Mailing system for mixed weight mail
First Claim
1. A mailing system comprising(a) feeder means for sequentially singulating mailpieces from a plurality of mailpieces;
- (b) weighing means for weighing said singulated mailpieces, computing the necessary postage amounts corresponding to each of said singulated mailpieces as a function of its weight, and transmitting said corresponding necessary postage amounts;
(c) postage metering means, including settable means for printing indicia, for receiving said corresponding necessary postage amounts, setting said indicia printing means to indicia representative of said corresponding necessary postage amounts, and printing said singulated mailpieces with said representative indicia; and
,(d) transport means for sequentially transporting said singulated mailpieces from said weighing means to said postage metering means and the next of said singulated mailpieces from said feeder means to said weighing means so that the transport period of said next singulated mailpieces is substantially overlapped with said printing of said representative indicia, whereby the effects of vibration from said printing on weighing of said next singulated mailpiece are reduced.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A mailing system for metering batches of mixed weight mail. The system includes a demand feed for singulating mailpieces, a weighing module for weighing the singulated mailpieces and determining the appropriate postage amount and a postage meter responsive to the weighing module for metering such singulated mailpieces with the appropriate postage amount. A transport system sequentially transports singulated mailpieces from the feeder to the weighing module when the postage meter is set then stops during the weighing period. The postage meter is set for the next sequential mailpiece only after weighing and metering are both completed. In another embodiment a mechanical buffer is provided between the weighing module and the meter to allow overlapping of weighing time with meter setting time. In still another embodiment the weighing time is reduced by a modified weighing algorithm which uses a reduced number of samples to determine the weight of a singulated mailpiece when the initial indication of weight is not close to a breakpoint in the postal rates. In another embodiment of the invention the postage meter is modified to initiate common preliminary meter setting functions in response to the presence of a mailpiece on the weighing module and before the appropriate postage amount is determined.
77 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A mailing system comprising
(a) feeder means for sequentially singulating mailpieces from a plurality of mailpieces; -
(b) weighing means for weighing said singulated mailpieces, computing the necessary postage amounts corresponding to each of said singulated mailpieces as a function of its weight, and transmitting said corresponding necessary postage amounts; (c) postage metering means, including settable means for printing indicia, for receiving said corresponding necessary postage amounts, setting said indicia printing means to indicia representative of said corresponding necessary postage amounts, and printing said singulated mailpieces with said representative indicia; and
,(d) transport means for sequentially transporting said singulated mailpieces from said weighing means to said postage metering means and the next of said singulated mailpieces from said feeder means to said weighing means so that the transport period of said next singulated mailpieces is substantially overlapped with said printing of said representative indicia, whereby the effects of vibration from said printing on weighing of said next singulated mailpiece are reduced. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A mailing system comprising:
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(a) feeder means for sequentially singulating mailpieces from a plurality of mailpieces; (b) weighing means for. weighing said singulated mailpieces, computing the necessary postage amounts corresponding to each of said singulated mailpieces as a function of its weight, and transmitting said corresponding necessary postage amounts; (c) postage metering means, including settable means for printing indicia, for receiving said corresponding necessary postage amounts, setting said indicia printing means to indicia representative of said corresponding necessary postage amounts, and printing said singulated mailpieces with said representative indicia; and
,(d) transport means for sequentially transporting said singulated mailpieces from said weighing means to said postage metering means and sequentially transporting the next of said singulated mailpieces from said feeder means to said weighing means, said transport means halting while said next singulated mailpiece is weighed. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A system for weighing mail pieces, comprising:
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(a) weighing means for determining the weight of individual mail pieces of a series of mail pieces; (b) transport means for sequentially transporting said series of mail pieces to said weighing means; and (c) means for stopping the transport means during the determination of the weight of each of the mail pieces.
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35. A mailing system comprising:
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(a) means for weighing a series of mail pieces; (b) means for transporting the mail pieces to the weighing means, which transport means stops while each mail piece is weighed; (c) means for computing postage based on the weight determined by the weighing means; (d) postage metering means, including settable means for printing indicia; and (e) means for transmitting data from the computing means to the postage metering means; wherein the postage metering means prints on each mail piece an indicia representative of the postage computed by the computing means.
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Specification