Back to results
US 6,685,030 B1Granted
Expanded flats bundle collator
AssigneeNorthrop Grumman Corporation
InventorDaryl S. Mileaf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for collating groups of flats mail items for a plurality of carrier routes into carrier walk order sequence (CWS) using a Flats Bundle Collator (FBC) system which is capable of pre-staging carrier route subsets in one or more staging towers, or immediately collating a group into CWS for a group being fed into the system. The pre-staged subsets can be collated by the staging towers on demand. A U-shaped footprint for the FBC facilitates loading and unloading by the same operator. Additional input feeders may be added to the modular FBC, as well as random sequence towers.
Claims35
A method of collating a plurality of mail items into a final sequenced set of mail items for delivery to predetermined delivery points of a plurality of carrier routes, comprising the steps of:
- a) feeding the mail items from a single input stream to a staging station;
- b) sampling each mail item in the input stream to determine a carrier route identity, and a delivery point thereof;
- c) pre-staging selected ones of the mail items at the staging station into a plurality of subsets of mail items, said staging station having a plurality of storage units X1 to Xn, wherein n is the total number of storage units, said storage units temporarily storing the mail items in carrier-specific subsets by inserting each mail item into a carrier-specific subset in a selected one of the storage units;
- d) selectively sorting the mail items of either pre-staged carrier-specific subsets or mail items of a carrier route being fed from the single input stream at the staging station into one or more of subsets of mail items re-sequenced into an intermediate order, as an intermediate step to achieving said final sequenced set, said storage units temporarily storing said items in said subsets by;
- 1) inserting each mail item into any selected one of said storage units X1 to Xn in accordance with an insertion plan consistent with an extraction plan for the mail items from those storage units for achieving the delivery point sequence (DPS) of the final sequenced set of mail items;
- and
- 2) selectively extracting the mail items from any selected one of the storage units X1 to Xn according to said extraction plan;
- and
- e) merging the extracted mail items into a single output stream from the respective subsets of mail items into said final sequenced set in delivery point sequence (DPS).
6 more elements
A computer program embodied in a machine-readable medium for collating a plurality of mail items into a final sequenced set of mail items for delivery to predetermined delivery points of a plurality of carrier routes, comprising the steps of:
- a) a segment for feeding the mail items from a single input stream to a staging station;
- b) a segment for sampling each mail items in the input stream to determine a carrier route identity, and a delivery point thereof;
- c) a segment for pre-staging selected ones of the mail items at the staging station into a plurality of subsets of mail items, said staging station having a plurality of storage units X1 and Xn, wherein n is the total number of storage units, said storage units temporarily storing the mail items in carrier-specific subsets by inserting each mail item into a carrier-specific subset in a selected one of the storage units;
- d) a segment for selectively sorting the mail items of either pre-staged carrier-specific subsets or mail items of a carrier route being fed from the single input stream at the staging station into one or more of subsets of mail items re-sequenced into an intermediate order, as an intermediate step to achieving said final sequenced set, said storage units temporarily storing the mail items in said subsets by instruction from the program for;
- 1) inserting each of the mail items into any selected one of said storage units X1 to Xn in accordance with an insertion plan consistent with an extraction plan for the mail items from those storage units for achieving the delivery point sequence (DPS) of the final sequenced set of mail items;
- and
- 2) selectively extracting the mail items from any selected one of the storage units X1 to Xn according to said extraction plan;
- and
- e) a segment for merging the extracted mail items into a single output stream from the respective subsets of mail items into said final sequenced set in delivery point sequence (DPS).
6 more elements
A computer program embodied in a digital signal for collating a plurality of mail items into a final sequenced set of mail items for delivery to predetermined delivery points of a plurality of carrier routes, comprising the steps of:
- a) a segment for feeding the mail items from a single input stream to a staging station;
- b) a segment for sampling each mail items in the input stream to determine a carrier route identity, and a delivery point thereof;
- c) a segment for pre-staging selected ones of the mail items at the staging station into a plurality of subsets of mail items, said staging station having a plurality of storage units X1 to Xn, wherein n is the total number of storage units, said storage units temporarily storing the mail items in carrier-specific subsets by inserting each mail item into a carrier-specific subset in a selected one of the storage units;
- d) a segment for selectively sorting the mail items of either pre-staged carrier-specific subsets or mail items of a carrier route being fed from the single input stream at the staging station into one or more of subsets of mail items re-sequenced into an intermediate order, as an intermediate step to achieving said final sequenced set, said storage units temporarily storing said items in said subsets by instruction from the program for:
- 1) inserting each mail item into any selected one of said storage units X1 to Xn in accordance with an insertion plan consistent with an extraction plan for the mail items from those storage units for achieving the delivery point sequence (DPS) of the final sequenced set of mail items;
- and
- 2) selectively extracting the mail items from any selected one of the storage units X1 to Xn according to said extraction plan;
- and
- e) a segment for merging, the extracted mail items into a single output stream from the respective subsets of mail items into said final sequenced set in delivery point sequence (DPS).
6 more elements
A system for collating a plurality of mail items into a final sequenced set of mail items for delivery to predetermined delivery points of a plurality of carrier routes, comprising the steps of:
- a) means for feeding the mail items from a single input stream to a staging station;
- b) means for sampling each mail item in the input stream to determine a carrier route identity, and a delivery point thereof;
- c) means for pre-staging selected ones of the mail items at the staging station into a plurality of subsets of mail items, said staging station having a plurality of storage units X1 to Xn wherein n is the total number of storage units, said storage units temporarily storing the mail items in carrier-specific subsets by inserting each mail item into a carrier-specific subset in a selected one of the storage units;
- d) means for selectively sorting the mail items of either pre-staged carrier-specific subsets or mail items of a carrier route being fed from the single input stream at the staging station into one or more of subsets of mail items re-sequenced into an intermediate order, as an intermediate step to achieving said final sequenced set, said storage units, temporarily storing said items in said subsets by;
- 1) inserting each mail item into any selected one of said storage units X1 to Xn in accordance with an insertion plan consistent with an extraction plan for the mail items from those storage units for achieving the delivery point sequence (DPS) of the final sequenced set of mail items;
- and
- 2) selectively extracting the mail items from any selected one of the storage units X1 to Xn according to said extraction plan;
- and
- e) means for merging the extracted mail items into a single output stream from the respective subsets of mail items into said final sequenced set in delivery point sequence (DPS).
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.