RANDY D TRACH
Real Estate Commission in Nazareth, PA

5321624, Jun 14, 1994

Oct 6, 1992

7/956850

David J. Helffrich - Charlotte NC
Randy Trach - Nazareth PA

Bell & Howell Phillipsburg Company - Allentown PA

G06F 1520

364478

A multiple-document detection system for an insertion machine comprises a plurality of document detectors, each detector being preset to a successive maximum allowable document-group-thickness measurement; a group of documents whose measured thickness exceeds the preset maximum allowable size for a particular detector will cause that detector's input line to change from a "normal" level to a "tripped" level. A processing means then determines the actual number of documents in a measured group of documents according to which of the successively preset detectors was the first to be "tripped". The processing means also receives a signal indicative of an expected number of documents for the particular measured group. The expected-number signal is sent, for example, by a reader, upstream of the plurality of detectors, which reads the expected number from a master document in the group. The processing means sends an error signal to a machine control means if the measured number exceeds the expected number; the machine control means executes certain error-correction steps upon receiving an error signal from the processing means.