Devices and corresponding methods to reduce sorting of mailings to produce grouped mailings
AssigneeBroadridge Output Solutions, Inc.
InventorMarc Fagan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mail item sortation system and method that includes an external controller for culling candidate letters in a mailing job to produce groupings of letters based on industry average weights and/or thicknesses in order to place all the candidate letters going to a single address adjacent to each other, an internal controller, interfaced with the external controller, that utilizes the groupings of letters to manage multiple letter sorters, wherein a specific letter sorter is selected to pair a calculated number of pockets to accommodate the groupings with an actual number of pockets in the selected letter sorter, and a transfer process for moving letters within the letter sorter pockets to a StatementPack machine.
Claims20
A mail item sortation system, comprising:
- an external controller configured to cull candidate letters in a mailing job to establish pocket demand for sorting according to a mixing factor analysis based on a given number of letters in the mailing job to place all of the candidate letters going to a single address adjacent to each other;
- and
- an internal controller, interfaced with the external controller, that is configured to control a plurality of letter sorters based on the pocket demand by at least selecting each specific letter sorter of the plurality of letter sorters to pair a calculated number of pockets to accommodate the candidate letters with a number of available pockets in each specific selected letter sorter to obtain sorted letters.
A method of mail item sortation, comprising:
- culling, by an external controller, candidate letters in a mailing job to establish pocket demand for sorting according to a mixing factor analysis based on a given number of letters in the mailing job to place all of the candidate letters going to a single address adjacent to each other;
- and
- controlling, by an internal controller, interfaced with the external controller, a plurality of letter sorters based on the pocket demand, by at least selecting each specific letter sorter of the plurality of letter sorters to pair a calculated number of pockets to accommodate the candidate letters with a number of available pockets in each specific selected letter sorter to obtain sorted letters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.