Clamp for Mixed Mail Sorter
AssigneeLockheed Martin Corporation
InventorDenis J. Stemmle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A clamp is designed for accepting a mail piece at a loading station, and for releasably holding the mail piece while the mail piece is moved to an unloading station via a sorting system. The clamp is manipulated in the sorting system, instead of manipulating the mail piece held by the clamp. The clamp includes jaws for releasably holding the mail piece, plus a machine readable identifier, plus a mechanism for engaging with the sorting system. The clamp's identifier includes clamp information which uniquely identifies the clamp. The clamp information is for use by the sorting system, in combination with address information on the mail piece, to enable sortation of the mail piece held by the clamp.
Claims14
A clamp, for accepting at least one mail piece at a loading station, and for releasably holding the mail piece while the mail piece is moved to at least one unloading station via a sorting system, the mail piece having address information indicative of a destination address, and the clamp comprising:
- jaws for releasably holding the mail piece;
- a machine readable identifying means;
- and
- means for engaging with the sorting system;
- wherein the identifying means includes clamp information which uniquely identifies the clamp,
- wherein the clamp information is for use by the sorting system, in combination with the address information on the mail piece, to enable sortation of the mail piece held by the clamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.