Patent ID: 8408271

Claim:
An apparatus for affixing stamps to a target substrate, comprising: a sheet unit that supplies sheets having a plurality of pressure-sensitive stamps adhered to a backing member; a feeder unit that supplies a substrate having a planar surface; a pickup unit including: a pickup plate, and a suction plate with a plurality of suction units attached to the suction plate, the plurality of suction units having suction cups that utilize vacuum to pick up the sheets having the plurality of pressure-sensitive stamps, wherein the suction cups are arranged to contact the stamps, the pickup plate parallel to the suction plate and lowered to come into contact with a suction unit of the suction plate, a removal unit that removes the backing member while the stamps of the sheet remain held by the pickup unit; a first transport mechanism that utilizes the pickup unit to pick up and transport stamps from the sheet unit to an affixing station in a horizontal plane; an affixing station, the affixing station comprising an affixing member that operates to affix stamps to the substrate by depressing single suction units in the pickup unit; a second transport mechanism that transports the substrate from the feeder unit to the affixing station; and a control unit that: actuates the pickup unit to pick up and hold a sheet from the sheet unit with the suction cups, operate the first transport mechanism to position the affixing member and the pickup unit in desired locations in a horizontal plane with respect to the substrate, actuate the affixing member to affix the stamps held by the pickup unit to the planar surface of the substrate by depressing single suction units in the pickup unit, and remove vacuum from at least one of the suction units to permit the affixed first size stamps to remain on the substrate.