A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet stacker, an air blower, a float regulator, and a controller. The sheet stacker stacks sheets. The air blower blows air to the sheets. The float regulator regulates a floating position of the sheets and is movable between a float regulating position at which the float regulator regulates floating of the sheets and a retracted position. The controller transmits position information of the float regulator to a notification device.

A method for handling (flat) objects (10), in particular sanitary articles such as diapers, sanitary napkins or the like, wherein the objects (10) are conveyed along a transport section (12) in a product flow and are then put together in a grouping station to form groups of objects (10). The objects (10) are introduced into the product flow in the region of an inlet station (23) before the objects (10) are put together to form groups.

The invention relates to a feeder device (1) for feeding mailpieces (2) to a postal sorting conveyor (3), the feeder device comprising an unstacker head (4) designed to put the mailpieces in series and on edge on the sorting conveyor, an unstacker plate (5) designed to unstack the mailpieces one-by-one towards the unstacker head, and a mailpiece feed conveyor (6) designed to convey the mailpieces in a stack and on edge against the unstacker plate. The unstacker plate comprises a stationary portion (5a) that extends from the unstacker head, and a moving portion (5b) that extends the stationary portion, said moving portion being mounted to pivot from the stationary portion between a first position in which the stationary portion and the moving portion are aligned with each other, and a second position in which the stationary portion and the moving portion are angularly offset relative to each other.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes: a placer that allows a plurality of sheets to be placed on the placer; an air feeder including a front-end fan that generates an airflow from a front-edge side in a sheet feeding direction of a bundle of sheets placed on the placer toward the bundle of sheets; an attracting conveyor that attracts an uppermost sheet separated by the air feeder from the bundle of sheets placed on the placer and conveys the uppermost sheet; a detector that detects, in the conveyance of the uppermost sheet by the attracting conveyor, an amount of co-feeding of a next sheet together with the uppermost sheet; and a hardware processor that executes air-volume control to the front-end fan such that an air volume of the front-end fan increases with an increase in the amount of co-feeding detected by the detector.

A sheet separating device includes: a lifting nozzle configured to blow air against an end portion of a sheet bundle placed on a sheet loading portion to lift sheets; a separating nozzle configured to separate the sheets; a lifting-nozzle shutter member configured to open and close the lifting nozzle; a separating-nozzle shutter member configured to open and close the separating nozzle; a lifting-shutter driving mechanism configured to drive the lifting-nozzle shutter member; a separating-shutter driving mechanism configured to drive the separating-nozzle shutter member; and an open/close control unit configured to control the lifting-shutter driving mechanism and the separating-shutter driving mechanism such that the lifting-nozzle shutter member and the separating-nozzle shutter member are opened or closed simultaneously.

A transport unit that comprises a de-stacking device which is configured to drop trays from a stack of trays individually or in groups into a drop area, and a transport belt unit with a transport surface passing through the drop area for receiving and transporting away the dropped trays. The transport surface may comprise at least one opening. A negative pressure device may be provided to generate a suction force in the drop area through one or more of the openings of the transport surface, wherein the suction force sucks the dropped trays in the drop area in a direction towards the transport surface. This configuration reduces the rebound of the trays when they impact the transport surface as they are dropped. The invention also relates to a corresponding method for transporting trays.

A transport unit that comprises a de-stacking device which is configured to drop trays from a stack of trays individually or in groups into a drop area, and a transport belt unit with a transport surface passing through the drop area for receiving and transporting away the dropped trays. The transport surface may comprise at least one opening. A negative pressure device may be provided to generate a suction force in the drop area through one or more of the openings of the transport surface, wherein the suction force sucks the dropped trays in the drop area in a direction towards the transport surface. This configuration reduces the rebound of the trays when they impact the transport surface as they are dropped. The invention also relates to a corresponding method for transporting trays.

Provided are a floating restricting member restricting the floating position of a bundle of sheets; and a holding mechanism holding the floating restricting member relative to a side fence. The floating restricting member includes a sheet contact section being brought into contact with the sheets from above; and a sheet-floating restricting section restricting the floating position of the floating sheet that is floated while air is blown thereto. The holding mechanism sets the floating restricting member in the initial state where the sheet-floating restricting section restricts the floating position of the sheet, in the sheet-placing time retracted state where the sheets are pushed against the sheet contact section so that the floating restricting member is retracted, and in the sheet-ejecting time retracted state where, when the sheets are to be removed, the sheet is pushed against the sheet contact section from below so that the floating restricting member is retracted.

A mail processing system utilizes a conveyor to shingle or de-shingle mailpieces as they move through the processing system and utilizes belts to move the mailpieces. A first shingling conveyor moves a first mailpiece to overlap with a second mailpiece to create shingled mailpieces. A second shingling conveyor moves a first mailpiece away from a second mailpiece to de-shingle them to create singulated mailpieces. A camera takes images of the mailpieces in the conveyor and image analysis software is used to determine dimensional aspects of the mailpieces that are used to control the belt speeds to move mailpieces with respect to each other. A mail processing system may include a mail processing station that scans addresses, applies postage and/or weighs the mailpieces. Mail may be de-shingled prior to being weighed and then re-shingled for subsequent processing, or mail may be shingled prior to passing through a scale if weighing is not necessary.

A sheet feeding device has a mounting portion allowing a stack of sheets to be mounted in a top-bottom direction, a suction/transportation portion provided above the mounting portion for attracting a first sheet positioned on top of the stack, and a blowing portion for blowing air to a foremost edge of the first sheet in a transportation direction while the first sheet is being attracted by the suction/transportation portion, thereby separating the first sheet from a second sheet next to the first sheet. After the first sheet is separated from the second sheet, the suction/transportation portion transports the first sheet in the transportation direction. The suction/transportation portion sets a suction force applied to the foremost edge of the first sheet smaller when the blowing portion blows air to the first sheet than when the suction/transportation portion transports the first sheet.