William Howard Hart

US Patent:

20090107086, Apr 30, 2009

Filed:

Oct 30, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/981364

Inventors:

Joseph J. Keane - Souderton PA, US
Donato C. Farole - Lehighton PA, US
Clare E. Woodman - Norwalk CT, US
Karl H. Schumacher - Guildford CT, US
William G. Hart - Sandy Hook CT, US
Andrew N. Percival - Teston, GB
Hersch Reich - Antwerpen, BE

International Classification:

B65B 11/48

US Classification:

53206, 53460

Abstract:

A system for providing real-time, integrated production of individually addressed sealed envelopes containing personalized printed material matched to individual addresses, the system including at least one printing controller capable of receiving personalized printing data from at least one data source, the personalized printing data including envelope address information for a multiplicity of envelopes and personalized envelope contents information which varies for the multiplicity of envelopes and is matched to individual envelope addresses, the at least one printing controller being operative to merge and order the personalized printing data from the at least one data source such that it is printed in a desired distribution sorting order, selected to optimize postal savings in bulk mailings and at least one production facility for the individually addressed sealed envelopes containing personalized printed material matched to individual addresses, each of the at least one production facility including at least one digital printer operative to print the personalized printing data including the envelope address information for a plurality of envelopes to be formed from a substrate and the personalized envelope contents information for contents of the plurality of envelopes, at least one cutting stage receiving a printed output from the at least one digital printer and being operative to cut at least one of envelope sheets according to an envelope shaped blank and envelope contents sheets, at least one content-containing envelope formation stage operative to wrap the envelope sheets over the envelope contents sheets and thereby create sealed individually addressed envelopes containing personalized content matched thereto and a bundling stage, gathering and bundling the sealed individually addressed envelopes containing personalized contents matched thereto in the desired distribution sorting order.