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US3825248A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Singulator device for letter mail

Assignee: Individual
•
Filing: 1972-09-07
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Granted: 1974-07-23
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Expires: 1992-09-07
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Abstract

Abstract The singulator device has a flat conveyor belt for edge-feeding a continuous supply of letter mail pieces, having their address sides facing in the same direction and extending axially of said belt on their top edges in random endwise overlapping sequence on said belt between converging vertical guide walls, for funneling said mail pieces toward the nip of a first pair of rollers with high friction material on their peripheries, one of the rollers being driven forwardly through a slip clutch to pass the letter mail singly between the rollers and thereby frictionally drive the other roller against its reverse torque drive applied to it by a friction clutch, so that this roller will move back any overlapping letters that might enter the nip on its side of the passing letter which is next to said forwardly driven roller until said letter has cleared the nip, there being another set of at least one similar pair of rollers having their nips spaced slightly downstream from that of the first pair. One of the rollers in each pair of the second set may be an idler roller biased resiliently against the other so as to accommodate varying thicknesses of mail passing therebetween. The forwardly driven roller(s) in this set may be driven at a somewhat higher speed to pull the mail pieces which reach their nips through the first pair of rollers, which are thus driven at the higher speed as permitted by their respective slip clutches. The forwardly driven roller of the first pair is furthermore mounted on a lever extending substantially normally to the path of the mail pieces, so that this pull causes the lever to shift into a ''''stop'''' position, braking the slip clutch drive to the roller and thus causing the roller to hold back any overlapping mail which may tend to enter the nip on the corresponding side of the piece being pulled therethrough. When this piece passes the nip, the lever is allowed to shift back to its normal ''''run'''' position by reason of a return spring biasing it thereto, and this roller then resumes its single feed to the nips of the pairs of the second set of rollers. A third pair of rollers spaced further downstream not more than the length of the shortest piece of mail that might be fed to this device, and the drive roller of this pair is positively driven at a further increased speed to pull the piece through the lower speed rollers to secure a positive output of single letter mail with a fixed spacing between pieces so that they may be properly fed to a cancelling machine.

Inventors

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Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-03 06:57
CPC Classifications
B; B65; B65H; B65H3/00; B65H3/46; B65H3/52; B65H3/5246; B07; B07C; B07C1/00; B07C1/02; B07C1/04; B65H3/02; B65H3/06; B65H5/00; B65H5/06; B65H5/062; B65H7/00; B65H2301/00; B65H2301/30; B65H2301/32; B65H2301/321

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 6
Claim 1
Independent Claim 215 words
In a singulator device for letter mail pieces of various sizes and thicknesses, a first pair of rollers having high friction peripheral surfaces biased against each other to form a nip for receiving the leading edges of mail pieces as they are edge fed thereto, one of said rollers having a forward drive means with a substantially high torque slip clutch therein, the other roller having a reverse drive means with a lower torque slip clutch for moving back any adjacent overlapping pieces in said nip, means for stopping said forward drive in response to a pull of a mail piece through the nip of said rollers forwardly at a greater speed than the normal forward drive thereof, a second pair of similarly biased rollers having its nip spaced downstream from that of said first pair, said second pair of rollers being driven forwardly at a higher speed than the first pair, so as to pull a mail piece entering its nip through the nip of said first pair of rollers and cause the forward drive means of said first pair to stop and the normally forwardly driven roller of said first pair to prevent any adjacent overlapping pieces from entering the nip of said first pair of rollers before said pulled piece passes therethrough.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 215 words
In a singulator device for letter mail pieces of various sizes and thicknesses, a first pair of rollers having high friction peripheral surfaces biased against each other to form a nip for receiving the leading edges of mail pieces as they are edge fed thereto, one of said rollers having a forward drive means with a substantially high torque slip clutch therein, the other roller having a reverse drive means with a lower torque slip clutch for moving back any adjacent overlapping pieces in said nip, means for stopping said forward drive in response to a pull of a mail piece through the nip of said rollers forwardly at a greater speed than the normal forward drive thereof, a second pair of similarly biased rollers having its nip spaced downstream from that of said first pair, said second pair of rollers being driven forwardly at a higher speed than the first pair, so as to pull a mail piece entering its nip through the nip of said first pair of rollers and cause the forward drive means of said first pair to stop and the normally forwardly driven roller of said first pair to prevent any adjacent overlapping pieces from entering the nip of said first pair of rollers before said pulled piece passes therethrough.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 81 words
The combination of a singulator device as defined in claim 1, further having a third pair of rollers spaced further downstream from said second pair not more than the length of the shortest piece of mail to be fed therethrough, said third pair of rollers being driven at a suitably higher speed through a slip clutch to protect the pieces stretched between said second and third nips from excessive stress while providing for a suitable spacing between pieces in the output.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 52 words
The combination of a singulator device as defined in claim 1, said second pair of rollers being laterally offset from said first pair so that they may axially overlap each other in the direction of the pair of the mail pieces and the spacing of their nips may be made suitably small.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 46 words
The combination of a singulator device as defined in claim 3, and a third pair of rollers like the second pair symmetrically offset to the other side of said first pair, to stabilize the linear stresses on the mail pieces stretched between the axially spaced nips.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 108 words
The combination of a singulator device as defined in claim 4, and a fourth pair of rollers spaced further downstream from said second and third pairs not more than the length of the shortest piece of mail to be fed thereto, said fourth pair having a drive roller and an idler biased against it and frictionally driven thereby, said drive roller being driven at a higher speed than the second and third pairs, through a slip clutch to protect the pieces stretched between their nips from excessive stress while providing for a suitable spacing between pieces in the output as controlled by the relative speeds of said drives.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

No citation records indexed.

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 1977-07-22 1978-01-21 1978-07-23 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 1981-07-22 1982-01-21 1982-07-23 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 1985-07-22 1986-01-21 1986-07-23 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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