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US 8,301,297 B2Granted
System and method for continuous sorting operation in a multiple sorter environment
AssigneeBell & Howell Company
InventorsBrian Bowers, Michael Swift
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present application relates to a system and method for sorting mailpieces prior to their delivery to the postal authority. The system and method allow for the running of different first pass sort schemes on multiple sorters in a sorting facility without stopping operations for no-count mode, without losing mailpiece tracking, or waiting for all first pass sorting to complete before re-running the mail that was not sorted to the finest depth of sorting. With the present application, mailpieces that can be run a second time can be run concurrently during first pass without the high risk no-count mode or loss of data integrity.
Claims23
A method for performing continuous sortation of mailpieces using a plurality of sorters, the method comprising steps of:
- assigning first and second sortation schemes to first and second sorters, respectively, the first sorter to receive a first batch of mailpieces and the second sorter to receive a second batch of mailpieces;
- designating at least one sortation bin on the first sorter to receive mailpieces to be further processed on the second sorter with the second sortation scheme;
- reading each mailpiece and establishing a unique identifier and first metadata for each mailpiece to be sorted on the first sorter;
- sorting the first batch of mailpieces on the first sorter in accordance with the first sort scheme, wherein a subset of mailpieces of the first batch is sorted to the at least one designated sortation bin;
- during sorting of the second batch of mailpieces on the second sorter, sorting the subset of mailpieces transferred to the second sorter from the at least one designated bin of the first sorter;
- for each mailpiece of the subset, establishing second metadata and associating the second metadata with the unique identifier;
- for each mailpiece of the subset, based on an common unique identifier, integrating the first and second metadata to establish third metadata used to generate a non-duplicative record;
- and
- generation a mailing report, the mailing report containing selected data items of the non-duplicative record for each unique identifier.
6 more elements
A sorting system for sortation of mailpieces, the system comprising:
- a first and second sorter, each sorter comprising:
- a feeder for singulating a plurality of mailpieces and feeding the singulated mailpieces into the respective sorter;
- a plurality of sort bins for receiving the singulated mailpieces;
- a reader for reading mailpieces for establishing a unique identifier for each of a plurality of mailpieces;
- a control processor in operable connection with each sorter, the control processor configured to perform steps of:
- during or after sorting of a first batch of mailpieces on the first sorter, receiving and storing established unique identifiers and first metadata from at least each mailpiece of a subset of mailpieces to be transferred to the second sorter;
- during or after sorting of the subset of mailpieces transferred to the second sorter, receiving and storing the established unique identifiers and second metadata from at least the subset of mailpieces;
- for each mail piece of the subset, based on a common unique identifier, integrating the first and second metadata to establish third metadata used to generate a non-duplicative record;
- and
- generation a mailing report, the mailing report containing selected data items of the non-duplicative record for each unique identifier.
7 more elements
A method for performing continuous sortation of mailpieces using a plurality of sorters, the method comprising steps of:
- assigning first and second sortation schemes to first and second sorters, respectively, the first sorter to receive a first batch of mailpieces and the second sorter to receive a second batch of mailpieces;
- designating at least one sortation bin on the first sorter to receive mailpieces to be further processed on the second sorter with the second sortation scheme;
- reading each mailpiece and establishing a unique identifier and first metadata for each mailpiece to be sorted on the first sorter;
- sorting the first batch of mailpieces on the first sorter in accordance with the first sort scheme, wherein a subset of mailpieces of the first batch is sorted to the at least one designated sortation bin;
- for each mailpiece of the subset, setting a processing flag within the first metadata;
- identifying the subset of mailpieces transferred to the second sorter to ensure that a second processing flag is set within second metadata during sortation on the second sorter;
- during sorting of the second batch of mailpieces on the second sorter, sorting the subset of mailpieces transferred to the second sorter from the at least one designated bin of the first sorter;
- for each mailpiece of the subset, establishing the second metadata and associating the second metadata with the unique identifier, each mailpiece of the subset having the second processing flag set within the second metadata;
- for each mailpiece of the subset having a first and second processing flag and a common unique identifier, integrating the first and second metadata to establish third metadata used to generate a non-duplicative record;
- and
- generation a mailing report, the mailing report containing selected data items of the non-duplicative record for each unique identifier.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.