METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IN-LINE ADDRESS QUALITY AND MAIL PREPARATION ON AN INDICIA PRINTING SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A mail processing system for processing a plurality of mail pieces in mailing to qualify the mailing for postage discounts, the system comprising:
- a feeder and transport for individually feeding and transporting each of the plurality of mailpieces;
an image capturing device positioned along the transport for capturing an image of an address positioned on each of the plurality of mail pieces;
an address quality processing device for reading the address image of a respective one of the mailpieces and obtaining a postal authority qualified delivery point code for the respective mail piece;
a system processor configured to;
receive the postal authority qualified delivery point code;
generate printer control data for printing discounted postage meter indicia on the respective mail piece; and
create printer control data for printing a postal authority approved delivery point barcode on the respective mail piece; and
at least one digital printer for printing the discounted postage meter indicia and the authority approved delivery point barcode on the respective mail piece.
14 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present application generally relates to mail processing equipment and techniques. More specifically, the present application relates to a mail processing system and related method for transporting and imaging addressed mail pieces of a mailing to qualify the mailing for postage discounts. An address analysis component of the mail processing system compares the address included on a respective mail piece to postal authority standards for compliance with requirements for discounted postage based on pre-sort rules. A postage metering component prints the discounted postage indicia and a printing component prints delivery point barcodes.
36 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A mail processing system for processing a plurality of mail pieces in mailing to qualify the mailing for postage discounts, the system comprising:
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a feeder and transport for individually feeding and transporting each of the plurality of mailpieces; an image capturing device positioned along the transport for capturing an image of an address positioned on each of the plurality of mail pieces; an address quality processing device for reading the address image of a respective one of the mailpieces and obtaining a postal authority qualified delivery point code for the respective mail piece; a system processor configured to; receive the postal authority qualified delivery point code; generate printer control data for printing discounted postage meter indicia on the respective mail piece; and create printer control data for printing a postal authority approved delivery point barcode on the respective mail piece; and at least one digital printer for printing the discounted postage meter indicia and the authority approved delivery point barcode on the respective mail piece. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of qualifying a mailing including a plurality of addressed mail pieces for postage discounts, the method comprising steps of:
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loading the plurality of mail pieces onto a feeder for individually feeding each mail piece into a mail processing system; transporting a respective one of the mailpieces to an imaging component of the mail processing system; imaging an address of the respective mailpiece; reading the address image with an optical character recognition (OCR) device; qualifying the read address of the respective mail piece to postal authority standards; obtaining a weight for the respective mailpiece; printing a pre-sort mail discounted meter postage indicia based on the qualified address and the obtained weight; and printing a postal authority delivery point barcode, which corresponds to the delivery point of the qualified address in the clear zone on the mailpiece. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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28. A method of processing a mailing including a plurality of addressed mail pieces, the method comprising steps of:
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loading the plurality of mail pieces onto a feeder for individually feeding a first and second mail piece into a mail processing system; individually transporting first and second mailpieces to an imaging component of the mail processing system; imaging an address for each of the first and second mailpieces; reading the address images of the first and second mail pieces with an (OCR) device; comparing the read addresses of the first and second mail pieces to a client address list to determine if the read addresses of the first and second mail piece are present on the client list; rejecting the first mail piece upon a determination that the read address of the first mail piece is determined not to be on the client list or the first mail piece is marked to be purged; and continue processing the second mail piece upon a determination that the read address of the second mail piece is determined to be on the client list. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30)
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Specification