Feed module including an envelope closure device that retains water

Abstract

A feed module for feeding envelopes into a mail handling machine, which feed module comprises envelope conveyor means for conveying said envelopes through the feed module, separator means for selecting said envelopes one-by-one, moistener means for moistening a flap of the envelope selected in this way, and closure means for pressing the envelope closed and for ejecting it from the feed module, said closure means comprising two superposed extractor rollers, each of which has a respective ribbed portion that is made of a hydrophobic material and that extends over a width corresponding to at least the width of a print zone in which the postal imprint is to be printed.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to the field of mail handling, and it relates more particularly to an envelope feed module provided with an improved device for conveying envelopes and for closing envelope flaps.PRIOR ART[0002]Conventionally, and as shown diagrammatically in FIG. 2, in a conventional mail handling machine, envelope flaps are closed by pressure from the extractor rollers disposed at the outlet of the envelope feed module of said machine, after the inside faces of the flaps have been moistened by a moistener device disposed immediately upstream from said rollers on the path along which said envelopes are conveyed.[0003]Unfortunately, the simplicity of that envelope flap closure system gives rise to a major drawback. The inventors have observed that, with that system, the surplus water expelled by the extractor rollers during closing finds itself on the conveyor zones, and the immediately following envelope picks up the stagnant water and, on falling ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]An object of the present invention is thus to mitigate those drawbacks in envelope closure by proposing a mail item feed module provided with a device for closing envelope flaps that is both simple and reliable, and that avoids smudging. Another object of the invention is to propose a device that makes it possible to close envelopes without using additional external means. Another object of the invention is to propose a device that does not involve a decrease in the initial compactness of the feed module.

[0007]The presence of the ribbed rollers makes it possible to close the envelopes without smudging the printing on them, and, by not bringing any water into the print zone, thus ensures that the postal imprint printed downstream remains intact, thereby guaranteeing that it can be recognized properly by optical reader means.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, the simplicity of that envelope flap closure system gives rise to a major drawback.

The consequences of such smudging of the printing of the postal imprint are serious insofar as the envelope whose postal imprint is smudged can no longer be decoded by optical reader means and might therefore be rejected by the postal authorities even though payment therefore has been deducted.

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