Patent ID: 7739858

Claim:
A method for printing, forming, and sealing envelopes and their respective letters, the method comprising: printing envelope forms and letter forms in rows on a paper web which is at least twice as wide as the envelope forms, a respective one of the envelope forms and one or more of the letter forms that is/are to be paired with the respective envelope form in a same mail piece being grouped together on the printed paper web, wherein the printing step includes printing an optical identifier on at least one of the letter forms and on the envelope form for a same mail piece, the envelope and letter forms being processed based on the optical identifier; first cutting the printed letter forms and the printed envelope forms from the web, only by cutting in a direction which is parallel or perpendicular to movement of the web, the cut letter and envelope forms having the same length and width and being rectangular in shape; moving the cut envelope forms to a holding stage; second cutting the printed and previously cut letter forms at least on one side, only by cutting in a direction which is parallel or perpendicular to the movement of the letter forms, to form letters that are smaller than the letter forms; pairing one or more of the letters with a respective envelope form by placing the letters onto the respective envelope form on the holding stage; folding the envelope form around the one or more paired letters; gluing side edges of the envelope form together to form an envelope with an open flap; and folding and gluing the open flap of the envelope so that a sealed letter containing the one or more paired letters is created.