Conventional postage meters have the ability to determine the weight of a mailing, calculate the postage charge by an electronic means, and print this charge on the mailing. The payment for such a charge is then either debited from a previously charged memory or paid in cash to an employee who operates the machine in a postal office. It is generally known that these devices are used for the efficient and economical stamping of postcards, letters, and packages but that they can not significantly improve the automation of the further sorting and tracking process because such mailings must go through an additional postage checking procedure. Even in the best of solutions, these mailings can be sorted only by comparatively slow scanning procedures performed by photosensitive means with a comparatively low first read rate.
Generally known devices which have the ability to print horizontally oriented clocked code on a mailing significantly improve the sorting process but demand complicated handling because such a code must be precisely printed relative to an envelope's lower edge so that both the clock and information tracks line up with their appropriate reading head. Consequently, the location of the face of a mailing is particularly important and only single-pass scanning by photosensitive transducers is possible which makes the sorting process comparatively slow and uneconomical.
Hence, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device with the ability to weigh a mailing by electronic means and, based on its destination and other data entered on an alphanumerical keyboard, automatically print any required data in the form of laser readable bar code on the mailing or on a self-adhesive label to be stuck on the mailing for the purpose of enabling a completely automatic sorting and tracking process. When using any of the bar code types which are readable by a multi-pass laser scanning means installed on both sides of a mailing driving conveyor found in sorting hubs, an extremely fast and completely automatic sorting and tracking process with an almost perfect first read rate is achievable.
Considering the fact that some countries have an alphanumeric zip code and that a combination of two letters is the most suitable form of coding, either for a country code or a special request code, an alphanumeric type bar code is preferred for use with the present invention. By printing an alphanumeric bar code on a mailing, the present invention enables faster sorting and tracking of international mail traffic because this code allows one to choose a different two-letter code for each country and for a reasonable number of special requests while occupying very little space on the mailing itself.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device which is able to accept payment by a variety of means including by cash or check paid to an employee, or by debit cards, various types of credit cards, or IC cards. In accordance with the present invention, all of these payment means can be used, thereby giving the invention a significant advantage, particularly in countries where the postal and telephone systems are owned by the same company and where, therefore, the postage can be debited from a pay-phone debit card or be automatically charged to a customer's telephone bill. When used in corporate mail rooms, in addition to printing a bar code on the outgoing mail, the present invention can be used for printing a bar code on the internal mail so that it too can be economically and automatically sorted.