As an alternative to manually loading documents, the AUTOMATE™ provides a purpose built module for automating this process and can be fitted to any finishing system.  As a basic unit, the AUTOMATE™ is an automatic feeding and collating system to which document verification can be added for guaranteed collation integrity.

The standard AUTOMATE™ Module shown above, consists of a Bulk Feeding Unit which provides a controlled supply of pre-printed sheets to the attached Suction Feeder, which in turn draws each sheet individually into a collating tray. The capacity of the Bulk Feeder is about 8,000 sheets and can be loaded with additional material at any time, while the empty Suction Feeder collates at speeds of up to 20,000 sheets per hour.  In its simplest form the AUTOMATE provides an automatic loading system which feeds and collates complete document sets which can then be passed onto any commercial finishing equipment through a suitable interface.  'Miss feed' and 'double feed' are both detected by sensors, while the collating tray has side and end jogging for presenting square document sets to the on-line finishing system.  The Lawhill Automate™ can also be enhanced to provide various levels of integrity by the addition of suitable devices for reading pre-printed marks so that each sheet can be verified as it passes into the collating tray as detailed in the pages that follow.