Patent ID: 6865866

Claim:
A mail inserter for inserting mail into an envelope having a flap and a throat, comprising: an envelope entry for advancing the envelope into the mail inserter, including: a flap flipper for separating the flap from the envelope to form an opened envelope; an envelope carrier provided downstream of the envelope entry, for advancing the opened envelope; an envelope retainer provided downstream of the envelope carrier, for retaining the opened envelope advanced by the envelope carrier; a mail entry for advancing the mail into the mail inserter; a mail carrier provided downstream of the mail entry, including: a chain and a plurality of guides extending towards the envelope retainer, the chain carrying the mail through the guides towards the envelope retainer into the opened envelope to form a filled envelope; a sealer provided downstream of the envelope retainer, including: a water blade for wetting the flap, and a baffle for folding the flap towards the envelope so as to seal the flap to the envelope to form a sealed envelope; wherein the envelope entry, envelope carrier, envelope retainer and sealer jointly form an envelope path, and the mail entry and the mail carrier jointly form a mail path that merges into the envelope path between the envelope carrier and the envelope retainer, and wherein the sealer further includes: a first pair of sealer rollers for advancing the filled envelope into the sealer; a second pair of sealer rollers; a third pair of sealer rollers, the second pair of sealer rollers and the third pair of sealer rollers being located downstream of and above the first pair of sealer rollers in a side-by-side configuration with the third pair of sealer rollers located between the first and second pairs of sealer rollers; and wherein the water blade is located prior to the second pair of sealer rollers, and the baffle is located between the second fair of sealer rollers and the third pair of sealer rollers, the baffle guiding the filled envelope into the third pail of sealer rollers.