JP2003225619A - Sorting overprinter for mail - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rationalized automatic apparatus which enables the most low-cost delivery by utilizing not only the mail delivery but also the door- to-door delivery service and the posting dealer in combination with respect to mails sent for all the country and, therefor, allows the contents of announcing the delivery dealers to be printed on the mails. <P>SOLUTION: This sorting overprinter for mail is constituted by providing the data to be overprinted in accordance with code information such as zip code as data base and having a printing means 3 which reads the code information of the mail 1 and performs the overprinting of the relevant dealer mark 1b, etc. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention specifies a delivery company or the same delivery company for the purpose of delivering the postal matter to an envelope on which a predetermined printing is performed in advance at the lowest cost. In order to clearly indicate that it is a rate discount adaptation item,
The present invention relates to a device for performing additional printing (additional printing) on the envelope. Further, the present invention is mainly used in the mail delivery business for shipping a large number of DMs / bills and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Needless to say, it is a big problem to deliver the postal matter at a low cost in the delivery of the postal matter. In the past, these mail items were limited to delivery means only by mail, but the trend in recent years is that they are delivered via private courier companies such as Yamato Transport Co., Ltd., or posting companies that are being organized in each region of the country. Has become. So, the problem that may arise is that it is necessary to inform the recipient of the route that the mail was delivered. Therefore, at present, for mail items delivered by routes other than mail, a carrier label is affixed to display the name of the carrier, or many types of envelopes with different printed contents are prepared and selected. However, the reality is that the contents are enclosed and handled.

[0003]

As described above, at the shipping processing site where hundreds of thousands of mails are processed per day, the work itself of attaching the dealer seal leads to a great increase in cost, and various types of work are required. Even when stocking envelopes, it is difficult to flexibly respond to each delivery company, which fluctuates day by day, which is a factor that hinders the best choice of total cost. In the present application, although it is expressed as a postal matter as a word, it is assumed that the postal matter is delivered by a route other than the postal matter, and the delivery is actively performed using a distribution route other than the postal matter. We will provide system equipment that can respond promptly to the era of cost reduction and rational processing at the work site.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] That is, a code for reading code information such as a postal code or a work number written on a postal matter.
It is equipped with a code information reading means and selects the additional printing content assigned to the code information read by the reading means from the data base in which the additional printing content is registered in advance for each of the code information. There is provided a sorting and reprinting device for mail, comprising a search means and a printing means such as an ink jet printer for printing the reprint content corresponding to the mail read by the reading means. It is a thing. Then, we mainly propose a device that performs additional printing to notify the delivery company of the post that displays mail, courier service and posting company, etc., and also displays the above-mentioned charge discount category of the delivery company as necessary. Including prints, displays regarding delivery date and time of delivery companies, and various service providers
Provided is a system device capable of additionally printing on a postal matter on which a predetermined printing has been performed, with a content indicating that it is a screw applied product and further including other purposes.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a sorting and overprinting device for postal matter of the present invention. 1 in the figure
Is a mail item, 2 is a camera that images the address display part of the contents through the envelope window of the mail item 1, 3 is installed on the lower side of the camera in the conveying direction, and the mailer 1 is contactless Inkjet printer for printing mark 1b, 4 is a personal computer. Further, in the state shown in the drawing, the contents are already enclosed and loaded on the right side of the drawing by a known supply means,
The figure shows a state in which they are sequentially conveyed and supplied to the left side one by one. Then, first, of the address display portion printed on the contents through the window of the mail 1, the postal code, for example, is imaged by the camera 2, and the information is input to the personal computer 4.
The input information is processed by software in a personal computer to be recognized, and is processed as follows.

That is, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the information from the image pickup means 2 such as a camera, in other words, the code information represented by the postal code 1a is used as the recognition data, and then the reprint content DB
The additional print content data assigned to the data is searched from (data base), and the inkjet printer 3 is activated based on the content, whereby the postal matter 1 is sent. Additional printing of a pre-designated delivery company mark 1b etc.

Next, the additional printing content DB will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. First, when a zip code is used as the code information, a reprint number is assigned to each zip code. In the illustrated table of FIG. 3, each upper three digit number is divided into groups, and the additional printing contents are registered differently.
In addition, instead of the postal code, the example shown on the left side of the table
The case where the work serial number is used as the code information to carry out the present invention is also described. Usually, in this kind of shipping work, the work number is often given for the sake of confirmation of the number of works, but it can be handled as the code information in the present application if necessary. Then, in this case, the additional printing number is assigned to each group, and the additional printing number defining the additional printing content is assigned to each group. Of course, in this case, it is obvious that the code reading means such as the camera picks up the work number.

In addition to the postal code or work number, code information such as a member number assigned to each addressee is also included.
You can also use the ID number. Each of these numbers is usually printed in advance on the address part of the contents in a predetermined typeface such as an OCR font, but in some cases, it is printed in bar code. Therefore, when the bar code printed is used as the code information, a well-known bar code reader is used instead of the image pickup camera to serve as the code information reading means. In the case of an envelope with a window, the code information is usually printed on the address printing section of the enclosed object, but in the case of an envelope without a window, it is directly printed on the front side of the envelope. It is printed or printed on the attached address label.

Next, FIG. 4 will be described. Figure 4
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of print content corresponding to the additional printing number described in FIG. 3. In the figure, an additional printing number 001 is registered as such print data when the mail is designated as a delivery company and the mail is postpaid postage. Similarly, for 002, postal mail is designated and such print data is registered in the case of paying by the fee receiver. As described above, even when the mail is used as a delivery company, it is not limited to only notifying the mail carrier, but also includes an indication that the rate discount is applied or various other service applications are made. The additional printing content is registered with the content including the above, and the data base according to the present application is configured. In addition, the next reprint number 003
Shows an example in which print contents are delivered by a local posting company, not by mail, and data is registered for the purpose of notifying the name of the company.

[0010] Further, in 004, in the case of a courier service delivered on a nationwide scale, various contents including not only the name of the trader but also the application of various services as in the case of the above-mentioned mail are provided. You can register in the mark format. As described above, in the present application, a large amount of mail items to be sent at one time are grouped based on predetermined code information, and the reprint content is registered for each group and automatically deleted. -By searching and selecting from the base, a combination of the cheapest delivery companies is used to process the large amount of mail. By the way, more specifically, if this work is done in Tokyo, a posting company is cheaper than a postal service in Tokyo, a courier service is available in Saitama / Chiba and other Kanto to Kansai regions, and a postal service is far away in Hokkaido or Okinawa. cheap. If there is such a situation, sorting these mail items and entrusting them to the respective delivery companies makes it possible to maximize the delivery cost as a total.

Next, the printing means for printing the additional printing contents registered at the time when the mail arrives on the mail read by the code information reading means, the most preferable one is traveling. It is equipped with an ink jet printer capable of performing printing based on the data in a personal computer for a mail piece that is used. As a specific device name, a print head system (model: FBM Mailjet420) handled by Pitney Bowes Japan or an inkjet printer manufactured by Cytex (US) (for example, model: S6240J) can be used. In addition, this kind of inkjet printer,
Various types are known, such as an aqueous type, an oil type, or a solid ink type that is melted and liquefied by heat depending on the type of ink, and it is sufficient to appropriately select and have them for carrying out the present invention, and in the future. It is considered that various printers will be put on the market by another method, but the printing means in the present application is not necessarily limited to the inkjet method.

Further, the apparatus according to the embodiment shown in FIG.
Although it was intended to be used for encapsulated mail with the contents encapsulated, although the inclusion was not encapsulated yet, the inclusion and the envelope were not separated in the enclosure (inserter). It is also possible to configure the embodiment apparatus capable of performing the above-mentioned additional printing for the envelope under the condition that is surely specified. That is, an imaging camera or a bar code reader
The code information reading means such as is arranged so as to act on the address printing section before being enclosed in the envelope, and before or after the object to be encapsulated is enclosed in the envelope, further with respect to the envelope being encapsulated. The printing means is arranged so that additional printing can be performed. The word "postal matter" refers to a fixed letter, a fixed letter, various postcards, parcels, etc. delivered by the delivery route called "Post" organized by the current Post Office. A thing is not always a mail rule
It is not always guaranteed that all deliveries will be delivered to the recipient by private delivery routes other than postal delivery.

Regarding the additional printing content, a part of the specific example is illustrated in FIG. 4, but it should be additionally noted that registration of the content that nothing is printed is also included. In this case, needless to say, the postal matter read by the code information reading means is not additionally printed even when it reaches the installation position of the printing means. In addition to the registration of data about what marks or characters are to be added and printed for the additional print contents, the print position, the color of the ink used, and other general print It is also possible to freely configure the data including the data that defines the specifications.

[0014]

As is apparent from the embodiments described in detail, the present invention makes it possible, when shipping a large amount of postal products nationwide, for each postal code group indicating a delivery area or for each work number group. It has the effect that different delivery companies can specify the delivery method with the lowest total cost to carry out the shipping work, and that the automatic reprinting and printing of postal items makes it possible to use different types of materials such as envelopes. It also has the effect that it can be reduced. In particular, in view of the recent trend of logistics in which the diversification of private delivery companies other than postal delivery is fluctuating significantly on a nationwide scale, extremely high responsiveness is obtained, and in order to manage delivery costs in total, industry industry has It is certain that it will make a great contribution to this.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an embodiment of a sorting and additional printing device for postal matter of the present application.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining details of the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an additional printing content data base of the embodiment apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view for explaining details of the additional printing content data base.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ・ ・ Postal matter, 1a ・ ・ Postal code, 1b ・ ・ Merchant mark, 2 ・
・ Imaging means, 3 ・ ・ Printing means, 4 ・ ・ PC

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A code information reading means for reading code information such as a postal code or a work number written on a postal matter, a database in which reprint contents are registered in advance in each of the code information. -Printing such as search means for selecting the additional printing content assigned to the code information read by the reading means, an inkjet printer for printing the additional printing content corresponding to the mail read by the reading means A sorting and reprinting device for mail, characterized by being configured with means. [Claim 2] The reprinting content includes postage, courier service, and display content for notifying the delivery agent of the postal item indicating the posting agent, etc. Printing equipment. 3. The postal sorting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the reprint content includes a display of a charge discount category of the delivery company. 4. The claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the reprint content includes an indication regarding the service content of the delivery company.
Alternatively, the sorting and reprinting device for mail according to claim 3.