Mail piece weight quality control system and method

A mail processing system wherein a stream of items are processed to generate mail pieces and the difference between the estimated weight and measured weight of each mail piece is determined, comprising:

• a printer having means for printing upon sheets, a mail processing apparatus downstream from said printer and having means for storing a plurality of inserts, means for storing envelopes and means for inserting selected ones of said inserts and sheets from said printer into envelopes,
• a processor in communication with said mail processing apparatus for selecting the ones of said inserts to be inserted into envelopes to form mail pieces and having means for estimating the weight of mail pieces based upon the weight of the inserts and weight of the envelopes,
• a weighing scale for receiving a mail piece from said mail processing apparatus and measuring the weight of said mail pieces,
• a computer in communication with said weighing scale and said processor, said computer having means for receiving estimated weight data of said mail piece from said processor and measured weight data of said mail piece from said weighing scale, and
• means for comparing the estimated weight and the measured weight of said mail piece and obtaining a difference between the estimated and measured weights of said mail piece, and means for separating mail pieces whose measured weight is different from its estimated weight by a selected tolerance.

A method of determining the accuracy of estimated mail piece weights, the steps comprising:

• printing address information on sheets,
• inserting the sheets and selected inserts into an envelope,
• estimating the individual weights of the mail pieces,
• weighing each mail piece individually to obtain the measured weight to determine the accuracy of said mail piece estimated weight,
• setting a weight tolerance for difference between the estimated weights and measured weight, and
• segregating those mail pieces whose weight difference exceeds the tolerance.

A method of determining the accuracy of an estimated weight for a mail piece, the steps comprising:

• printing address information on sheets,
• inserting the sheets and selected inserts into an envelope,
• estimating the weight of a mail piece based upon the weight of the envelope and the inserts therein,
• weighting the mail piece to obtain the measured weight,
• comparing the estimated weight of the mail piece with its measured weight, and
• determining the difference between the estimated weight of the mail piece and the measured weight to determine the accuracy of the estimated mail piece weight.