Abstract: A friction sheet feeding machine having (i) a tray for holding a stack of sheets, (ii) a driven friction feed roller for contacting a downward facing major surface of a lowermost sheet in a stack retained within the tray and pulling the lowermost sheet in a machine direction from underneath the stack, (iii) a reversibly driven friction retard roller vertically spaced in parallel relationship above the friction feed roller for contacting a leading edge and any exposed upward facing major surface of a sheet immediately overly the lowermost sheet so as to retard advancement of the overlying sheet, (iv) a first motor operably connected to the friction feed roller for driving the friction feed roller, and (v) a second motor operably connected to the friction retard roller for driving the friction retard roller, wherein the first and second motors are operably associated such that the second motor is operational only when the first motor is operated.

Abstract: An apparatus for serially feeding envelopes along a longitudinal path of travel and which includes a support table, an envelope feeder mounted to the support table for feeding envelopes individually from the bottom of a vertical stack of envelopes in a lateral direction to an envelope receiving position on the table, and an envelope conveying system for feeding the envelopes from the envelope receiving position along a longitudinal path of travel and through a plurality of processing stations, such as a flap opening station and a product insertion station. The feeder is directly connected to a fixed envelope stop on the table by an adjustable linkage so as to define the envelope receiving position between the stop and the feeder, and so that the lateral position of the feeder may be readily adjusted on the table to change the dimension of the envelope receiving position and thereby accommodate envelopes of varying size.