Abstract: A document sorting machine having dual feeders which feed documents onto common tiers of sort pockets from each end of the machine. The machine includes an induction buffer section which prevents a document already in the transport on a particular tier from colliding with a document being fed into the same transport by a different feeder. Also, the machine includes a serpentine piggy-back unit which can stack consecutive documents going to the same sort pocket.

Abstract: A document sorting machine having at least one pocket for stacking documents according to a common criteria. Each pocket has a gate for diverting the document from the transport of the machine and into the designated pocket. The pocket also has a kicker for moving the tail of the document away from the pocket's entry and into the pocket and a detent which allows the tail to be moved into the pocket but which prevents the tail from moving back towards the pocket's entry after the tail of the document has been moved into the pocket.

Abstract: A weigh-on-the-fly WOF module for weighing a mail piece as it is being sorted by a mail sort machine. The piece is delivered to entry pinch rollers in the WOF module which, in turn, deliver the piece into pinch at an acceleration roller. The thickness of the piece is measured the pinch at the acceleration roller is adjusted to reduce drag on the mail piece during acceleration. The acceleration roller is driven by a constant torque motor at a first known or measured velocity V1 which is increased to second known or measured velocity V2 when the mail piece arrives. The time of acceleration from V1 to V2 is measured. Once the velocities and the time of acceleration are known, the weigh of that particular mail piece can be calculated using the formula: F=ma wherein F=force or torque m=mass or weight; and a=acceleration or (V2?V1)/time.

Abstract: A singulator for feeding documents one at a time onto the transport of a processing machine. The singulator includes a pick-off means and a stripper means for preventing multi-feeds of documents. The stripper means is comprised of two independent stripper assemblies which are mounted one above the other. Each assembly is comprised of an arm which is rotatably mounted to the machine at one end and which has a means at the other end for engaging any multi-fed documents. Each stripper assembly has basically the same structure except the arm of one stripper assembly is shorter than the arm of the other assembly whereby the assemblies contact a multi-fed document at different points.