Patent ID: 7178379

Claim:
A residue collection system for collecting residues from the mail, the system comprising: an aerosol chamber including: a housing which substantially encloses an internal area; at least two arrays of pinch rollers placed inside said housing, each of said arrays comprising two sets of pinch rollers, each array of pinch rollers being capable of compressing a mail piece located within said internal area, and an air intake, said air intake being capable of collecting air from said internal area; wherein when said mail piece passes through a first array of said at least two arrays of pinch rollers, said first array of pinch rollers compresses said mail piece forcing a first volume of air from within said mail piece; wherein when said mail piece passes through a second array of said at least two arrays of pinch rollers, said second array of pinch rollers compresses said mail piece forcing out a second volume of air from within said mail piece; wherein at least one of said first volume of air and said second volume of air includes a residue of a substance present in said mail piece; wherein said air intake can take in sample air from within said internal area, said sample air including said residue; and wherein said air intake can supply said sample air including said residue to a detection system capable of detecting said residue.