Importance

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Abstract

Apparatus and method are provided for providing multiple loading sites or entry sites for a single conveyor belt. This apparatus and method is particularly adapted to handling of pieces of flat mail. For each such loading site, another conveyor belt feeds mail flats to a transfer-buffer station measuring their sizes in the process. The feeder belt does not place a mail flat in the transfer-buffer station unless that station is sensed to be empty. The transfer-buffer station provides individual mail flats, one at a time, to an inclined conveyor belt, which serves as an inserter belt system. After a mail flat is moved by the transfer-buffer station onto the inserter belt system, the inserter belt system moves the mail flat to an intermediate 'ready-to-load' park position and then stops. When a gap appears on the main conveyor belt, the inserter belt moves the mail flat onto that gap. Multiple such insertion devices permit parallel loading of mail pieces onto a single conveyor belt, increasing packing density on that belt and permitting use of lower operating speeds to improve performance without sacrificing total throughput.

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First Claim