Method and device for sorting flat mail items
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorArmin Zimmermann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is specified for sorting flat mail items, which allows sorting according to delivery order to be carried out swiftly and reliably. With the method a first sorting pass is carried out in a first segment with at least N storage modules of a sorting device and a second sorting pass is then carried out in a second segment with at least N storage modules of the sorting device. The overflow items, which are assigned to a storage module that has been closed because it is full, are deposited into one of the other storage modules in the first sorting pass and are included in the sorting process of the second sorting pass.
Claims13
A method for sorting flat mail items with a sorting device having at least a first and a second segment, each of the segments having at least N storage modules, each storage module operable in an insertion mode where flat mail items are inserted into the storage module, and in a withdrawal mode where flat mail items are withdrawn from the storage module, the method comprising the steps of:
- carrying out a first sorting pass in the first segment;
- subsequent to the first sorting pass, carrying out a second sorting pass in the second segment;
- during the first sorting pass, depositing overflow mail items assigned to a storage module that has been closed because it is full into another one of the storage modules, where the another one of the storage modules is operated in the insertion mode;
- subsequently emptying the another one of the storage modules having the overflow mail items, where the another one of the storage modules is operated in the withdrawal mode;
- and
- including the overflow mail items emptied from the another one of the storage modules in the emptying step in a sorting process of the second sorting pass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.