EP2447918B1 - Device for transporting mail articles with angular delay - 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 processing feeder.

Prior art

The postal specifications that govern the printing of postal impressions are very precise and define in particular its position relative to the upper edge of the envelope. However, this position is related to the jogging of the envelope. The envelope being conveyed parallel to a referencing wall (also called jogging wall), a jogging error in the feed magazine (or feeder) causes the same fault downstream in the selection device and then further before when passing under the print module of the postage stamp. The control and the automatic correction of this jogging error from the feeder are therefore very important so as to avoid systematic manual re-labeling by the operator when inserting a stack of envelopes in this feeder.

Today to solve this problem, it is known, in particular by the request DE29902106 U1 , to incline the conveyor rollers of the feeder to, by diagonal transport, shift the envelopes to the reference wall while conveying downstream to the selection device. However, this configuration by exerting a major gearing effort on the envelope brakes it and, in the case of a thin envelope, can even deteriorate. In addition, the force exerted depends on the position of each conveying roller with respect to the selection device.

The Applicant has already proposed to add to the conveyor rollers arranged parallel to the referencing wall of the perpendicular roll-up rollers and operating in advance of phase compared to these. However, here again and even if it is reduced compared to the previous configuration, a braking tendency of the envelopes still persists because of the action of these rolls of retaping and is even more important than the height and / or the mass of the stack of envelopes is high.

Object and definition of the invention

The present invention therefore aims to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks with a device for transporting a device for supplying mail items comprising specific drive members for controlling and correcting the jogging of these mail items. An object of the invention is also to propose a device that is particularly tolerant of the poor positions of the stacks of envelopes disposed on the feeder.

These goals are achieved with a mail processing machine feeder according to claim 1.

Thus, by this particular structure of the drive rollers, the envelopes are not brutally brought into abutment against the referencing wall but they pivot on themselves without coming to a stop in order to find the direction of transport.

Advantageously, said first driving roller is constituted by a cylindrical wheel mounted on a rim whose hub comprises a thrust stop capable of transmitting, after said first predetermined delay, a driving torque to a driving abutment to said second roller. drive. Said thrust stopper of said first drive roller and said drive stop of said second drive roller are axially interwoven and have a predetermined first angular gap between them at rest. Said first predetermined angular difference is given by the following formula: R1 ° = (x α / nd) 360 ° where x is the distance separating said first and second drive rollers and d the diameter of said drive rollers.

Preferably, said at least one row further comprises a third drive roll and said third drive roll is rotated with a second predetermined delay with respect to said second drive roll.

Advantageously, said second drive roller is constituted by a cylindrical wheel mounted on a rim whose hub comprises on a face opposite to said drive abutment a thrust stop capable of transmitting, after said second predetermined delay, a driving torque. to a driving abutment of said third drive roller. Said thrust stopper of said second drive roller and said driving abutment of said third drive roller are axially interwoven and have at their rest a second predetermined angular gap. Said second predetermined angular difference is given by the following formula: R2 ° = (y α / nd) 360 ° where y is the distance separating said second and third drive rollers and d the diameter of said drive rollers. Preferably, said first, second and third drive rollers are equidistantly disposed so that said first and second angular gaps are identical.

According to a preferred embodiment, the transport device according to the invention comprises three parallel rows each comprising three drive rollers.

Advantageously, said push stops and drive stops each comprise a groove or an orifice for receiving and fixing the ends of a return spring intended to return the drive rollers to their original position. There is also a game j between said return spring and a common axis of rotation of said drive rollers so as not to clamp said common axis of rotation during compression of the spring.

Preferably, said clearance is obtained by reducing the diameter of said common axis of rotation interconnecting two successive drive rollers.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 montre en perspective un dispositif d'alimentation pour machine de traitement de courrier intégrant un dispositif de transport selon l'invention,
• la figure 2 est une vue en perspective de l'une rangée de rouleaux du dispositif de transport de la figure 1, et
• la figure 3 est une vue en coupe au niveau de la liaison d'entrainement entre deux rouleaux successifs de la figure 2.

The invention will be better understood in view of the following detailed description accompanied by illustrative and nonlimiting examples with reference to the following figures in which:

• the figure 1 shows in perspective a feeding device for a mail processing machine incorporating a transport device according to the invention,
• the figure 2 is a perspective view of a row of rollers of the transport device of the figure 1 , and
• the figure 3 is a sectional view at the drive link between two successive rollers of the figure 2 .

Detailed description of embodiments

A feeding device (or feeder) for mailpieces for a mail processing machine incorporating a transport device according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. figure 1 . This feeder 10 conventionally comprises a receiving tray 12 on which are placed in a compact stack, homogeneous or not (depending on whether these items are of the same size or not), the mail items to print. These mail items are conveyed to a selection device 14 by a transport device conventionally formed of a plurality of drive members such as the conveyor rollers 16 traversing the receiving tray of the mail items and controlled by a kinematic appropriate 18.

According to the invention, these rollers 16 of the transport device are arranged in line in at least one row (in this case three parallel rows) inclined at an angle of inclination a (typically between 10 ° and 40 °) perpendicularly to a reference wall 20 of the feeder and, as is more particularly illustrated by the figures 2 and 3 each of these rollers is constituted by a cylindrical wheel 22 mounted on a rim 24 whose central hub 26 which encloses the common axis of rotation 28 carries according to the function of this wheel is a thrust stopper 30 (first and third rollers) or a driving abutment 32 (first and third rollers) is still the two (second roll) on two opposite sides.

More specifically, each of the rows of rollers comprises at least two rollers (in this case three), the closest to the referencing wall is provided with the thrust stopper 30, the immediately following roll then comprising the training stopper. 32, these two abutments being interleaved axially in the manner of a clutch but having, however, between them at rest a predetermined angular difference (preferably less than 100 °) so that the rotation of the first roller does not cause that of the second with a time delay depending on this deviation and the rotational speed of the common axis 28, when the thrust stop of the first roller comes into contact with the driving abutment of the second roller.

Likewise, when the row comprises three equidistant rollers instead of two, as illustrated, the second roll comprises on the opposite face of its hub 26 including the driving abutment 32 also a thrust stopper 30 able to cooperate in a similar manner with a driving abutment 32 of the third roller, the predetermined angular gap existing at rest between these two stops being identical to the previous one. Of course, this configuration can be repeated with subsequent rolls if the row has more than three rolls.

As illustrated by the example of figure 3 , the thrust stop 30 which forms a part offset in front of the hub 26 of the first roller extends over a first angular sector of about 80 ° between its surface 30A of transmission of the driving torque and its resting surface 30B and comprises a groove 30C or at least one orifice for receiving and fixing the first end of a return spring 34 intended to return the roll to its original position once a batch of mail items processed. The driving abutment 32 which also forms a part offset in front of the hub 26, this time of the second roller, extends for its part on a second angular sector of about 180 ° between its driven surface 32A and its rest surface 32B and also comprises a groove 32C or at least one orifice for receiving and fixing the other end of the return spring 34. Note the clearance j existing between the return spring and the common axis of rotation 28 so as not to tighten this axis during the compression of the spring, this clearance can be obtained for example by reducing the diameter of this axis between two rollers.

Of course, the angular values of the first and second sectors are given as an indication (they are also different from one roll to the other when the angular difference is different), the essential thing being to respect a predetermined angular difference between the two stops, more precisely between the transmission surface 30A of the thrust stop and the driven surface 32A of the drive abutment. For a given inclination to given rolls, the value of this predetermined difference is given by the following generic formula R ° = (k α / πd) 360 ° where k is the distance (x or y of the figure 1 ) between two rolls and d is the diameter of a roll. Thus, for example, for an angle of inclination of 20 ° and rollers of 45mm in diameter, the same angular difference of 40 ° between two rollers also spaced 45mm apart is obtained. When the distance separating the first roll from the second roll and that separating the second roll from the third roll is different, naturally different angular deviation values R are obtained.

The wheels are made of a material which is chosen with respect to the technical specifications (abrasion, friction, elasticity, hardness) expected from the drive, that is to say with a coefficient of friction large enough to allow driving of the articles. mail to the selection device. Such a material is, for example, silicone, natural rubber, polyurethane or ethylenepropylenedienemonomer. On the other hand, the rim and its hub can be made of a low-cost material, for example a material based on polyoxymethylene.

The operation of the transport device is as follows. A first batch of envelopes being stacked on the receiving tray without worrying about its alignment against the reference wall 20, the start of the feeder will cause the rotation of the common axis 28 and therefore that of the first rollers of each row of the transport device, the other rollers are not yet trained. This differential rotation will cause an advance of the envelope underneath and a pivoting of the batch of envelopes which will therefore start to move in the direction of transport. After a few milliseconds due to the angular delay, the second rollers will come into action and continue in their turn the training of the bottom envelope while continuing the pivoting of the stack (which is now easier because of this simultaneous action of first and second rolls of each row) so that it returns to the direction of transport parallel to the referencing wall and will then allow a few milliseconds later than the third rollers come into action. From this moment, all the rollers are driven in synchronism until the battery is exhausted and the last envelope of the batch is injected into the selection device. Once, the last envelope injected, under the effect of the return springs 34 pusher stops 30 will separate the drive stops 32 on which they are in contact to resume their original positions to process a next batch.

Claims (13)

1. A feeder for a machine for handling mailpieces, comprising a mailpiece-receiving deck (12), a longitudinal referencing wall (20), at least one row of drive rollers (16) comprising at least first and second drive rollers standing proud through said mailpiece-receiving deck, and a suitable drive mechanism (18) for controlling said at least one row of drive rollers, said first and second drive rollers being inclined at an angle α relative to a perpendicular to said longitudinal referencing wall for shifting said mailpieces towards said longitudinal referencing wall while also conveying them downstream, characterized in that said at least one row of drive rollers has means for driving said second drive roller in rotation with a first predetermined delay relative to said first drive roller which is the closer to said longitudinal referencing wall, so as to cause said mailpieces to pivot.
2. A feeder according to claim 1, characterized in that said first drive roller is constituted by a cylindrical wheel (22) mounted on a wheel rim (24) having a hub (26) provided with a pusher abutment (30) suitable for acting, after said first predetermined delay, to transmit drive torque to a drive abutment (32) on said second drive roller.
3. A feeder according to claim 2, characterized in that said pusher abutment of said first drive roller and said drive abutment of said second drive roller are axially overlapping and, at rest, have a first predetermined angular offset between them.
4. A feeder according to claim 3, characterized in that said first predetermined angular offset is given by the following formula: $$\mathrm{R}\mathrm{1}\mathrm{°}=\left(\mathrm{x\alpha }/\mathrm{\pi d}\right)\mathrm{360}\mathrm{°}$$

   

   
   where x is the distance between said first and second drive rollers, and d is the diameter of said drive rollers.
5. A feeder according to claim 2, characterized in that said at least one row of drive rollers further comprises a third drive roller and said third drive roller is driven in rotation with a second predetermined delay relative to said second drive roller.
6. A feeder according to claim 5, characterized in that said second drive roller is constituted by a cylindrical wheel (22) mounted on a wheel rim (24) having a hub (26) that has a pusher abutment (30) on a face opposite from said drive abutment, which pusher abutment is suitable for acting, after said second predetermined delay, to transmit drive torque to a drive abutment (32) of said third drive roller.
7. A feeder according to claim 6, characterized in that said pusher abutment of said second drive roller and said drive abutment of said third drive roller are axially overlapping and, at rest, have a second predetermined angular offset between them.
8. A feeder according to claim 7, characterized in that said second predetermined angular offset is given by the following formula: $$\mathrm{R}\mathrm{2}\mathrm{°}=\left(\mathrm{y\alpha }/\mathrm{\pi d}\right)\mathrm{360}\mathrm{°}$$

   

   
   where y is the distance between said second and third drive rollers and d is the diameter of said drive rollers.
9. A feeder according to claim 4 and claim 8, characterized in that said first, second, and third drive rollers are disposed equidistantly so that said first and second angular offsets are identical.
10. A feeder according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises three parallel rows, each of which comprises three drive rollers.
11. A feeder according to claim 2 and claim 6, characterized in that it further comprises a return spring (34) designed to urge the drive rollers back into their original positions, and having each of its ends fastened into a respective groove or orifice (30c, 32c) designed for receiving it respectively in said pusher abutment and in said drive abutment.
12. A feeder according to claim 11, characterized in that it further comprises clearance j between said return spring and a common rotary shaft (28) for said drive rollers so that said common rotary shaft is not clamped during compression of the spring.
13. A feeder according to claim 12, characterized in that said clearance is obtained by reducing the diameter of said common rotary shaft which interconnects two successive drive rollers.

Images