Method and apparatus for tipping closely incidental mail to magazines or the like
First Claim
1. A method for automatically tipping mail pieces to certain magazines sequentially fed from a first location to a second location, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) sorting said mail pieces into groups according to geographic regions, each mail piece having machine readable geographic information thereon;
(b) sorting subscriber labelling information into groups according to geographic regions, said subscriber labelling information including machine readable geographic information and mail piece attachment indicia indicating whether a subscriber is to receive a mail piece;
(c) machine scanning subscriber labelling information corresponding to each magazine fed from the first location to the second location;
(d) generating a signal in response to the scanning mail piece attachment indicia indicating the subscriber is to receive a mail piece on the subscriber labelling information;
(e) automatically transferring at least some of said subscriber labelling information to selected some of said magazines feeding from the first location to the second location in response to said signal;
(f) automatically actuating tipping means for attaching mail pieces to selected others of said magazines fed from the first location to the second location in response to said signal.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for automatically tipping closely incidental mail to magazines or the like. A plurality of magazines are sequentially fed from a source location to a town sort stacking location. A labelling station and an envelope tipping station are disposed intermediate the source and town sort location. Presorted closely incidental mail pieces are provided and scanned for zip code information. Labels are provided having subscriber information including name, address, zip code and mail piece attachment indicia indicating whether that subscriber is to receive a mail piece. Each label is scanned. If a label scanned does not include mail piece attachment indicia indicating that subscriber is to receive a mail piece, that label is fixed to the corresponding, next magazine being fed from the source location to the town sort stack location. If a label scanned does include mail piece attachment indicia indicating that subscriber is to receive a mail piece, the zip code of that label is compared to the zip code of the next to feed closely incidental mail piece. If the zip codes match, the closely incidental mail piece is tipped to the corresponding next magazine being fed from the source location to the town sort stack location and that label is discarded. If a label scanned includes mail piece attachment indicia indicating that subscriber is to receive a mail piece but the zip code of the subscriber information on that label does not match the zip code of the next to feed closely incidental mail piece, an error signal is generated.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for automatically tipping mail pieces to certain magazines sequentially fed from a first location to a second location, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) sorting said mail pieces into groups according to geographic regions, each mail piece having machine readable geographic information thereon; (b) sorting subscriber labelling information into groups according to geographic regions, said subscriber labelling information including machine readable geographic information and mail piece attachment indicia indicating whether a subscriber is to receive a mail piece; (c) machine scanning subscriber labelling information corresponding to each magazine fed from the first location to the second location; (d) generating a signal in response to the scanning mail piece attachment indicia indicating the subscriber is to receive a mail piece on the subscriber labelling information; (e) automatically transferring at least some of said subscriber labelling information to selected some of said magazines feeding from the first location to the second location in response to said signal; (f) automatically actuating tipping means for attaching mail pieces to selected others of said magazines fed from the first location to the second location in response to said signal.
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- 2. The method of claim 18 wherein the step of generating a signal further includes the step of scanning the next to be fed label to determine whether the geographic information of a next to feed mail piece is the same as geographic information of subscriber labelling information determined to include mail piece attachment indicia indicating that subscriber is to receive a mail piece.
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4. An apparatus for tipping a selected mail piece of a plurality of mail pieces to a selected magazine of a plurality of magazines, each mail piece including a subscriber'"'"'s name, address and geographic indicia, said apparatus comprising:
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transporting means for sequentially transporting said plurality of magazines from a first location to a second location; a controller; first input means for inputting the geographic indicia of said selected mail piece to said controller; second input means for sequentially providing subscriber information to said controller for each of a plurality of subscribers including geographic indicia and mail piece attachment indicia, said mail piece attachment indicia indicative of whether a subscriber is to receive a mail piece; labelling means disposed between said first and said second locations for selectively applying a subscriber'"'"'s name, address and geographic indicia to a magazine being transported; said controller including determining means for determining if said subscriber information inputted to said controller by said second input means includes mail piece attachment indicia indicating a subscriber is to receive a mail piece for each subscriber of said plurality of said subscribers, comparing means for comparing geographic indicia of subscriber information determined to include mail piece attachment indicia indicating a subscriber is to receive a mail piece with geographic indicia of said selected mail piece, and generating means for generating a mail piece feed signal when geographic indicia compared by said comparing means coincide; and tipping means for tipping said mail piece to a selected magazine responsive to said mail piece feed signal from said generating means of said controller. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for applying mailing information to a plurality of magazines of a common zip code, said apparatus comprising:
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transporting means for sequentially transporting said plurality of magazines from a first location to a second location; labelling means for applying labelling information to selected ones of said plurality of magazines; tipping means for applying preaddressed mail pieces to selected others of said plurality of magazines; means for determining which of said plurality of magazines are to receive a preaddressed mail piece, said tipping means applying a preaddressed mail piece to a magazine responsive to said determining means; and label disabling means for preventing application of labelling information to a magazine when said determining means determines a magazine is to receive a preaddressed mail piece. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification