Automatic continuous mail handling system

Claim 3

The method of processing mixed mail of claim 1, comprising the additional steps of: h. supporting a stack of mixed mail; and i. feeding pieces of mail into said feed path from said stack.

Claim 4

The method of processing mixed mail of claim 1, comprising the additional step of: h. sealing unsealed pieces of mail being fed along said feed path.

Claim 5

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim with a substantially vertical orientation along a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail and determining the amount of the postage to be imprinted thereon, the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path wherein pieces of mail are transported with a substantially vertical orientation; a weighing station comprising postage determining means, said weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station and determining the amount of postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail which has been weighed; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving said weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined by said weighing station; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; and control means operatively interconnected between said weighing station and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said weighing station for causing the imprinted postage amount of said postage meter station to correspond with said determined amount for each piece of mail.

Claim 6

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim with a substantially vertical orientation along a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail and determining the amount of the postage to be imprinted thereon, the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path wherein pieces of mail are transported with a substantially vertical orientation; a weighing station comprising postage determining means, said weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station and determining the amount of postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail which has been weighed; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving said weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined by said weighing station; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; and control means operatively interconnected between said weighing station and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said weighing station for causing the imprinted postage amount of said postage meter station to correspond with said determined amount for each piece of mail.

Claim 7

The mail handling system of claim 1, further comprising supporting means disposed adjacent said feed path supporting a quantity of mixed mail, and feeding means carried by said supporting means for feeding said quantity of mail towards said feed path.

Claim 8

The handling system of claim 1, further comprising sealing means disposed along said feed path for sealing unsealed pieces of mail being fed alOng said feed path.

Claim 9

The mail handling system of claim 1, wherein said first automatic delivering means comprises decelerating means for stopping mail which is moving along said feed path, and said weighing station comprises a scale for weighing pieces of mail, said decelerating means stopping each piece of moving mail so that it deposits upon said scale for weighing.

Claim 10

The mail handling system of claim 1, wherein the postage meter station comprises an imprinting mechanism, and the second automatic delivering means comprises a compensatingly movable deck which is adjustable in response to different thicknesses of mail being delivered to the imprinting mechanism of said postage meter station, whereby a substantially uniform imprint impression is provided for each piece of mail irregardless of its thickness.

Claim 11

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim along a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail, the amount of the postage to be imprinted thereon then being determined, and the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail subsequently being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path; a weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving each piece of weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined for the weight of each piece of mail; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; computational means operatively interconnected between the weighing station and the postage meter station for determining the required postage for each piece of mail being delivered to said postage meter station for imprinting of postage; and control means operatively interconnected between said computational means and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said computational means for causing the imprinted postage amount to correspond with said determined amount.

Claim 12

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim along a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail, the amount of the postage to be imprinted thereon then being determined, and the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail subsequently being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path; a weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving each piece of weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined for the weight of each piece of mail; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; computational means operatively interconnected between the weighing station and the postage meter station for determining the required postage for each piece of mail being delivered to said postage meter station for imprinting of postage; and control means operatively interconnected between said computational means and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said computational means for causing the imprinted postage amount to correspond with said determined amount.

Claim 13

The mail handling system of claim 9, wherein said computational means comprises selection means to vary the unit price per unit increment of weight, and multiplication means to perform a multiplication between the weight of each piece of mail and the selected unit price.

Claim 14

The mail handling system of claim 10, wherein said computational means further comprises a by-pass control means for bypassing said multiplication means for causing each piece of mail to be imprinted with a constant unit price for the purposes of bulk mailing.

Claim 15

The mail handling system of claim 9, wherein said postage meter station comprises a postage meter having a plurality of imprint wheels for imprinting units, tens, and dollar digits of a value of postage.

Claim 16

The mail handling system of claim 12, wherein said control means comprises a plurality of stepper motors for incrementing said imprint wheels in a bi-directional manner.

Claim 17

The mail handling system of claim 13, wherein the computational means comprises stepper motor pulse generating means which is responsive to said determined postage amount and provides pulse outputs to said stepper motors depeNdent upon said determined amount of postage and a previous position of said stepper motors.

Claim 18

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim along a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail, determining means are operatively connected to the weighing station for determining the amount of the postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail, and the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path; a weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station; computational determining means operatively connected to said weighing station for electronically determining the amount of postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail which has been weighed by said weighing stataion; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving said weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined by said determining means; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; control means operatively interconnected between said determining means and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said determining means for causing the imprinted postage amount of said postage meter station to correspond with said determined amount; and information synchronization means operatively interconnected between said weighing station and the computational determining means, for insuring that each piece of weighed mail will be imprinted with the determined amount of postage for that individual piece of mail when said weighed piece of mail is delivered to said postage meter station.

Claim 19

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim along a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail, determining means are operatively connected to the weighing station for determining the amount of the postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail, and the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path; a weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station; computational determining means operatively connected to said weighing station for electronically determining the amount of postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail which has been weighed by said weighing stataion; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving said weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined by said determining means; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; control means operatively interconnected between said determining means and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said determining means for causing the imprinted postage amount of said postage meter station to correspond with said determined amount; and information synchronization means operatively interconnected between said weighing station and the computational determining means, for insuring that each piece of weighed mail will be imprinted with the determined amount of postage for that individual piece of mail when said weighed piece of mail is delivered to said postage meter station.

Claim 20

The mail handling system of claim 15, wherein said synchronization means comprises at least one buffer for storing information of a weighed piece of mail, and buffer control means for transferring the stored information from the buffer to said computational determining means for determining the amount of postage required for the weighed piece of mail.

Claim 21

The mail handling system of claim 15, wherein said synchronization comprises two buffers, a first buffer for storing weighing information of a first piece of mail substantially disposed at said weighing station, and a second buffer operatively connected to said first buffer for storing weighing information of a second but previously weighed piece of mail which is substantially in transit to said postage meter station from said weighing station.

Claim 22

The mail handling system of claim 17, wherein said synchronization means further comprises a first control means operatively connected to said buffers for controlling the transfer of weighing information from the first buffer to said second buffer, and second control means operatively connected to said second buffer for transferring weighing information from said second buffer to said determining means.

Claim 23

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim aLong a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail, determining means are operatively connected to the weighing station for determining the amount of the postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail, and the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path; a weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station; determining means operatively connected to said weighing station for determining the amount of postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail which has been weighed by said weighing station; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving said weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined by said weighing station; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; control means operatively interconnected between said determining means and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said determining means for causing the imprinted postage amount of said postage meter station to correspond with said determined amount; and traffic control means operatively connected along said feed path means for synchronizing the flow of mail along said feed path such that at any one instant a multiplicity of pieces of mail will be in transit at different stations along said feed path.

Claim 24

A continuous automatic weighing and metering mail handling system for processing a large volume of mixed mail, said mail handling system automatically weighing and imprinting postage upon individual pieces of mail being continuously fed in seriatim aLong a continuous feed path comprising a weighing station and a postage meter station, said weighing station automatically weighing each piece of mail, determining means are operatively connected to the weighing station for determining the amount of the postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail, and the amount of postage to be imprinted by said postage meter station on each piece of mail being controlled to correspond to said determined amount, said mail handling system comprising: means defining a continuous mail handling feed path; a weighing station disposed along said continuous feed path for measuring the weight of each piece of mail delivered to said weighing station; determining means operatively connected to said weighing station for determining the amount of postage to be imprinted on each piece of mail which has been weighed by said weighing station; a first automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim a plurality of individual pieces of mail along said continuous feed path to said weighing station; a postage meter station disposed along said continuous feed path for receiving said weighed mail from said weighing station, and imprinting postage upon the mail in accordance with the amount of postage determined by said weighing station; a second automatic delivering means for continuously delivering in seriatim along said feed path the weighed pieces of mail from said weighing station to said postage meter station; control means operatively interconnected between said determining means and said postage meter station, said control means being responsive to the postage amount determined by said determining means for causing the imprinted postage amount of said postage meter station to correspond with said determined amount; and traffic control means operatively connected along said feed path means for synchronizing the flow of mail along said feed path such that at any one instant a multiplicity of pieces of mail will be in transit at different stations along said feed path.