Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Automatic and/or material-triggered control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-26
2001-08-28
Gray, Linda (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Automatic and/or material-triggered control
C156S352000, C156S354000, C156S355000, C156S358000, C156S362000, C156S156000, C156S566000, C156S570000, C271S034000, C271S164000, C271S220000, C271S274000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06279636
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to collation or document merging devices and methods and more specifically to a method and apparatus for attaching photocopies of checks or other documents to the envelopes or other transport medium from which the checks or other documents originated.
The present invention has particular application within the “lockbox industry”. Wholesale and retail lockbox services are routinely used by businesses that receive large volumes of retail payments or corporate-to-corporate receiveables. The primary objective of a lockbox operation is to have the subscriber's customers remit payment checks to a local post office box in order to minimize transit time, processing expenses and handling costs. Lockbox providers thus serve as agents for receiving and depositing payments thereby maximizing the availability of funds while reducing mail costs, processing time and check clearing float times. Lockbox services are designed to process large volumes of payments received by mail and to provide subscribers of the service with daily remittance information for manual or automated reconciliation of the subscriber's customer accounts. The checks received are processed by the lockbox provider, usually a cash management bank, on a daily basis and the funds collected are deposited into the subscriber's deposit account with the bank. The collected funds are therefore usable by the receiving business much quicker than with the traditional process.
However, once the lockbox subscriber has been given credit for the funds in its demand deposit account, the subscriber must then pass along the credits to its respective customer accounts. Presently, a high percentage of lockbox subscribers do not receive electronic updates to their receivables and must rely on photocopies of the original remittance checks from which to post and reconcile their customer accounts.
In a typical lockbox operation, each remittance envelope received must first be opened and the remittance check contained therein must then be separated and removed from other correspondence which may be contained within the envelope. Any such correspondence must then be placed back into the remittance envelope for eventual forwarding to the lockbox subscriber. Once the remittance check is removed from its envelope, it must be photocopied or printed from scanned images. Within the lockbox industry, check photocopies are generated by either replicating scanned images of the checks on computer printers or, more typically, by reproducing the checks on conventional copiers. Copies of checks are usually reproduced three or more to a page and are separated, as by cutting or perforation, into single check-size copies. Each copy must then be reattached to the remittance envelope from which it originated. Upon completion of this process, the check photocopies, attached to their respective remittance envelopes, are forwarded to the lockbox subscriber for posting to its customer accounts.
Today, virtually every cash management bank provides, or is involved to some degree with, retail or wholesale lockbox collection services. The accelerated mail receipt and improved funds availability provided by these services are very attractive to many business owners. However, the process of reassociating and reattaching photocopies of checks to their respective remittance envelopes for return to the business subscriber is one of the most time consuming and labor intensive functions of the lockbox service. It would be expedient, therefore, to provide a method and apparatus which would effectively automate this process thereby virtually eliminating the manual labor associated with this phase of the lockbox service.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for automatically merging and attaching photocopies of remittance documents to the envelopes or other transport medium from which such remittance documents originated.
According to an embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for merging and attaching photocopies to envelopes comprises a photocopy hopper, an envelope hopper, a cutter means, a conveyor system, a securing means, a stacking means, and a control means.
It is an object of the present invention to provide method and apparatus which effectively eliminates the manual labor associated with merging and reattaching remittance documents to the envelopes or other transport medium from which the documents originated.
Another object of the present invention is the provision method and apparatus which provides automation for a very labor intensive aspect of mail remittance processing thereby greatly reducing the cost of such processing.
An important advantage of the present invention is the provision of method and apparatus which greatly increases the efficiency of mail remittance processing for industries such as retail and wholesale “lockbox” collection services.
Another advantage of the present invention is the provision of method and apparatus which greatly reduces processing and handling times for mail remittance processing and provides subscribers of lockbox type collection services with faster access to remitted funds and posting information.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the method and apparatus provided herein greatly reduces labor and overall costs associated with mail remittance processing.
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Gray Linda
May Wm. Randall
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