Envelope transport guide

An envelope transport guide is disclosed that organizes opened and emptied envelopes from an envelope opening machine. The guide has an entry surface coplanar with the pathway of the moving envelopes, and adjacent the opening machine for accepting each envelope. The envelopes turn, under the force of gravity, around some guiding means and slide off the entry surface into an organized stack in an angled collection receptacle.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a guide for the collection of envelopes. 
In particular, the present invention relates to an envelope transport 
guide that organizes opened and emptied envelopes from an envelope opening 
machine. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Many businesses conduct a tremendous number of transactions, either sending 
or receiving materials, by mail. Although the containers for most of these 
mail transactions are merely envelopes, when someone has sent money, or a 
check, to the business in the envelope, it becomes very important to 
carefully ensure the emptying of each of these envelopes before they are 
discarded. One common method of emptying envelopes is to use a separate 
worker at each distinct stage of the process. Then, for instance, there 
would be one person to take the contents out of each envelope and then 
another person to inspect that the envelope was actually empty before it 
was discarded. As automation has advanced, various forms of machinery and 
mechanized process have taken over these laborious tasks, saving 
substantial time and money. 
Machines that will very neatly and quickly slit open the tops of the 
envelopes are now commonly employed in businesses that must handle a great 
deal of mail. Also employed are machines that can open an envelope using 
suction cups on either side, and permit a visual inspection of the inside 
of each envelope. In a continuous feed arrangement, this type of machinery 
can process a tremendous number of envelopes in a relatively short period 
of time. However, as a final check to ensure that every check has been 
removed from its envelope before the envelopes are discarded, a back-up 
process known as "candling" is commonly employed. In the process of 
candling, each envelope is backlighted and visually inspected to ensure 
that it is empty. This process has been unnecessarily complicated, 
however, because the empty envelopes which must be inspected in this 
manner come off the feed line of the feeding conveyor to a waiting area 
for the candling operations. The envelopes coming off the feed line are 
typically inter-mixed and organized indiscriminately to such an extent 
that excessive time is required to organize them. The instant invention 
can easily be adapted to operate in conjunction with most commercial 
automatic openers. When the present invention is employed, all envelopes 
coming off the feed line of the feeding conveyor are formed into a neat, 
compact stack. In such a state, the envelopes are ready to be sequentially 
backlighted in a candling procedure, or any other similar process. 
OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
It is an object of the invention to provide a labor-saving device that can 
be easily adapted to existing office machinery. 
It is a further object of the invention to provide a labor-saving device 
that can be quickly and economically manufactured. 
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a labor-saving 
device that provides an organized stack of envelopes. 
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be 
readily apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following 
brief description of the drawings, detailed description of the preferred 
embodiment and the appended claims. 
According to the present invention, there is provided an envelope transport 
guide for attachment adjacent to the output end of an envelope feeding 
conveyor which feeds envelopes off the conveyor on an angle of 
approximately 45 degrees, which transport guide has an entry surface 
adjacent to the conveyor and coplanar with the travel of envelopes on the 
conveyor; guiding means for redirecting the path of the envelopes through 
an angle on said entry surface thereby defining a redirected path; and, a 
collection means adjacent to the terminus of said redirected path which 
collection means is capable of accumulating a stack of envelopes. 
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is 
provided an envelope transport guide for attachment adjacent to the output 
end of an envelope feeding conveyor which feeds envelopes off the conveyor 
on an angle of approximately 45 degrees, which transport guide has an 
entry surface adjacent to the conveyor and coplanar with the plane of 
travel of envelopes on the conveyor; guiding means comprising an array of 
pegs projecting perpendicularly from said entry surface at a plurality of 
locations on said surface, which array will allow the force of gravity to 
change the direction of travel of envelopes on said surface by 90 degrees; 
and, a collection means comprising a rectangular receptacle of suitable 
dimensions which is inclined at an angle of between 21 and 27 degrees from 
the vertical.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
With reference to the FIGURE, the present invention provides an envelope 
transport guide, shown generally as (10) which is located adjacent to the 
output end (12) of an envelope feeding conveyor (14). 
Envelopes exiting the output end (12) of the envelope feeding conveyor (14) 
are received onto the entry surface (16) of the envelope transfer guide 
(10). The entry surface (16) is coplanar with the plane of travel of 
envelopes, represented by the arrows labeled (18) in the FIGURE. 
Guiding means are provided for redirecting the path of envelopes from the 
plane represented by the arrows (18) to a redirected path, as represented 
by the arrows (20) in the FIGURE. Such redirected path varies by an angle 
shown as (22) in the FIGURE. In the preferred embodiment, this guiding 
means is provided by an array of pegs (24) extending perpendicularly from 
the entry surface (16) at a plurality of locations (26). Envelopes, under 
the influence of the force of gravity, and guided by the array of pegs 
(24), will enter upon the entry surface (16) in the direction of the 
arrows (18) and be redirected through the angle (22) in the direction of 
the arrows (20). 
In the preferred embodiment, the angle (22) is 90 degrees and the envelopes 
are effectively turned onto one end. However, one skilled in the art will 
realize that this represents a matter of choice, and the angle chosen and 
the final orientation of the envelopes can vary greatly without varying 
from the scope of the present invention. 
The guiding means of the present invention can also be varied. Although an 
array of pegs (24) fixedly attached to the entry surface (16) is shown, 
other guiding means may be employed. Envisioned in this regard is a 
greater plurality of pegs or a one-piece curved bracket or a continuous 
fence which may be fixedly attached or integrally formed with the entry 
surface (16). 
Finally, it should be apparent that although the present invention 
advantageously employs the force of gravity to orient and accumulate 
envelopes, any positive force could also be employed in transporting 
turning and stacking envelopes in this manner. 
At the lower terminus (28) of the entry surface (16), the envelope 
transport guide (10) is provided with a collection means (30). In the 
preferred embodiment, said collection means (30) comprises a rectangular 
receptacle (32) of a length suitable for the collection of an appropriate 
number of envelopes and of dimensions large enough to accomodate such 
envelopes. In order to keep the accumulating envelopes in a proper order, 
the collection means should be set at a slight angle (34) from the 
vertical. Without intending the invention to be narrowed thereto, the 
inventors of the present invention have found that angles of 21 to 27 
degrees are appropriate to the practice of the present invention. In place 
of the collecting receptacle of the prior art, which is typically a 
circular bin in which envelopes are deposited in disordered orientation 
requiring an additional step of labor, and offer the services of an 
additional worker, to align the envelopes for a candling step or delivery 
to a candling machine, the receptacle (32) of the present invention 
automatically collects the envelopes in alignment, thus eliminating such 
an align step. 
In the preferred embodiment, the receptacle (32) of the present invention 
is open-topped and of rectangular, parallelepipedal shape. Further, the 
receptacle (32) has interior horizontal cross-sectional shape so as to 
receive emptied envelopes falling into the receptacle (32) from the 
terminus (28) of the envelope transport guide (10) only in lengthwise 
parellism and to permit them to stack themselves flatwise in an ordered 
parallel array in the receptacle. 
The horizontal cross-sectional interior shape of the receptacle (32) of the 
present invention is a rectangular oblong. This is so that a 
standard-sized envelope will always lie in the receptacle with its long 
edge parallel to the long side of the oblong shape. At the same time, the 
transverse dimension of the oblong shape should be narrow enough to 
prevent cross-wise deposition of a falling envelope, yet wide enough to 
permit the stacked envelopes to be readily removed from the receptacle by 
the handful. It is of no consequence to the candling machine that the 
envelopes are reversed or inverted as long as none are in cross-wise 
position. 
It should be noted also that the envelope transport guide of the present 
invention not only succeeds in eliminating the laborious step of aligning 
the envelopes for transfer to the candling machine, often the function of 
an auxillary worker, but that this is achieved without the use of any 
additional power requirement other than the force of gravity. 
One skilled in the art will appreciate that the envelope transport guide 
(10) and the receptacle (32) of the present invention can be constructed 
of a variety of materials, and certainly need not all be constructed of 
the same material. For ease of fabrication, wood and various metals can be 
employed. However, in large scale production most, if not all, parts could 
be fashioned from some form of plastic. 
Other features, advantages and specific embodiments of this invention will 
become readily apparent to those exercising ordinary skill in the art 
after reading the foregoing disclosures. These specific embodiments are 
within the scope of the claimed subject matter unless otherwise expressly 
indicated to the contrary. Moreover, while specific embodiments of this 
invention have been described in considerable detail, variations and 
modifications of these embodiments can be effected without departing from 
the spirit and scope of this invention as disclosed and claimed.