초록 ▼

The invention relates to the fields of postal stamps, automated postal sorter machines, sorting processes, and postal metering devices. The prior art of postal stamps and processing systems failed to provide for automatic sorting and processing without replacing the usual stamp with a machine printe

The invention relates to the fields of postal stamps, automated postal sorter machines, sorting processes, and postal metering devices. The prior art of postal stamps and processing systems failed to provide for automatic sorting and processing without replacing the usual stamp with a machine printed decal thus: (1) depriving the ordinary stamp user from using the system which requires a special stamp printing machine, and (2) destroying the philatelic nature of the stamp for the hobby of stamp collecting. The invention solves these problems by providing a multi-part stamp where machine readable data are entered by the ordinary user without the need for a special machine. One portion of the stamp (42) includes the ordinary stamp attributes thereon and another portion (43) carries marking indicia (47) and (48) which are to be filled with the information of the points of origin and destination. The stamp portions may be separated along lines of perforation, resulting in one piece being the typical unaffected stamp collected by millions of stamp collectors. In addition, automatic postal sorting apparatus, sorting process, and a metering device which all use the new features of the invented stamp are introduced to facilitate the implementation of the automatic sorting of mail.

대표청구항 ▼

A mail sorting process for sorting mail, each mail piece having thereon at least one postal stamp, each postal stamp having at least two surfaces at least one of which is ungummed, said stamp being formed of at least two separate pieces, one piece of said stamp containing on its ungummed surface som

A mail sorting process for sorting mail, each mail piece having thereon at least one postal stamp, each postal stamp having at least two surfaces at least one of which is ungummed, said stamp being formed of at least two separate pieces, one piece of said stamp containing on its ungummed surface some markings that may define the attributes of said stamp, another piece of said stamp containing on its ungummed surface indicia for entering with a tool special codes identifying both the origination and destination mailing centers where such entering can be detected and read by a scanning device, the same piece of said stamp having at least one distinct marking printed for use as a reference frame to alert said scanning device in determining the location and orientation of said special codes of each of said origination and said destination mailing centers, said same piece of said stamp having a different marking printed thereon which defines the monetary value of said stamp, said marking being detectable and readable by either said scanning device or by a similar scanning device, the process comprising the steps of; triggering the scanning device of a scanning machine by the reference frame markings printed on the stamps affixed on a mail piece to be sorted in association with both the origination and destination identifier codes, reading identifier codes at any orientation angle and the postal monetary value marking printed on each stamp by another scanning device, storing the read information temporarily in said machine, adding up the total monetary value of said stamps, storing this added up monetary value temporarily, calculating the postal distance between two read origination and destination codes based on preset tables, weighing the mail piece and storing the weight value temporarily, computing the postage fee value by employing the postal distance and the measured weight and storing said values temporarily, comparing the read total postage value affixed to said mail piece to the required postage fee value as compared earlier, and marking the mail piece before routing to a special container for further special processing if the comparison indicates that postage is due.