A method and a system for preparing franked postal items to be franked

Abstract: A method of and a system for preparing postal items in which, for each item, an assembly is prepared from a plurality of sheetlike parts, the assembly is individually passed to a postage meter (11) and the assembly is franked by the postage meter (11). A postage value is determined from the postage value related value of the quantitative property of each assembly and by setting the postage meter (11) for franking each assembly in accordance with the determined postage value. Since the postage meter (11) is thus automatically set for each assembly, the franking with different postage values can be carried out with a single postage meter (11). Therefore, only one postage meter (11) needs to be provided downstream of the packaging station (3).

Description: The invention relates to a method of preparing franked postal items according to the preamble of claim 1. The invention also relates to a system for preparing franked postal items according to the preamble of claim 9. Such a method and such a system are known from US-A-4 829 443. In this known method and system, mail pieces are prepared by collating documents and inserting the collated documents into envelopes. The envelopes are sealed and conveyed to a postage meter where the mail pieces are franked with a value determined by a computer of the mail. preparation system. From GB-A-2 195 312, a system for feeding, weighing and metering mail pieces is known in which each mail piece is weighed, the appropriate postage amount is determined and subsequently transported to a postage meter where the determined franking is applied. After weighing, each mail piece is transported to a buffer between a scale module and the postage meter where it waits until a print cycle of a previous mail piece is completed. After the postage meter signals that it is set, the mail piece is transported from the buffer to the postage meter and a succeeding mail piece is transported to the buffer. It is an object of the present invention to monitor the franking of prepared mail pieces in a simple manner. According to the present invention, this object is achieved by carrying out the preparation of mail pieces and franking in accordance with claim 1. The present invention, also provides a system according to claim 9 which is specifically adapted for carrying out the method according to claim 1. Particular embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims. Exemplary embodiments of the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the drawing in which a schematical side view of a system according to the invention is shown. The system shown comprises three feeding stations for feeding sheetlike parts, in the form of a printer 1, an insert feeder 2 and an inserter station 3. In operation, the printer 1 may feed printed documents, the feeder 2 may feed sheetlike inserts of paper or plastic which may for example be in the form of single, folded or multilayered sheets or envelopes (generally return envelopes). The inserter station 3 adds sheetlike parts in the form of envelopes in which the other sheetlike parts are inserted. The direction of transport of sheetlike parts in the system shown is indicated with arrow 4. Downstream of the insert feeding station 2 a buckle fold station 5 is provided. Between the printer 1 and the insert feeding station 2 and between the buckle fold station 5 and the inserter station 3 transport tracks 6 and 7 are provided, which are each suitable for assembling sheetlike parts fed from upstream stations. The printer 1 is preferably a laser printer and may for example be provided in the form of any commercially available type of laser printer. Insert feeding stations 2, inserter stations 3, buckle fold stations 5 and transport tracks 6 and 7 as schematically shown are made by HADEWE B.V. in the Netherlands and marketed as modules of the Neopost System 7 product line. The inserter station 3 is based on an inserter station of the IN-2A type, also made by HADEWE B.V. in the Netherlands and marketed as modules of the Neopost System 7 product line. The inserter station 3 is provided with means for determining a value of a postage value related quantitative property for each assembly of sheetlike parts in the form of a thickness detector 8. The inserter station 3 further comprises a rear exit 9 and a side exit 10. Downstream of the inserter station 3 a postage meter 11 is provided. In the schematically shown system, the postage meter is a Neopost 8500 postage meter (made by Neopost Ltd., United Kingdom). An interface 12 is interconnected between the thickness detector 8 and the postage meter 11. For the sake of clarity, the interface 12 is shown as a separate device. However, the interface is preferably incorporated in the inserter station 3. The interface 12 is arranged for receiving signals representing thickness values from the thickness detector, for determining a postage value from each received thickness value and for sending signals representing each postage value to the postage meter 11. The thickness of an assembly is not only a postage related value, but more in particular it is a weight related value. Weight is generally the major property determining a postage value of an item to be mailed, but difficult to determine quickly and accurately with low cost measuring instruments. An advantage of determining the postage value directly on the basis of the measured thickness, or the value of any other weight related property of the assembly, is that it allows weight dependent franking while avoiding, firstly, the problems generally associated with determining the weight of the items to be mailed and, secondly, the risk of accumulation of inaccuracies involved in calculating the total weight of each assembly on the basis of predetermined weights of individual types of components of the assembly. Between the inserter station 3 and the postage meter a transport track 13 is provided for individually transporting assemblies from the inserter station 3 to the postage meter 11 and the postage meter 11 is arranged to be set in accordance with signals received from the interface 12. In operation, for each item an assembly is prepared from a plurality of sheetlike parts using the system components 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and the printer 1 in the usual manner. After an assembly has been prepared, a thickness value representing a thickness thereof is determined by the thickness detector 8 and sent to the interface 12. Subsequently, the assembly is individually passed along the transport track 9 to the postage meter 11 and a postage value is determined from the thickness value sent to the interface 12 and signalled to the postage meter 11. The postage meter 11 is set in accordance with the postage value in reaction to the signals received from the interface 12. When the assembly reaches the postage meter 11, it is franked by the postage meter in accordance with the postage value determined by the interface 12 and transmitted to the postage meter 11. The assembly is then a completed postal item ready for mailing. Since the postage meter 11 is set for franking each assembly in accordance with values of postage value related properties determined from the respective assembly, assemblies requiring different postage values can be processed in a random order with a single postage meter 11 and using only one exit 9 of the inserter station 3. Since the value of the quantitative property of the assembly is inputted into the interface 12, the postage value is determined by the interface 12 and outputted from the interface 12 to the postage meter 11, existing systems can simply be adapted for carrying out the method according to the invention by adding the interface 12. It is, however, also possible to integrate the functions of the interface by suitably programming and connecting a processor of the mail preparation line or of the postage meter 11. The interface 12 may for example be provided in the form of a 80C552 data processor and connected to the same power supply as a data processor included in the inserter station 3. For communication with the postage meter 11 and the thickness detector 8, preferably interfaces according to the RS-485 standard and a dedicated interface, respectively, are provided. The exit 10 of the inserter station 3 is a divert exit downstream of the transport tracks 6, 7 which also functions for assembling sheetlike parts fed from the feeding stations 1, 2. The connection between the postage meter 11 and the interface 12 is also suitable for inputting postage values into the interface 12 and the interface is arranged for storing the inputted postage value in association with a last inputted thickness value. The system is arranged for operation in a learning mode in which an assembly is outputted via the divert exit 10 and a postage value inputted into the interface 12 is stored in association with the last inputted thickness value. Thus the interface can simply be programmed for setting the appropriate postage value in reaction to a thickness value obtained from an assembly by detecting the thickness of an assembly of the same thickness, determining the appropriate postage value independently of the system and inputting that postage value into the interface 12. Since, in the learning mode, the assemblies are outputted through the divert exit 10, these are immediately and easily available for the operator who can then determine the appropriate postage value by weighing the assembly using a normal letter-balance and taking into account other factors influencing the postage value, such as urgency class and size of the assembly. Preferably a letter-balance which directly indicates the postage values of the postal item which is being weighed is used. Such a letter-balance may be connected to the postage meter 11 or to the interface 12 for automatically inputting the determined postage value indirectly or directly into the interface 12. The system is further arranged for operation in a production mode in which stored postage values are selected and outputted to the postage meter 11 for franking an assembly if, for that assembly, the thickness value inputted to the interface 12 is within a value range determined from the thickness value stored in association with the selected postage value, i.e. the postage value is determined directly from the value of a weight dependent property, other than the weight itself, which value is obtained from the respective assembly, without an intermediate step of calculating the weight of the assembly and without using per item weight data. The value range may for example be a tolerance range around the thickness value or a range from zero up to and including a tolerance range around the thickness value. If the postage value related property of which the value is determined is characterized by discrete values, the value ranges may be restricted to completely identical values or to ranges from zero up to and including the largest value corresponding with a value of that property within a postage value class. A suitable property characterized by discrete values would for example be the number of sheetlike parts of an assembly. This number can be determined without detection from assemblies by converting control instructions for the feeder stations 1, 2 relating to an assembly into a signal representing the number of sheetlike parts of that assembly and by sending this signal to the interface 12. A system for determining the number of supplied sheetlike parts of each assembly is preferably provided with a data processor for determining the number of sheetlike parts of each assembly and a connection between the interface and the data processor for sending signals representing the number of sheetlike parts of each assembly from the data processor to the interface. The data processor 14 and the connections 15, 16 of this variant are displayed by dotted lines. Each time postal items are to be prepared of which the thicknesses relate differently to existing postage value classes or postage value classes are changed, operation in the learning mode precedes operation in the production mode to store new thickness/postage value relations. Operation may also switch from the production mode to the learning mode if a thickness value outside value ranges for which postage values have been determined is received by the interface. Preferably, the operator is then urged by a signal to determine and input the postage value for that new thickness value. The postage meter 11 is provided with means in the form of a keyboard 17 and a display 18 for manually setting a postage value. The connection of the postage meter 11 to the interface 12 is adapted for sending a signal representing its postage value setting to the interface 12. After, in the learning mode, the postage value for the assembly outputted via the divert exit 10 has been determined, the postage meter 11 is manually set by the operator to the postage value determined by that operator and a signal representing the postage value as set is transmitted from the postage meter 11 to the interface 12. This brings about the advantage that no separate means for inputting the postage value other than the normal means generally provided on conventional postage meters are required and that the operator can set the required postage value in the same manner as the postage value of a conventional stand-alone postage meter is set. Preferably, the diverted assembly is manually supplied to the postage meter 11 and franked in accordance with the determined postage value after the postage meter has been set. Thus the operation in the learning mode is completely identical to the operation when a conventional stand-alone postage meter is used, but in reaction to the franking of the assembly diverted via divert exit 10, the applied postage value is inputted into the interface in association with a value range determined by the thickness value previously determined by the thickness detector 8. Another advantage of inputting the determined postage value to the interface 12 in reaction to the action of franking the diverted assembly is that the diverted assembly is immediately franked and requires no separate further attention. In the system shown , postage values are only communicated from the interface 12 to the postage meter 11 if an assembly requires a different postal value than a previous assembly. If an assembly is to be franked with the same postage value as a previous assembly, no postage value signal is transmitted to the postage meter. If no postage value signal is received from the interface 12, the postage meter 11 reacts by maintaining its current postage value setting and by franking each assembly it receives with that postage value. If a postage value determined for an assembly is different from the postage value for another previous assembly, the assembly requiring the different postage value is retained upstream of the postage meter 11 at least until the preceding assembly has been franked to allow the postage meter sufficient time for changing to another postage value. Before the assembly which is retained upstream of the postage meter 11 is passed to the postage meter 11, furthermore the number of assemblies franked by the postage meter 11 is compared with the number of postage values determined by the interface 12. Only if the number of assemblies franked by the postage meter 11 is found to be in accordance with the number of determined postage values, the interruption of the supply of assemblies to the postage meter 11 is terminated. Otherwise an alarm signal is generated so the operator can remove the cause of the malfunction and take measures to correct the effect of the malfunction, before operation of the system is allowed to restart or continue. Thus the interruption which is required for changing the postage meter 11 from one postage value setting to another postage value setting is used to frank all assemblies which are still in process and downstream of the assembly requiring the different postage value. This in turn brings about that the section of the system downstream of the assembly requiring the different postage value is emptied and that differences between the number of determined postage values and the number of franking actions indicate that either assemblies were added or went missing in the section of the system downstream of the assembly requiring the different postage value, or that either assemblies passed the postage meter without being franked or may have been franked twice. Each time the setting of the postage meter 11 is changed, the operation of the section of the system downstream of the location where each assembly requiring a different postage value than the previous assembly is retained is thus monitored in a simple manner. Preferably, this location is in the inserter station 3. Of course, from the present disclosure many other embodiments than the above described examples will be apparent to the skilled person. Instead of using a thickness value or a value indicating the number of sheetlike parts of an assembly, it is for example also possible to determine and store the thickness of each individual type of sheetlike parts and determine the thickness of an assembly from the composition of that assembly. Another property related to the postage value, and also to the weight of an assembly, and in some countries directly related to the required postage value, is the size of the assembly. This size may also be determined and taken into account upon determination of the required postage value by the interface 12.

Claims: A method of preparing franked postal items comprising, for each item, the actions of preparing an assembly from a plurality of sheetlike parts, individually passing the assembly to a postage meter (11), determining a value of a quantitative property of the assembly related to the postage value for that assembly, determining a postage value for the assembly from said value of said quantitative property, setting the postage meter (11) in accordance with said postage value, and franking the assembly by said postage meter (11) with said postage value, characterized in that, if a postage value determined for an assembly is different from the postage value for an assembly preceding said assembly, said assembly is retained upstream of the postage meter (11) at least until said preceding assembly has been franked, the number of franked assemblies has been compared with the number of determined postage values and determined to be in accordance with the number of determined postage values. A method according to claim 1, in which said postage value related property is also a weight related property and in which said postage value for the assembly is determined directly from said value of said quantitative property. A method according to claim 1 or 2, in which said value of said quantitative property of the assembly is inputted into an interface (12), the postage value is determined by said interface (12) and outputted from said interface (12) to the postage meter (11). A method according to claim 3, in which operation in a learning mode precedes operation in a production mode, wherein, in the learning mode, a value of a quantitative property is determined for an assembly, said assembly is outputted to an operator, the assembly is weighed, the postage value for said assembly is determined depending on at least its weight, the determined postage value for said assembly is inputted into the interface (12) and stored in association with said inputted value of said quantitative property of said assembly, and in the production mode, said postage value is retrieved and outputted to the postage meter (11) for franking an assembly if, for that assembly, the value of said quantitative property is identical to or within a value range determined from the value stored in association with said postage value. A method according to claim 4, in which, after the postage value for the outputted assembly has been determined, the postage meter (11) is manually set to said postage value and said manually set postage value is outputted from the postage meter (11) to the interface (12). A method according to claim 5, in which, after the postage meter (11) has been set to the determined postage value, said outputted assembly is supplied to the postage meter (11) and franked in accordance with said postage value setting. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the property of which the value for each assembly is determined is the thickness of each assembly. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the property of which the value for each assembly is determined is the number of sheetlike parts of each assembly. A system for preparing franked postal items comprising: at least one feeding station (1, 2) for feeding sheetlike parts; means (7) for assembling sheetlike parts fed from the at least one feeding station (1, 2); means (8) for determining a value of a postage value related quantitative property for each assembly of sheetlike parts, a packaging station (3); a postage meter (11); a data processor (12) interconnected between the means (8) for determining a value of a weight related quantitative property of each assembly and the postage meter (11), said data processor (12) being arranged for receiving signals representing values of said weight related quantitative property for each assembly, for determining a postage value from each received value, and for sending signals to the postage meter (11); and a transport track (13) between the packaging station (3) and the postage meter (11), for individually transporting assemblies from the packaging station to the postage meter (11); the data processor (12) is arranged for sending signals to the postage meter (11) including signals representing a postage value for each assembly; and said postage meter (11) is arranged to be set to postage values in accordance with said signals received from the data processor (12). characterized in that said system is adapted for retaining at least one assembly upstream of the postage meter (11) at least until a preceding assembly has been franked, the number of franked assemblies has been compared with the number of determined postage values and determined to be in accordance with the number of determined postage values, if a postage value determined for an assembly is different from the postage value for an assembly preceding said assembly A system according to claim 9, wherein said postage value related property is also a weight related property and wherein the data processor (12) is arranged for directly determining said postage value from said received values of said postage value related property. A system according to claim 9 or 10, comprising a divert exit (10) downstream of the means (7) for assembling sheetlike parts fed from the at least one feeding station (1, 2), means (17) for inputting postage values into the data processor (12) and means (12) for storing the inputted value in association with a last inputted value of a postage value related quantitative property, wherein the system is arranged for operation in a learning mode in which an assembly is outputted via the divert exit (10) and a postage value inputted into the data processor (12) is stored in association with the last inputted value of a postage value related quantitative property; and for operation in a production mode in which said postage value is selected and outputted to the postage meter (11) for franking an assembly if, for that assembly, the inputted value of said quantitative property is identical to or within a value range according to the value stored in association with said postage value. A system according to claim 11, in which, the postage meter (11) is provided with means (17) for manually setting a postage value and the postage meter (11) is connected to the data processor (12) for sending a signal representing its postage value setting to the data processor (12). A system according to any one of the claims 9-12, in which the means (8) for determining a value of a postage value related quantitative property for each assembly of sheetlike parts are provided in the form of a thickness detector (8). A system according to any one of the claims 9-13, in which the means for determining a value of a postage value related quantitative property for each assembly of sheetlike parts are provided in the form of a data processor (14) for determining, for each assembly, the number of fed sheetlike parts. A system according to claim 14, comprising a connection (16) between the data processor (14) for determining the number of fed sheetlike parts for each assembly and said data processor (12) interconnected between the means (8) for determining a value of a postage value related quantitative property of each assembly and the postage meter (11), for sending signals representing said numbers from said data processor (14) for determining the number of fed sheetlike parts for each assembly to said data processor (12) interconnected between the means (8) for determining a value of a postage value related quantitative property of each assembly and the postage meter (11).

Inventors: BOORSMA PETER RENZE, BOORSMA, PETER RENZE
Applicants: NEOPOST BV, NEOPOST B.V.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: G07B17
IPC codes: G07B17