Mailing machines

Details Mailing machines Mailing machines

1998-06-04

2001-05-15

Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)

Classifying, separating, and assorting solids

Sorting special items, and certain methods and apparatus for...

C209S900000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06230898

ABSTRACT:

This invention relates to mailing machines.
Mailing machines are known which draw documents in the form of sheet material from one or more feeding stations, collate the required number of sheets, fold them in a selected way, add inserts to the folded collation, and insert it into an envelope. For example the documents may be bank statements, which may comprise one, two, or more sheets, and the inserts may be information about banking services.
In order that the documents may be collated correctly for each envelope, and that the appropriate inserts may be added, etc., the sheets typically include data marks to be read by the machine which indicate the required information about the mailing. This is known as the OMR or “Optical Mark Recognition” system. For example, the presence or absence of a mark in a particular location may indicate the sequence member of the sheet in a group (to check that there has been no mis-feed), whether it is the last sheet in a collation to be mailed, whether a particular insert should be included in that mailing, etc.
To read the marks, the sheets are fed past a scanner connected to a data processor for controlling the various functions of the machine. The data processor is first programmed for a particular job by inputting the positions in which marks may appear, and the corresponding control action associated with that mark position. Conveniently, the marks are printed as horizontal lines along the left hand margin of the sheet, although they may be printed in any other required position. Since the position of the printed matter on a sheet can vary slightly due to the limitations of the printer used, the first mark is always present on every sheet and acts as a reference mark for the positions of the other marks. Therefore as soon as the scanner “sees” the reference or ‘gate’ mark, the exact relative position of the set of marks is known and the marks can be interpreted in real time.
After the sheets have been scanned, they are then treated according to the information obtained by the scanner and processor. Thus they may be collated with the previous sheet, the collation may be folded, and various inserts may be added as indicated by the marks, before insertion into envelopes. Also in accordance with the marks, certain envelopes may be diverted, for example in order to sort the envelopes by address.
Typically the sheets are A4 sized, and are folded either twice into three sections, for insertion into a C5 type envelope, or once into two sections, for insertion into an A5 sized envelope. When folded twice, this may be either a “C” fold (each end being folded towards the same side of the sheet) or a “Z” fold (each end being folded towards the opposite side), according to the requirements or preferences of the mailer. Mailing machines are known which are capable of selectively performing a number of different folding configurations. However, these may require the sheets to be drawn into the machine in a different orientation, i.e. ‘feet first face down’ for a ‘C’ fold, and ‘head first face up’ for a ‘Z’ fold. This means that for sheets printed in the same way the gate mark would sometimes be at the end of the set of marks, such that the marks could not be interpreted. Thus it is usual to require that the marks are printed in different places on the sheets depending upon a required fold, or to use a different machine for different fold configurations.
It is an object of this invention to provide a machine which can provide a number of different fold configurations, but which does not require the marks to be printed differently for each one. Thus the user could always print the marks in the same place, simplifying the software requirement for printing the marks, and simply programme the machine according to the fold configuration required.
According to the present invention, there is provided a mailing machine comprising an optical scanning means, transport means for feeding documents to be mailed successively past the scanning means, a data processor operatively connected to the scanning means to receive data therefrom, and operatively connected to a data input means for receiving data relating to a particular set of documents therefrom, the data processor being arranged to compare the data from the scanning means with the data from the data input means, and having output means for outputting control data to means for controlling the mailing machine, the data processor comprising a memory buffer and being arranged selectively in accordance with the input data to store data from the scanner in the memory buffer and to read the data from the buffer in the reverse order. Thus it is unnecessary to print the marks differently when different fold configurations are required, but the user may merely programme the device with data showing that the “gate” mark is either the first or the last mark, and the device will operate accordingly.


REFERENCES:
patent: 0 642 934 A1 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 0 679 539 A2 (1995-11-01), None
Descriptive sheet “P.F.E. I.S. Automailer 2, Intelligent System” Issue 2, Jul. 1995, Pitney Bowes Document F495052.

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