Folding & Inserting Machine

Overview

A folding and inserting machine is the workhorse at the end of a mailroom or print shop. It takes loose printed sheets, folds them, stuffs them into envelopes, seals the flaps, and stacks finished mail, work that would take a person all day done in an hour. An operator loads documents and inserts into the Sheet Feeder trays and envelopes into the Envelope Feeder, sets the job on the touchscreen, and walks away while finished pieces pile up in the Exit Stacker.

The folding is the clever mechanical part. Rather than bending paper around a former, the Folding Unit uses buckle plates: a sheet is driven into a Fold Plate until it hits a stop and buckles, and the bulge is caught by the Fold Roller pair that creases it. Moving the stop changes the fold position, so the same hardware makes a letter fold, a Z-fold, or a half-fold by setting two plates.

Once folded, the pack is stuffed by the Insert Station into an envelope the Envelope Feeder has staged open, then the Sealer wets and presses the flap. The whole cycle is timed by the Control System system and powered through the Main Drive.

How it works

Each Sheet Feeder separates one sheet using a feed roller and a retard roller, its Feeder Motor built on a reused Stator Assembly and Rotor Assembly. Sheets collate and pass into the Folding Unit, where the buckle plates and Fold Roller set form the chosen fold and a sensor confirms the fold length.

In parallel, the Envelope Feeder draws one envelope from its hopper and the Flap Opener lifts the flap and holds the throat open. The Insert Pusher in the Insert Station drives the folded pack through the throat into the envelope. The filled envelope moves to the Sealer, where the Moistening Wick, kept damp from the Water Tank and warmed by a reused Heating Element, moistens the gummed flap before the Seal Roller pair presses it shut. The Control System board, built on a Compute SoC Module with an LCD Panel and Touch Digitizer, sequences every stage, counts mailpieces, and stops on a jam. Finished pieces drop into the Exit Stacker.