Bagless film handling system

Claim 1

A bagless film handling system for individualized processing of customers' individual films into prints according to selected processing options, the films being contained in corresponding cartridges, comprising: a point-of-sale terminal for selecting the processing options, and for producing machine readable labels coded with selected options and also coded with identification indicia for associating the individual films with the customers, which labels are directly applied to the corresponding film cartridges containing the films; a sorter for scanning the processing options from the machine readable labels on the film cartridges, and automatically sorting the film cartridges into batches destined for similar processing based on said selected options; a splicer for removing the films in a batch from their corresponding cartridges, automatically splicing the films of the batch using machine readable splices coded with splice numbers, for scanning the splices used to splice the films of the batch to provide the splice numbers for the films in the batch, for scanning the labels applied to the film cartridges corresponding to the films in the batch to provide the identification indicia for the films in the batch, and for associating the splice numbers for the films in the batch with the identification indicia for the same films; a printer for printing the films in a batch onto a print roll, each film in the batch being printed onto corresponding individual prints in the print roll, for scanning the splices used to splice the films in the batch to obtain the splice numbers coded onto the splices, and encoding the splice numbers for the films in the batch onto the corresponding individual prints in the print roll; a packer for cutting the spliced films of a batch into individual films, for cutting the print roll for the batch into individual prints, for matching the individual films with the corresponding individual prints produced from the film by scanning the splice number from the film, by decoding the splice number from the corresponding prints, and matching the same, for loading the individual films and corresponding prints into wallets, for obtaining the identification indicia associated with the splice numbers, and associating the wallets with the customers using the identification indicia; and at least one control computer coupled to the sorter, the splicer, and the packer for (a) receiving and storing data from the splicer associating the splice numbers with the identification indicia; (b) transmitting said data to the packer for associating the wallets with the customers; and (c) transmitting data to the sorter indicating which film cartridges should be batched together for similar processing.