Patent ID: 8060242

Claim:
A method for producing a batch of mail items from a plurality of sheets, said batch of mail items, comprising one or more mail items, which in all contain two or more documents and where at least two of the documents each contain two or more sheets, in which method a system comprising a printer for printing sheets, a module for assembling documents from one or more sheets, a module for assembling one or more mail items from the documents, is operated such that said system performs the steps of: printing the sheets intended for one mail item in an original sequence directly after one another by the printer, during which printing on each sheet intended for the batch of mail items a marking representing an identification code unique to that sheet is printed by the printer; providing and storing information about the original sequence in which the printed markings representing the unique identification codes have been printed; transporting the printed sheets from the printer to the module for assembling documents from one or more sheets; assembling the sheets to documents and/or mail items, at least a plurality of said documents and/or mail items comprising a plurality of successive ones of said printed sheets; before the step of assembling the sheets to documents and/or mail items, reading the markings representing the unique identification codes printed on the sheets by a detector forming part of the system, and providing and storing information about the sequence in which the markings have been read by the detector; comparing the stored information about the original sequence in which the markings representing the unique identification codes have been printed by the printer with the stored information about the sequence in which markings representing the unique identification codes have been read by the detector, determining whether the sequence in which the markings representing the unique identification codes have been read corresponds to the original sequence in which the markings representing the unique identification codes have been printed; and providing an error message if it is determined that the sequence in which the markings representing the unique identification codes have been read does not corresponds to the original sequence in which the markings representing the unique identification codes have been printed.