Mail production systems
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorsVincent Rozendaal, Stephen Kelly
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mail production system is described, the system comprising a mail finishing system for converting documents into finished items of mail ready for hand-over to a postal service, and a secure accounting system for generating accounting data relating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system, wherein the secure accounting system is able to generate signals to control operation of the mail finishing system. Specifically the secure accounting system is able to delay or stop operation of the mail finishing system. A corresponding method of producing mail is also described.
Claims12
A mail production system comprising:
- a mail finishing system (12) for converting documents into finished items of mail ready for hand-over to a postal service, said mail finishing system having a print sub-system (120) and at least one stacker;
- a secure accounting system (14) for generating accounting data relating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system (12);
- and
- an inserter system controller (125) operatively connected to the mail finishing system (12) and to the secure accounting system (14), for at least control of said at least one stacker;
- wherein the secure accounting system directly controls the print sub-system (120) of the mail finishing system (12) and controls the overall operation of the mail finishing system (12) by communicating with the inserter system controller (125), which in turn controls the operation of the mail finishing system (12) pursuant to commands received from the secure accounting system (14).
A method of producing mail comprising:
- converting documents into finished items of mail ready for hand-over to a postal service using a mail finishing system (12) having a print sub-system (120) and at least one stacker;
- generating accounting data relating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system (12) by use of a secure accounting system (14);
- and
- wherein the secure accounting system directly controls the print sub-system (120) of the mail finishing system (12), and controls the overall operation of the mail finishing system (12) by communicating with an inserter system controller (125) operatively connected to the mail finishing system (12) and to the secure accounting system (14), wherein the inserter system controller controls the operation of the mail finishing system (12) pursuant to commands received from the secure accounting system (14).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.