Abstract:
A method for coding the address location on a document or in a data base so that two or more electronic mailings with differing address placements may be combined together and sorted while the mailings are still in electronic form in order to take advantage of workshare discounts, delivery sequence efficiency, desired delivery date, class of delivery service, etc.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to mailing mail pieces and, more specifically, to mailing and sorting mail pieces to increase postal discounts. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Most companies throughout the United States use the services of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to communicate with their customers. These companies use the USPS to deliver monthly bills, monthly statements, annual reports for shareholders, catalogs for holiday shopping, newspapers, monthly magazine subscriptions, and Standard Mail (A) direct mail. 
     The cost associated with moving mail from the sender to the recipient is related primarily to the manual effort involved. The mail must go through several sorting processes and eventually be sorted down to the carrier delivering the mail. 
     The USPS has issued approximately 42,000 five digit zip code in order to improve the automatic sortation and delivery of mail. If mail pieces are pre-sorted by large mailers it becomes easier for the USPS to process the mail. 
     The USPS has spent billions of dollars to automate this process. The intent of automation is to process the mail faster while minimizing costs. To minimize costs, automated equipment has been manufactured and data processing methods have been implemented. The data processing methods were created so that the mailers themselves could perform certain tasks that would make it easier for the USPS to process the mail. The USPS passes the labor savings on to any mailer who shares in the work in the form of postage discounts. This is known as “work sharing.” There are a number of tasks that a mailer can perform to obtain work sharing discounts. The more work the mailer performs, the greater the discounts. 
     The USPS offers work share discounts for mailings that meet certain address, barcode and sortation standards so as to allow the mailing to bypass certain processing steps and expedite the mailing process. These special discounts are called ‘workshare’ discounts. Mailings that meet ‘workshare’ standards qualify for discount ‘automation’ rates (5-digit/scheme, 3-digit/scheme, AADC (Automated Area Distribution Centers), Mixed AADC). For example, to qualify for the 5-digit/scheme rate, a tray with a minimum of 150 pieces must be destined to the same 5-digit zip code (e.g., 06512. To qualify for the 3-digit/scheme rate, a tray with a minimum of 150 pieces must be destined to the same 3-digit zip code 068XX (Stamford, Conn.), 120XX (Albany, N.Y.), 191XX (Philadelphia, Pa.), 465XX (South Bend, Ind.) and to qualify for the AADC rate a tray with a minimum of 150 pieces must be destined to the same AADC. To qualify for mixed AADC all remaining pieces placed in trays are required to be mixed AADC. 
     The following rates and fees apply to one-ounce First Class automation letters: 
     
       
         
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 5-digit/scheme 
                 $0.293 
               
               
                   
                 3-digit/scheme 
                 $0.308 
               
               
                   
                 AADC 
                 $0.317 
               
               
                   
                 Mixed AADC 
                 $0.326 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The workshare process is utilized by individual large mailers and/or by mailers inconjunction with postal presort operations that combines mailers mailings to obtain postal workshare discounts. When the mailings of individual mailers are combined and/or mailings of multiple mailers are combined by a postal presort operation to achieve workshare discounts, the individual mail pieces are physically sorted to sequence, interleaving mail pieces from the combined mailings. 
     A disadvantage of the prior art is that a large portion of the workshare processes is performed after the mail pieces are created. 
     A further disadvantage of the prior art is that the fold address combination of the document must fit in the same physical envelope for all mail pieces in the mail run. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by coding the address location on a document or in a data base so that two or more electronic mailings with differing address placements. i.e., multiple formats may be combined together and sorted while the mailings are still in electronic form in order to take advantage of workshare discounts, delivery sequence efficiency, desired delivery date, class of delivery service, etc. The foregoing allows documents with addresses in the top middle or bottom address panel to be electronically sorted for workshare discounts prior to physical creation of the document and its insertion into the envelope. It is clear that electronic sortation of envelopes is more accurate than the physical soration of envelopes and can be performed with higher reliability. The electronically sorted documents may have any sequence of address placements and the sequence is only governed by the work share discount rules, delivery sequence efficiency, desired delivery date, class of delivery service and/or other desired sort rules. 
     In this patent the term address refers to the mailing address of a recipient and the term location refers to the location of the address placement on the document. 
     An advantage of this invention is that multiple address formats may be used within the same mail run. 
     An additional advantage of this invention is that the same windowed envelope may be used for a variety of different address placements on the document. 
     A further advantage of this invention is that the most economically fold address combination may be chosen given the number of pages in the document. 
     A further advantage of this invention is that it is more energy efficient to electronically sort documents for postal discounts than to physically sort them for postal discounts. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  is a drawing of a document having a recipient address in the top panel of the document; 
         FIG. 2  is a drawing of a document having a recipient address in the middle panel of the document; 
         FIG. 3  is a drawing of a document having a recipient address in the bottom panel of the document; 
         FIG. 4A  is a drawing showing a top address taz fold document formed before it is inserted into an envelope; 
         FIG. 4B  is a drawing showing a top address tac fold document formed before it is inserted into an envelope; 
         FIG. 5  is a drawing showing a middle address mac fold document formed before it is inserted into an envelope; 
         FIG. 6  is a drawing showing a bottom address baz fold document formed before it inserted into an envelope; 
         FIGS. 7A-7G  are drawings showing a folder and fold sequence that enables documents to be folded into mac and baz folds; 
         FIGS. 8A-8D  are drawings showing a folder and fold sequence that enables documents to be folded into taz and tac folds; and 
         FIG. 9  is a drawing showing a code on a document that enables the folder control system to fold the document to the coded fold type; and 
         FIG. 10  is a drawing showing the folder control system of  FIG. 9 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring now to the drawings in detail, and more particularly to  FIG. 1 , the reference character  11  represents a document that has a recipient address field  12  in the top panel  13  of document  11 . Document  11  has fold lines  14  and  15  which divides document  11  into top panel  13 , middle panel  16  and bottom panel  17 . 
       FIG. 2  is a drawing of a document  21  having a recipient address field  22  in the middle panel  26  of document  21 . Document  21  has fold lines  24  and  25  which divides document  21  into top panel  23 , middle panel  26  and bottom panel  27 . 
       FIG. 3  is a drawing of a document  31  having a recipient address field  32  in the bottom panel  37  of the document  31 . Document  31  has fold lines  34  and  35  which divides document  21  into top panel  33 , middle panel  36  and bottom panel  37 . 
       FIG. 4A  is a drawing showing a top address taz fold document  11  formed before document  11  is inserted into an envelope  50 . Document  11  has a recipient address field  12  in the top panel  13  of document  11 , fold lines  14  and  15  which divides document  11  into top panel  13 , middle panel  16  and bottom panel  17 . Envelope  50  has an open or windowed portion  51  a flap  52  and a body  53 . When document  11  is inserted into envelope  50  recipient address field  12  will be visible through the windowed portion  51  of envelope  50 . 
       FIG. 4B  is a drawing showing a top address tac fold document  11  formed before document  11  is inserted into an envelope  50 . Document  11  has a recipient address field  12  in the top panel  13  of document  11 , fold lines  14  and  15  which divides document  11  into top panel  13 , middle panel  16  and bottom panel  17 . Envelope  50  has an open or windowed portion  51  a flap  52  and a body  53 . When document  11  is inserted into envelope  50  recipient address field  12  will be visible through the windowed portion  51  of envelope  50 . 
       FIG. 5  is a drawing showing a middle address mac fold document  21  formed before it is inserted into an envelope  50 . Document  21  has a recipient address field  22  in the middle panel  26  of document  21 , fold lines  24  and  25  which divides document  21  into top panel  23 , middle panel  26  and bottom panel  27 . Envelope  50  has an open or windowed portion  51  a flap  52  and a body  53 . When document  21  is inserted into envelope  50  recipient address field  22  will be visible through the windowed portion  51  of envelope  50 . 
       FIG. 6  is a drawing showing a bottom address baz fold document  31  formed before it inserted into an envelope  50 . Document  31  has a recipient address field  32  in the bottom panel  37  of document  31 , fold lines  34  and  35  which divides document  31  into top panel  33 , middle panel  36  and bottom panel  37 . Envelope  50  has an open or windowed portion  51  a flap  52  and a body  53 . When document  31  is inserted into envelope  50  recipient address field  32  will be visible through the windowed portion  51  of envelope  50 . 
     In  FIG. 7A  the folder system  110  is shown with document  31  entering folder  120  through transport nip  112  and undergoing fold formation in the first fold roller cluster  113 . Document  31  enters folder  120  with the printed face of document  31  facing down and the recipients address at the leading edge of document  31 . The document  31  is advanced into the first buckle chute  114  by a distance equal to ⅓ of the length of document  31  prior to the formation of the first fold of document  31 . The foregoing describes the process of forming the first fold of document  31 . 
     Folder  120  includes roller cluster  113 , buckle chute  114 , smart nip  115 , roller cluster  116 , buckle chute  117 , smart nip  118  and folder exit nip  119 . Document inverter  130  comprises: inverter entry nip  131 ; inversion nips  132 ; exit nip  133  and paper guides  134 . Folder bypass path  140  includes transport nips  141 ,  142  and  143 . 
     Document  31  upon entering folder entrance nip  112  may be selectively transported to folder  120  (a primary folder path) or folder bypass path  140  through the articulation of the entrance gate  144 . It should be obvious to one skilled in the art that entrance gate  144  may be pivoted axis  145 , such that document  31  would be transported to the folder bypass path  140  which would prevent the formation of folds in document  31 . Thus, folding system  110  provides the option to not fold document  31 . 
       FIGS. 7B-7G  illustrates the progression of the document through the fold system paper path with  FIG. 7G  showing a fully formed bottom address baz-fold exiting the folder. 
     Also shown in  FIGS. 7B-7G  is a paper path that by-passes the fold system. The foregoing paper path system can not readily be realized in a system having opposing buckle chutes. 
       FIG. 7B  illustrates the second step in the formation of a bottom address baz fold. Document  31  has advanced from first fold roller cluster  113  to fold cluster  116  and the leading edge of document  31  has entered buckle chute  117  and is approaching smart nip  118 . 
       FIG. 7C  illustrates the third step in the formation of a bottom address baz fold. Document  31  has been driven by smart nip  118  in a direction “A” through buckle chute  117  and has entered inverter entry nip  131 . 
       FIG. 7D  illustrates the fourth step in the formation of a bottom address baz fold. Document  31  has been transported by entry nip  131  to inversion nips  132  which upon receiving document  31  and driving the trailing edge of document  31  past the inversion point  135  have then reversed the direction of travel of document  31  and have transported document  31  to inverter exit nip  133 . The path from nip  131  to nips  132  and  133  is a second inversion path. Note that the current leading of document  31  was the trailing edge of document  11  as shown in  FIGS. 7A-7C . 
       FIG. 7E  illustrates the fifth step in the formation of a bottom address baz fold. Document  31  has been driven by inverter exit nip  133  to smart nip  115  which has received document  31  and transported document  111  to first fold roller cluster  113 . Document  31  is shown spanning smart nip  115 , first fold roller cluster  113 , and fold cluster  116  with the unfolded edge of document  31  advancing towards buckle chute  117 . 
       FIG. 7F  illustrates the sixth step in the formation of a bottom address baz fold. Document  31  is shown during the process of the second fold formation in fold cluster  116 . Smart nip  118  has received the unfolded edge of document  31  and transported document  31  in direction “A” until document  31  has entered buckle chute  117  by the length desired for the second fold. Smart nip  118  has then reversed the direction of document  31 , driving document  31  in direction “B” towards fold cluster  116  which forms the second fold of document  31 . 
       FIG. 7G  illustrates the fully formed bottom address baz fold of document  31  exiting the folder  120  via folder exit nip  119 . 
     The advancing of the document into the first buckle chute by a distance equal to ⅔ of the length of the document and executing the paper path processes described in  FIGS. 7B-7G  will result in the formation of a middle address mac fold that accommodates the address location on document  21  as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 5 . 
     In  FIG. 8A  the folder system  110  is shown with document  11  entering folder  120  through transport nip  112  and undergoing fold formation in the first fold roller cluster  113 . Document  11  enters folder  120  with the printed face of document  11  facing down and the recipients address at the trailing edge of document  11 . The document  11  is advanced into the first buckle chute  114  by a distance equal to ⅓ of the length of document  11  prior to the formation of the first fold of document  11 . The foregoing describes the process of forming the first fold of document  11 . 
     Folder  120  includes roller cluster  113 , buckle chute  114 , smart nip  115 , roller cluster  116 , buckle chute  117 , smart nip  118  and folder exit nip  119 . Document inverter  130  comprises: inverter entry nip  131 ; inversion nips  132 ; exit nip  133  and paper guides  134 . Folder bypass path  140  includes transport nips  141 ,  142  and  143 . 
     Document  31  upon entering folder entrance nip  112  may be selectively transported to folder  120  (a primary folder path) or folder bypass path  140  through the articulation of the entrance gate  144 . It should be obvious to one skilled in the art that entrance gate  144  may be pivoted axis  145 , such that document  11  would be transported to the folder bypass path  140  which would prevent the formation of folds in document  11 . Thus, folding system  110  provides the option to not fold document  11 . 
       FIGS. 8B-8D  illustrates the progression of the document through the fold system paper path with  FIG. 8D  showing a fully formed top address tac-fold exiting the folder. 
     Also shown in  FIGS. 8B-8D  is a paper path that by-passes the fold system. The foregoing paper path system can not readily be realized in a system having opposing buckle chutes. 
       FIG. 8B  illustrates the second step in the formation of a top address tac fold. Document  11  has advanced from first fold roller cluster  113  to fold cluster  116  and the leading edge of document  11  has entered buckle chute  117  and is approaching smart nip  118 . 
       FIG. 8C  illustrates the fourth step in the formation of a top address tac fold. Document  11  is shown during the process of the second fold formation in fold cluster  116 . Smart nip  118  has received the folded edge of document  11  and transported document  11  in direction “A” until document  11  has entered buckle chute  117  by the length desired for the second fold. Smart nip  118  has then reversed the direction of document  11 , driving document  11  in direction “B” towards fold cluster  116  which forms the second fold of document  11 . 
       FIG. 7D  illustrates the fully formed top address tac fold of document  11  exiting the folder  120  via folder exit nip  119 . 
     By introducing document  11  face up with the address panel leading and advancing of the document into the first buckle chute by a distance equal to ⅔ of the length of the document and executing the paper path processes described in  FIGS. 8B-8D  will result in the formation of a top address tac fold. 
       FIG. 9  is a drawing showing a code  301  on a document  300  that enables the folder control system described in the description of  FIG. 10  to fold the document to the coded fold type. Code  301  may be in the form of alphanumeric characters, glyphs, and/or symbols that may be printed on document  300  with a visible ink and/or an invisible luminescent ink. Code  301  may also be contained in a radio frequency identification tag. 
     Code  301  would indicate the type of fold that is going to be made. For instance the first character of an alphanumeric code may represent enumerated fold types, i.e., 1 equals C-fold, 2 equals Z-fold and 3 equals half fold, etc. The second and subsequent characters of code  301  represent other machine control functions and/or customer account numbers. 
     The recipient name and address  302  is shown near the bottom of document  300 . Thus, the appropriate fold for document  300  is a bottom address Z-fold. 
       FIG. 10  is a drawing showing the folder control system of  FIG. 9 . Folder control system  305  includes folder inserter  306 , document scanner  307 , system controller  308  and data base  309 . Scanner  307  is typically located in the paper path of inserter  306  allowing documents  300  to be to be scanned as they are fed from feeder trays  359 ,  310 ,  311  and  312 . Document  300  passes through the field of view of scanner  307  and code  301  is recognized on the document  300 . 
     Scanner  307  may be an optical character recognition scanner, bar code scanner, radio frequency identification reader, ultraviolet detector, infrared detector, etc. As code  301  is read, scanner  307  passes the decoded information to system controller  308 . Controller  308  uses a set of rules to process code  301  and set the fold type for the document in folder inserter  306  based on the results of the rule processing. The rules may include instructions on selecting the fold type from an enumerated list of fold types based on a digit, character or sequence of digits and/or characters in the scanned code. Controller  308  may also use a digit, character or sequence of digits and/or characters as a key identification to retrieve the fold type from data base  309 . There are numerous other methods for processing code  300  data to select a fold type that are obvious to one skilled in the art. 
     The above specification describes a new and improved method for mailing and sorting mail pieces to increase postal discounts. It is realized that the above description may indicate to those skilled in the art additional ways in which the principles of this invention may be used without departing from the spirit. Therefore, it is intended that this invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.