The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 08, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 16, 1999
Guido De Leo, Genoa, IT;
Elsag SpA, Genoa, IT;
Abstract
A method for clearing outputs of a mail sorting machine concurrently with a current sorting cycle of a mail sorting process is disclosed. At each sorting cycle, each output of the sorting machine is assigned a number of respective delivery locations of the mail items. An indication of the time intervals when the outputs are available or unavailable, is represented by a matrix. Each element in the matrix is assigned a delivery location; and the column and row of each element represents the outputs occupied, by the mail items bearing the delivery location assigned to the box, at the end of the current sorting cycle and the logically preceding sorting cycle respectively. The method provides for defining non-addressable elements to which delivery locations cannot be assigned, so that the outputs may be cleared by a clearing resource at that time.