GB2248133A

GB2248133A - Mail handling system

Info

Publication number: GB2248133A
Application number: GB9020413A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Dennis Thomas Gilham
Original assignee: Alcatel Business Systemes SA; Alcatel Business Systems Ltd
Current assignee: ALE International SAS; Nokia UK Ltd
Priority date: 1990-09-19
Filing date: 1990-09-19
Publication date: 1992-03-25
Also published as: EP0476984A3; EP0476984A2; GB9020413D0

Description

1 MAIL HANDLING SYSTEM This invention relates to systems for handling mail

items and in particular to systems for sorting mail items in accordance with predetermined criteria.

Postal Authorities offer discounted postage charges to users of the mail service who send large volumes of mail and pre-sort the mail items into bundles determined by destination addresses of the items. When a plurality of mail items such as advertising material are addressed using a mailing list held in a computer database, addresses in the mailing list can be sorted such that the mail items are prepared in the sorted order and hence the items can be franked or postage charges otherwise accounted for and can be handled subsequently to retain the mail items in an order determined by their destination addresses. While such systems enable senders of bulk mail o L_ obtain advantage rates of postage charge, senders of large volumes of mail items such as normal correspondence are usually unable to prepare the mail items in sorted order and hence are unable to qualify for discounted postage charges.

According to one aspect of the present invention a mail 25 handling system includes means to read destination data on mai. tems. a rotating carrier to receive mail items from said reading means; a plurality of mail item bins arranged in a circular formation below the rotating carrier to receive mail items from the carrier and means operable in reSDonse to the destination data read from a mail item to transfer that mail item from the carrier to a selected one of said bins assigned to the destination data read from '-hat mall item.

According to a second aspect of the invention a mail item handling system comprises a plurality of bins arranged in a circular formation around a central hub; a rotatable 1) carrier mounted on said central hub for indexing rotation relative to said bins; said carrier including a plurality of mail item receiving pockets overlying said bins; each pocket including means normally operative to retain a mail item therein and selectively operable to release a mail item therefrom; a plurality of actuator means associated one with each bin respectively and each actuator being selectively operable to operate said mail retaining means of a selected pocket to cause release of a mail item from 10 said selected Docket into the bin associated with the operated actuator; reading means to read destination data from mail items; feeding means to feed mail items sequent.ially past the reading means to the pockets of the rotatable carrier; drive means to rotate the carrier is sucn t alignment thalt said Dockets are hrought sequentially into with said feeding means, said feeding means being operated to feed a single mail item into that pocket aligned therewith; and means operative in response to said destiaation data read from each mail item to operate said actuators such as to release each mail item from t1he pockets of '%.he carrier into the selected bins in dependence upon said destinatLon data.

in o the invention w11 be described by way of - 1 I_ L J_ exam.Die with reference to the drawings in which:Figure 1 is a general view of a system in accordance with t he invention, Figure 2 is sectional view through a portion of a rotating mail carrier and a bin of a mail receiving rack, 0 Figure 3 is a radial section through the rotating carri-er and the mail receiving rack, Figure 4 illustrates a mechanism for releasing a mail item from t.he carrier into a bin of the rack, Figure 55 is a block diagram of an electronic control for the mail handling system, and Figure 6 is a flow chart of the operation of the mail hand!.- I,..L z system.

3 Referring first to Figure 1, a mail item handling system includes a sorting rack 10 having a plurality of mail item receiving bins 11 arranged in circular formation around central hub 12. A circular mail carrier 13 in the form of a carousel is disposed above the sorting rack and is rotatable on the hub relative to the sorting rack 10. The carrier 13 comprises a plurality of mail receiving pockets 14 defined by walls 15 extending in a substantially radial direction. The bins l! of the sorting rack are identical. 10 Similarly, Accordingly the pockets 14 of the carrier are identical.

it will. be understood that description hereinafter relating to any bin or any Docket applies to all zhe bins and to all the pockets respectively.

Mail:.tems 16 are fed hv feeding means, not shown, along a feed path extending radially of the carrier 13 one at a -i--me through a reading and printing module 17 and thence intc the pockets 14 cf the carrier 13. The mail items are disposed in a vertical plane while being fed through the modu-,e 17 and hence, if the items are disposed in a 1 Dlane when fed from a hopper or franking -ach.ine to the moduie 17, the feeding means includes --nea- ns t 0 L rotate -::he mail items from a horizontal i =Dcs:.- -on to a vertical disvosition.

horizonta The -feeding means also includes means to check that the dimensions of each mail, item are withinpredetermined li: item found to have a dimension L-mil::s and any mail exceeding the predetermined limit therefor is ejected into 30 a re3ect bin.

The module 17 includes reading means to read the destination address and post code of each mail item which is feed through the module. The module 17 also includes printing means operable to print a code, for example a bar code. on each mail item to enable further handling of the 4 mail items under control of signals obtained from reading of the bar code. The feeding means may have differential speed facility to enable the feeding means to be controlled in such a manner that sufficient time is allowed for the reading of the destination address data and the printing of the bar code of each mail item as it is fed through the module 17 while still carrying out the process of feeding mail items in sequence continuously.

a The module 17 is mounted such that, after being fed -ems are fed into that one of through the module 17, mail it the Dockets 14 of the carrier which is aligned with the module 17. The carrier 13 is rotated in steps such that the pockets are brought into alignment sequentially with an outlet feed Dath of the module 17. The carrier may have 250 Dockets and may be rotated in steps at such a rate that a sequence of 50 Dockets are aligned with the outlet of module 17 per minute. A sensor is provided : the module 17 to check that the adjacent the outlet of pocket aligned with the outlet of the module 17 is empty 1 4 and a mai Ltem is ejected from the module 17 into the pocket only if the sensor indicates that the pocket is empty. It will be appreciated that the radially outer end of each Docket is open to receive mail items ejected from.he module -,7.

Each Docket of the carrier is provided with a unique identification mark which on rotation of the carrier passes a sensor on the module 1-7. Accordingly signals outDut from the sensor Drovide an indication of that one of the Dockets which is aligned with the outlet of the module 17 at any time and thereby identifies those ones of the Dockets into which specif.c ones of the mail item are 9 fed respectively.

The sorting rack 1-0 includes a plurality of bins 11 less 33 and 7, number than the number of pockets in the carrier L n c i for example may include 64 bins. Each bin is capable of stacking a quantity of mail items as is shown in Figure 2. Each pocket of the carrier is provided with a bottom panel 18 which is pivotally mounted on the carrier. The bottom panels of the pockets are normally in a closed position to retain a mail item in the pocket and are selectively movable to an open position to release a mail item from the pocket. As shown JIn Figure 2, the bottom panel 18 of pocket 14n has been moved to its open position to release the mail item into the hin 1.1b. A guide 19 extends partially across the bin and slopes downwards in the direction of travel of the Dockets 14. When the bottom panel of a pocket is moved to its open position, the mail item drops into engagement with the guide and is carried by the carrier across the guide until it finally drops -n.:e, the bin. A continuously rotating paddle 20 knocks he mail item and causes 1-o fall from its vertical orien.ration onto the sloping base of the bin or onto the top of mail items previously received in the bin. The upper part of ithe bin _Js provided, adjacent the downstream thereof with a cam face 22 effective to engage the bottom Danel as -1t passes the cam face and thereby to move he --,.tom panel to its clesed position so that the pocket,4n is ready to receive a further 1.tem of mail when it is next- aligned with the outlet of the module 17.

The --ottom panels may be opened selectively by the mechanism illustrated in Figure 3. The bottom Panel 18 is pivoted on an axis 23 extending radially of the carrier and aligned with a leading wall 15 of the pocket. A member 24 which may be a partial disc is secured to the bottom panel. The disc has a cut away portion 25. Each bin 11 has associated therewith ar. actuator pin operable by an actuator, not shown. The actuator pin 26 is located immediately above the bin with which itis associated such that when the Din is moved to an operated position by its actuator, the pin lies in the Dath of the 6 cut away portion of the disc member 24 and as the carrier is rotated the pin engages the disc member 24 and causes rotation thereof which results in moving of the bottom panel to its open position and consequent release of the mail item into the bin. Figure 4 illustrates the location of the member 24 on the carrier and the actuator pin located on the hub 12. The actuator for actuator pin is located within the hub. The hub carries means 27 to rotatably support the carrier and to apply a -0 stepping drive t index the carrier relative to the bins of the sorting rack.

operating the It Will be appreciated that the mail item retaining means need not comprise a panel but may consist of any member effective to retain a mail item in the Docket and which can be operated to release the mail item as required. For example, instead of a panel the member may comprise a plurality of spaced elements Divotable about the axis 23. The member 424 may be of a form other than a disc with a cut away portion. The essential requirement being that engagement of the - nember by an operated actuator Din causes the mail item retaining means to release a mail item from the Docket. The mail item retaining means may be reset from it mail item release position to its normal mail. --tem retairning 11 n POSItIon as it passes the cam face 24 at the downstream end of the bin as described hereinbefore. However if desired the mail item retaining means may be reset at a single Dositlon located immediately upstream of the feed path outlet of the module 17. It will be appreciated this 'latter arrangement will require sufficient clearance between the bottom of the carrier and the tops of the bins for the passage of any of the bottom Danels which are in the mail item release positi.on.

During operation of the mail handling system, the sorting rack is stationary. However, to facilitate removal of 7 1 stacks of mail items from the bins, the rack may be rotatable to a.1. 4imited extent when the system is in a standby mode. It will be understood that the radially ends Of the bins are open to permit manual removal of the stack of mail items accumulated in the bins. An interlock is provided to ensure that, after such rotation, the rack is relocated with the correct orientation prior to operational use for sorting mail items. It will be appreciated that due to mal-function a mail item released -f-rom a pocket of the carrier may fail to fall clear of the carrier. Toraue control of the drive to Index the carrier may De provided in order to respond to jamming of a mail item and to provide a shut down signal.

The design of handl4ng equipment described hereinbefore Dermits all sensors, actuazors and drlve devices to be housed -:- ---. _ rack part of the L- --- stat--onary sortina equipment.

C:

of the equi=ent is controlled by a computer via a slave controller 28 which may be housed in the module 1 17. As illustrated in zhe block diagram of Figure 5 the slave controller comprises a central processor device 209 such as a mnicroprocessor --c which is connected a read only memory (ROM) 30 storing program sequences for controlling -;,Deraz,iL,,:)n of -the microprocessor, a random access memory (RAM) 3.1 for use by the microprocessor as a working memory and a non-volatile memory (NVM) 32 for storing status data 1 L ri ne event of power failure to enable recovery a' Operation of the equipment after power is restored. The sensor 33 for checking that a pocket 14 aligned with the ou.tL--1e-L cf- the module 17 is empty, sensors 34 for detecting mail items fed by the feeding means to the module 17 and the sensor 35 for sensing the identification mark of the pocket aligned with the module 17 are connected to provide A Inputs -c the microDrocessor 29. output from reading circuits 36 of the module 1.7 are input to the 8 microprocessor and print signals from the microprocessor are output to print control circuits 37 of the module 17.

A motor drive 38 for indexing of the carrier 13 is controlled by the microprocessor via an interface 39. Solenoids 40 of the actuators for operating the pins 26 are energised selectively by the microprocessor via an interface 41. An interlock sensor 42 for indicating that the sorting rack is correctly orientated and a jam detect 10 sensor 43 provide signals to the microprocessor to inhibit 0Deration of the equipment if the sorting rack is not correctly orientated or if a mail. Ltem jam occurs.

An interface 44 provides communication between the microprocessor 29 and a computer 45 which conveniently may be a Dersonal comDu-t'-er. The comDuter 45 operates under the control of application software to provide required control of operation of Lhe microprocessor 29.

2 r Reference to the flow chart of Figure 6 will now be made handling system.

to describe operation of the mail -L After starting operation, the mail.4 J_tem destination data is read and the code is printed on the item. The identification mark of the pocket currently aligned with -he outlet of module 17 is sensed and the pocket is checked to determine if it is empty. If the pocket is not empty. further operation is stopped and a fault signal.4 J. S generated. If the pocket is empty, the mail item ejected;.nto the pocket. Determinations are made as to whether a bin assignment is required corresponding to the destination data read from the mail item and whether there is bin capacity available. If required, a bin is assigned to that destination data. The sensor 35 senses the pocket identifications as the carrier is indexed and when it is ascertained that there is conformity between a pocket holding a mail item and the bin specified to receive that mail item the actuator pin associated with that bin is operated to open the bottom panel of the pocket to release the mail item into the specified bin. Means are provided to determine when a bin is full so as to provide a bin full signal to an operator and so that, when a bin becomes full, a determination can be made as to another bin can be assigned for that destination If there is a bin available, further mail items data are directed to that later When a full bin has been emptied, the sensor is reset manually so that the bin may then continue to receive mail items.

whethei data. having that destination assioned bin.

- W Assignment of bins to correspond to destination addresses r nay be effected in sequence as the address data is read uccessive mai' tems or with reference to an expert - rom S L system software shell, stored in the personal computer 45, which has learned the characteristics of the mailing I- to generate a prediction of the distribution of prc.1f" L addresses of the mail items. If a mailing 210 list is in use, this prediction may be obtained by ref --- nce to the ma.:'.1zi.-ig list. Where required more than one bin may be assigned to a specific destination address cd-. The computer, or the microDrocessor 29 of the slave, may be programmed to maintain a record of the -ems d4 -iumber mail. ill mstributed to each individual bin -he bin full signal together with an and zo generate t on of which bin is full when a predetermined n a t number of mail items has been distributed to any one of Emptying of a bin accompanied by resetting of 3C tie bIn indicator effects resetting of the count of items -zr that bin to zero. The comDuter 45 can display bin -'den-'---'cations of those bins containing sufficient mail - t_ - J_ L ---emsc be banded. Alternatively indicator lights with reset 3 The c. 0 1 assIst jush buttons may be provided on the sorting rack.

-cmDuter may display status indications and messages an operator of the mail'. handling system. A 46 may be connected to the computer 45 to enable reports to be printed. Such reports may provide information relating to use of the system and mailing characteristics to -enable a best match to postal discounted services to be achieved. The printer may also be used to print self adhesive labels for identifying contents of mail bags in accordance with requirements of postal authorities.

In addition to assigning bins to receive ma bearing specified destination address data, one or more bins may be assigned to receive mail items which do not bear address data within the sorting criteria or for which the address data cannot be read by the reading means 1-1. Mail items need not be handled for address 'Lacing prior to 2 to the handling system because any jitems incorrectly orientated may be received in a specifled bin and removed from the bin and fed back into the system by the operator.

-0 n -5 items 11

Claims

1. A mail handling system including means to read destinat.lon data on mail items, a rotating carrier to receive mail items from said reading means; a plurality of mail item bins arranged in a circular formation below the rotating carrier to receive mail items from the carrier and means operable in response to the destination data read from a mail item to transfer that mail item from the to a selected one of said bins assigned to the carrier 11 destination data read from that mail item.

A mail handling system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the carrier comprises a carousel rotatable about an axis and having a plurality of pockets each for receiving a single mail item from the reading means, each pocket being 1 ly radially of 1 defined by walls extend-ng substant-Lal -he carrier and having mail retaining means normally operative tc- rezain a mail item In the pocket and selectively operable to release the mail --tem into a selected one of t In e b _ r. s.

is 3. A mail handling system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the mail retaining means comprises a member normally extending in a mail retaining position adjacent 11'ne bottom of tne Docker between Ithe walls defining the pocket; said member being pivotally mounted and being pivotable from saic- mail, retaining position to a mail release position; a plurali'L--y of actuators associated one with each bin respectively; each said actuator being operable to selectively -c said member engage an element secured 4L d-ng passage of. a selected one of the pockets over the u,-, bin associated with the actuator to pivot the member to Said -aj-1.1 release position and reset means operative to reset the member to -.lie mail retaining position prior to the pocket receiving a further mail item from the reading means.

12 4. A mail item handling system as claimed in claim 2 or 3 including means operative to check that the pocket aligned to receive a mail item from the receiving means is empty.

5. A mail item handling system as claimed in any one of claims 2, 3 or 4 wherein the carrier includes identification marks unique to each pocket thereof and including means to sense said marks to provide an indication of the position of each pocket relative to the bins.

6. A mail item handling system as claimed in any preceding claim including for each bin a guide extending partially over the bin and inclined downwardly in the direction of movement of the carrier, said guide being effectLve to support a lower edge of a mail item released from a pocket of the carrier and to guide the mail item toward a wall located downstream oil the bin in the direction of movement of the carrier.

A -nail item handling system as claimed in claim 6 J.

including means disposed adjacen4L. the downstream wall of each bin operative to cause a mail item guided into the respective bin by the guide to fall from a substantially vertical orientation adjacent the downstream wall onto a - the bin or a stack of - -ed by the base base of items support of the bin.

8. A mail item handl-Ing system as claimed in claim 7 30 wherein the means operative to cause the mail item to fall -he mail comprises a rotatable Daddle effective to knock t item.

9. A mail item handling system as claimed in any preceding clalm including computing means operable to assign a selected bin or bins to receive mail items bearing predetermined address data.

13 10. A mail item handling system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 including computing means operable to assign bins sequentially to receive mail items in dependence upon address data read from the mail items.

11. A mail item handling system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 including computing means operable to bution characteristic of mail to be predict a distrL handled and to assign bins in dependence upon said tion.

predict- 12. A mail item handling system as claimed in any preceding claim including printing means operable to print a code on each mail itern.. the code printed on a mail item being dependent upon destinatJon data read by the reading 1 item.

means from that mai 13. mail item handling system as claimed in any preceding claim including bin status indicator means to provide an indication relating to quantity of mail items received in each bin.

A mail item handling system as claimed in claim 1-3 L J_ ; r L- A.

n which the bin status indicator means provides an 'on when any of le bins is full.

indicatl - th 15. A mail item handling system as claimed in claim 13 or 14 including means tto maintain a record of the number of iterns received in each bin and to operate the bin status Andicator means in accordance with said maintain record.

16. A mail item handling system as claimed in claim 15 including manually operable -reset m.eans to reset the record of the number of items in a selected bin to zero when a stack of received mail items is removed from that bin.

14 handlIng system comprising a plurality of 17. A mail L bins arranged in a circular formation around a central hub; a rotatable carrier mounted on said central hub for indexing rotation relative to said bins; said carrier including a plurality of mail item receiving pockets overlying said bins; each pocket including means normally operative to retain a mail item therein and selectively operable to release a mail item therefrom; a plurality of actuator means associated one with each bin respectively and each actuator being selectively operable to operate said mail retaining means of a selected pocket to cause release of a mail item from said selected pocket into the bin associated with the operated actuator; reading means 4- feeding means to I-o read destination data from mail i ': 1 4tems mai sequentially past the reading means to the I- carrier; drive means to r -oockets of the rotatabJ.- otate - said nockets are brought the carrier such that sequentially into alignment with said feeding means, said Leeding means being operated to feed a single mail item 'CIO into that pocket aligned therewith; and means operative in respo-nse to said destination data read from each mail item to or)erate said actuators such as to reease each mail item from '%.-he nockets of the carrier I-nto the selected bins in dependence upon said destination data.

18. A mail item handling system constructed and arranged to operate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings.

19. A ina-11 1.tem handling system constructed and arranged to operate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 6 of the drawings.

Published 1992 at The Patent Office. Concept House, CaTdiff Road. Newport, Gwent NP9 IRH. Further copies may be obtained from Sales Branch, Unit 6. Nine Mile Point, Cwmfelinfach. Cross Keys, Newport. NPI 7HZ. Printed by Multiplex techniques lid, St Mary Cray. Kent.