Patent ID: 7987780

Claim:
Apparatus designed to cancel at least one postage or franking mark on a surface of a mailpiece moving on edge in a belt conveyor, said apparatus comprising: a conveyor portion with a plurality of superposed belts spaced to define a set of free zones therebetween in the form of non-touching superposed strips, the strips in each pair of adjacent strips being separated by a respective one of the belts; a print mechanism comprising a plurality of superposed print heads facing respective ones of said free zones; detector means positioned along the conveyor so as to detect at least one franking mark on the face of the mailpiece; and control means for controlling the print mechanism, on the basis of detecting said at least one franking mark on the surface of the mailpiece, in such a manner as to cause a print head to print a cancellation mark over the franking mark; wherein each print head is suitable for operating selectively with a plurality of superposed inkjets, in that the detector means are also arranged to detect whether said franking mark is present in off-center manner in a free zone, and in that said control means are arranged so as to respond to detection of a franking mark that is off-center in said free zone by causing said print head disposed facing said free zone to operate while activating only some of its inkjets so as to print over the off-center franking mark one of a portion of said cancellation mark and a scaled down version of said cancellation mark.