Patent ID: 7096743

Claim:
An apparatus for measuring the flexural rigidity in the longitudinal direction of flat items of mail which are transported one after another on a conveying path, which apparatus has, on the conveying path in a straight section, one bearing point or two bearing points one after another in the transport direction and has, before a rear bearing point in the transport direction and after the one bearing point or a front bearing point in the transport direction, a deflection apparatus that can be moved into the conveying path, approximately perpendicular thereto, in order to bend the items of mail, and which has a sensor detecting the edges of the items of mail and triggering the measuring operation, and also a measuring means for determining the magnitude of the deflection of the items of mail and/or measuring means for determining the magnitude of the deflection force and a control device for driving the deflection apparatus and also for evaluating the sensor and measuring means signals in such a way that the magnitude of the deflection of the items of mail with a defined constant deflection force, or the magnitude of the deflection force for an always identical deflection of the deflection apparatus is used as a measure of the flexural rigidity, the control device, furthermore, being designed such that the deflection apparatus for bending the items of mail is moved into the conveying path as soon as the respective front edge of the item of mail has reached the foremost bearing point in the transport direction or, in the case of only one bearing point has reached the deflection apparatus and remains in the deflected state at most until the rear edge of the item of mail has left the one bearing point, and there being on the conveying path a measuring device, connected to the control device, for determining the thickness of each item of mail, and the deflection apparatus, in the nondeflected state, and/or the bearing points for each item of mail being moved before the start of the respective rigidity measurement such that their distance perpendicular to the transport direction corresponds approximately to the respective thickness of the item of mail.