Patent ID: 8397899

Claim:
A mail piece feeder comprising: a pickoff mechanism including a pickoff belt mounted on rollers including a drive roller, the pickoff belt positioned to frictionally engage a mail piece at one end of a stack of mail positioned on a side edge of the mail pieces; and a stripper positioned at an exit of the pickoff belt, the stripper configured to engage an overlying mail piece of a pair of mail pieces including an underlying mail piece and the overlying mail piece fed together in a double feed so that the overlying mail piece is separated from the underlying mail piece, wherein the stripper is dimensioned for use in the pickoff feeder mechanism for singulated mail pieces transported on a pinch belt conveyor, the stripper including a flexible backing sheet, a friction shoe attached to the backing sheet and positioned to engage the overlying mail piece, and a plurality of leaf springs of different lengths and stiffnesses disposed beneath the backing sheet such that external pressure against the friction shoe results in resilient bending of at least one of the leaf spring such that force is exerted outwardly against the backing by the at least one leaf spring.