the art

The present invention relates to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to a mail item selection device implemented in an automatic feeder module, or feeder, a postage meter franking machine.

Prior art

Conventionally, a franking machine must be adapted to receive different types of mail items such as documents, folds or envelopes having greater or lesser thicknesses, typically from 0.1 mm to 20 mm. For this, it often has upstream of an automatic power supply module, in particular for conveying these mail items at different speeds and usually comprising means for receiving / stacking, selecting, transporting and possibly closing these items. mail items.

In particular, the selection means, which conventionally comprise a fixed inclined die cooperating with opposed selection rollers in order to select mail items one by one and transport them downstream, must be able to avoid double passes in order to avoid that the postage calculated is wrong or that the mail item is not franked. In US Pat. No. 5,431,385, the die is replaced by an inclined belt whose rotation causes the mailpieces to move towards the selection rolls.

These systems are generally satisfactory when the stack of mail items is homogeneous that is to say of the same size and thickness or arranged from the thickest to the least thick so that the thickest is on the underside of the stack. On the other hand, when the battery is not homogeneous and that, for example, a thick mail article covers (follows) a smaller thickness then it is this thicker article that will first be engaged with the die and not the thinnest, which will often lead to a double pass. In the same way, when several articles of very small thicknesses appear together at the level of the die, it may happen that a conventional die configuration does not allow a proper separation.

Object and definition of the invention

The present invention aims to overcome the disadvantages resulting from the passage of duplicate envelopes by proposing a device for selecting mail items for franking machine feeder that can prohibit such a double pass.

These objects are achieved by a mail item selection device comprising a die cooperating with at least one opposite selection roll for separating the mail items one by one from a stack of mail items and transporting them to the mail box. downstream, said die comprising at least one selection lever pivotable about an axis of rotation against an elastic return means, characterized in that said selection lever comprises a vertical section formed by a involute of a circle .

Thus, the tangent of the lever at the point of contact with a mail piece remains constant regardless of its thickness which keeps a constant funnel effect and thus improves the continuity of the selection and facilitates the separation.

Advantageously, the support circle of said involute is formed by said axis of rotation.

Preferably, the selection device may comprise a plurality of selection levers that can pivot independently of each other about said axis of rotation. The selection levers are positioned such that at least one of said selection levers contacts said mail item in an area extending from a center line of said mail item parallel to a referencing wall. at a parallel edge, furthest from said referencing wall, of said mail piece.

Advantageously, said selection lever is covered with a ceramic or an elastomer.

The selection device according to the invention may comprise two selection levers positioned respectively between 60 mm and 85 mm and between 120 mm and 150 mm from a referencing wall. It may further comprise a third selection lever positioned between 180 mm and 230 mm of said reference wall. Said levers preferably each have a width of about 10 mm.

According to the envisaged embodiment, said axis of rotation can be fixed, the pivoting of said selection lever then being between 0 ° and about 108 °, or articulated at the end of a suspension arm pivotable about a fixed axis against an elastic return means, the pivoting of said selection lever then being between 0 ° and about 30 ° and the pivoting of said suspension arm between 0 ° and 78 °.

The invention also relates to a mailpiece feeder for a postage meter comprising a mail item selection device as mentioned above.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 est une vue en perspective d'un mode de réalisation préférentiel du dispositif de sélection d'articles de courrier selon l'invention,
• la figure 1A illustre dans deux positions différentes la particularité de la forme en la développante de cercle du levier de sélection du dispositif,
• les figures 2A, 2B et 2C montrent le dispositif de sélection de la figure 1 respectivement dans une position initiale de repos et une position ultérieure avant et après sélection d'un article de courrier, et
• la figure 3 illustre un mode de réalisation alternatif du dispositif de sélection d'articles de courrier 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 perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the mail item selection device according to the invention,
• the Figure 1A illustrates in two different positions the peculiarity of the shape in the involute circle of the selector lever of the device,
• the FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C show the selection device of the figure 1 respectively in an initial rest position and a subsequent position before and after selection of a mail piece, and
• the figure 3 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the device for selecting mail items according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

As shown in figure 1 , an automatic mailing material feeding module conventionally comprises a feed zone formed essentially of a tray 10 intended to receive a stack of mail items and comprising first transport rollers 12 for driving these mail items to downstream (and against a reference wall 14) at a separation zone comprising a selection device 16 in which these articles of mail is extracted one by one from the stack of articles. Second transport rollers (referenced 18 on the FIGS. 2A to 2C ) are generally provided at the exit of this separation zone for conveying the mail items thus extracted downstream.

According to the invention, the device for selecting mailpieces is not conventionally constituted of an inclined fixed die (a fixed-tooth comb) with a cross-section or an inclined belt, as described in the patent cited. in the preamble, cooperating with several opposite selection rollers to select a mail piece and only one and carry it downstream but, on the contrary, a die having at least one selection lever 20A, 20B whose vertical section has an involute form of a circle. This or these levers are further movable, that is to say articulated independently of each other around a common axis of rotation 22 and can, when passing mail items on the selection rollers, rotate each to against an elastic return means, for example a tension spring 24 whose one end is secured to the selection lever and the other is supported on a frame portion 26 of the selection device.

Note however that if reference has been made by way of example to a tension spring, it is understood that a torsion or compression spring could also be suitable, subject to a spring attachment configuration adapted frame, or any other similar means of return.

Each selection lever 20A, 20B may be made of an elastomer material having a very high coefficient of friction to ensure the best possible contact with the mail piece or a ceramic material which is of interest with respect to the elastomer of do not wear out and do not leave marks on mail items.

In the example shown, the selection device comprises two selection levers 20A, 20B whose width must be sufficient to ensure a good grip of the mail item, for example 2/3 of the smallest size of mail items about 60 mm, these two levers being distributed over the width of the device so as to allow selection under the best conditions of most of the acceptable formats. An alternative is to place two selection levers approximately 10 mm wide respectively positioned between 60 mm and 85 mm and between 120 mm and 150 mm from the reference wall. The 60mm lever on the reference wall selects mail items from 85mm to 114mm wide by having a selection point (point of contact between the lever and the mail item) positioned in a box. area of the mail item corresponding to the furthest half of the referencing wall, the second lever 120 mm for him to select mail items from 152 mm to 310 mm with two selection points. Finally, in another alternative, a third selection lever placed between 180 mm and 230 mm can be added to the two previous to allow to select also optimally mail items of 324 mm.

Positioning the selection point (s) in the second half of the mail piece (the area extending from the centerline of the mail piece parallel to the referencing wall to the furthest parallel edge of this referencing wall) makes it possible to avoid a rotation of the article of mail during its selection. Indeed, if the mail piece begins to rotate around the selection point (if it is positioned in the second half of the mail piece), when it comes into contact with the latter, the wall of implementation reference will tend to block this rotation. While, if the selection point is positioned in the first half of the mail item, this rotation will not be blocked.

Of course, this configuration is in no way limiting and a greater or lesser number of levers is possible, one to five for example. When the lever is unique, it is arranged on almost the entire width of the device in the image of a conventional die. Conversely, when they are multiple, the selection levers can be as numerous as the teeth of a conventional die and then spaced regularly in a similar manner. However, a configuration with three levers 10 mm wide including a first lever located 60 mm from the referencing wall, a second 120 mm from this wall and a third to 180 mm can handle the formats of articles most common mail.

The Figure 1A shows a section of the selection lever, on the one hand in its initial position (drawing on the left) and, on the other hand, in the position of selection, when passing a mail item (drawing on the right). In the illustrated example, the support circle of the involute (which corresponds to the common axis 22) has a radius r of 7 mm and the vertical R passing through the center of this circle a length of 39.9 mm. In the first rest position, the angle between the involute of circle and its tangent is then 9 ° and this angle is constant regardless of the pivoting of the lever so that it is found in the second position while the lever is rotated 14 °, corresponding to the passage of a mail item about 2 mm thick. Note that for a mail 20 mm thick, this pivot angle would have been about 108 °.

The operation of the selection device according to the invention illustrated mainly with regard to FIGS. 2A to 2C is the next. On the Figure 2A , the mail items to be processed are arranged in bulk on the feed tray 10 and are in contact with the die. On the Figure 2B , the action of the feed rollers 12 has the effect of driving the first mail piece below the stack which will then push the selection lever and cause the movement of this article downstream. On the Figure 2C , the mailpiece has been selected and the selection lever will return back to its initial position under the effect of the force exerted by the tension spring 22. Note that this restoring force is not constant . Indeed, the greater the pivoting of the lever is more this force must itself be important. And, in particular, the maximum restoring force to ensure separation ( Figure 2B ) must be greater in the lever return position ( Figure 2C ) to the one she is in her initial position ( Figure 2A ).

It has been observed, however, that when mailpieces of large thickness push the selection levers 20A, 20B and thus force them to a large rotation (for example greater than 60 °), the return to their initial position may be accompanied by wrinkling of the following articles, especially when they are of low thickness. To avoid this phenomenon, it is proposed with the alternative embodiment of the figure 3 to limit the rotation of the selection levers (for example of the order of 30 °) but to allow them a complementary vertical displacement by adding a second degree of freedom. For this purpose, the common axis 22 of rotation of the levers is no longer fixed and integral with the frame 26 but articulated at the end of a suspension arm 28 that can pivot an angle between 0 and 45 ° about a fixed axis 30 integral with this frame, against a resilient biasing means, for example a compression spring 32, one end of which is integral with the suspension arm and the other is in support on the frame. A stop 34 defines the rest position of the suspension arm which, instead of the frame 26, now serves as a support for the second end of the tension spring 24.

With this embodiment, for small mail items, the suspension arm pressed by the compression spring is in abutment and only the selection levers are active. On the other hand, when a thick mail article is under the selection levers, it will push them until they come into abutment with the suspension arm and according to its thickness will also cause a pivoting of this arm that will then lift the levers of selection. Once past, the arm will return to its initial position and the selection levers also but their rotation will be limited to their maximum excursion defined by their prior stop against the suspension arm.

Thus, with the present invention, it is possible to automatically process mail items of different thicknesses without selecting, by a specific lever, a particular mode of operation as practiced by many devices of the prior art. In addition, the specific shape of the selection levers involute circle makes it possible not to change the conditions of the contact point during the processing of thin mail items.

Claims (13)

1. A mailpiece selector device comprising a guide (16)cooperating with at least one opposing selector roller (12) to separate mailpieces one-by-one from a stack of mailpieces and to transport them downstream, said guide having at least one selector lever (20A, 20B) that can pivot about a pivot axis (22) against resilient return means (24), characterized in that said selector lever has a vertical section formed by an involute of a circle.
2. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 1, characterized in that the base circle of said involute is formed by said pivot axis.
3. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of selector levers that can pivot independently from one another about said pivot axis.
4. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 3, characterized in that said selector levers are positioned so that at least one of said selector levers comes into contact with said mailpiece in a zone extending from a midline of said mailpiece that is parallel to a referencing wall (14) to a parallel edge of said mailpiece that is the edge that is further from said referencing wall of said mailpiece.
5. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 4, characterized in that it comprises two selector levers positioned respectively in the range 60 mm from said referencing wall to 85 mm therefrom and in the range 120 mm from said referencing wall to 150 mm therefrom.
6. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 5, characterized in that it further comprises a third selector lever positioned in the range 180 mm from said referencing wall to 230 mm therefrom.
7. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 5 or claim 6, characterized in that each of said levers has a width of about 10 mm.
8. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 1, characterized in that said selector lever is coated with a ceramic or with an elastomer.
9. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 1, characterized in that said common pivot axis is stationary.
10. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 9, characterized in that said selector lever pivots through in the range 0° to about 108°.
11. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 1, characterized in that said common pivot axis is articulated at an end of a suspension arm (28) that can pivot about a fixed axis (30) against resilient return means (32).
12. A mailpiece selector device according to claim 11, characterized in that said selector lever pivots through in the range 0° to about 30° and said suspension arm pivots through in the range 0° to about 45°.
13. A mailpiece feeder for a franking machine, which feeder comprises a mailpiece selector device according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

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