Method for maintaining mailpiece integrity

In a mailing machine having a plurality of mechanical modules for producing a plurality of mailpieces, without printing codes on the mailpieces, a method for recovering from an error in a mechanical module comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving a fault code from an error producing module;
• b) stopping movement of at least one mailpieces in the error producing module;
• c) reporting the fault code to a mailpiece builder to control a plurality of mechanical modules having no error condition;
• d) indicating the error producing module;
• e) detecting the plurality of mailpieces in the plurality of mechanical modules;
• f) removing an error producing mailpiece from the error producing module;
• g) repeating step (e);
• h) suspending further processing of a plurality of mailpieces upstream from the error producing mailpiece;
• and,
• i) selecting a state machine to perform a jam recovery in the plurality of mechanical modules for the received fault code.

In a mailing machine having a plurality of mechanical modules for producing a plurality of mailpieces, without printing codes on the mailpieces, the mailing machine including a document printer for printing a plurality of personalized documents, the mailing machine also included an envelope printer for printing a plurality of addressed envelopes corresponding to the plurality of personalized documents, a method for automatically recovering, without operator intervention, from an error in a mechanical module containing a personalized document comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving a fault code from an error producing module;
• b) stopping movement of at least one mailpiece in the error producing module;
• c) reporting the fault code to a mailpiece coordinator to control a plurality of mechanical modules having no error condition;
• d) purging an error producing personalized document from the error producing module without operator intervention;
• e) purging the addressed envelope corresponding to the error producing personalized document without operator intervention.

In a mailing machine having a plurality of mechanical modules for producing a plurality of mailpieces, without printing codes on the mailpieces, the mailing machine including a document printer for printing a plurality of personalized documents, the mailing machine also including an envelope printer for printing a plurality of addressed envelopes corresponding to the plurality of personalized documents, a method for recovering from an error in a mechanical module containing a personalized document comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving a fault code from an error producing module;
• b) stopping movement of at least one mailpiece in the error producing module;
• c) reporting the fault code to a mailpiece builder or mailpiece coordinator to control a plurality of mechanical modules having no error condition;
• d) indicating the error producing module;
• e) detecting the plurality of mailpieces in the plurality of mechanical modules;
• f) removing an error producing personalized document from the error producing module;
• g) repeating step (e)
• h) suspending further processing of a plurality of mailpieces upstream from the error producing mailpiece;
• and,
• i) selecting a state machine to perform a jam recovery in the plurality of mechanical modules for the received fault code.

An improved mailing system having a host computer executing a plurality of tasks, the tasks including a mailpiece coordinator task for monitoring the generation of a plurality of mailpieces, requiring no printing of codes on each mailpiece, and a plurality of simultaneously executing mailpiece builder tasks for determining the motion control requirements for the plurality of mailpieces in which each of the plurality of mailpiece builder tasks corresponds to a mechanical module in the mailing system, wherein the improvement comprises:

• a) an error coordinator task for maintaining mailpiece integrity when the mailing system experiences a mechanical error;
• b) means for selecting a set of error profiles for stopping the mailpieces when the mailing system experiences the error;
• and
• c) means for defining a jam recovery procedure for the plurality of mailpieces when the mailing system experiences the error.