Incomplete Bundle Identification System

Incomplete Bundle Identification System (IBIS) Application:

The US Postal Service has recently imposed more stringent requirements on bindery production for postal rate discount qualification.  Disqualification and associated higher mailing rates are a function of how reordered books are handled in the bindery process.  Reordered books in many cases do not make it into the correct bundle and, therefore, are out of mailing sequence or even worse, end up in the mixed mail mailbag.

The IBIS enables bindery line operators to efficiently match re-orders to their correct bundle. The IBIS performs this function by identifying those bundles with missing (reordered) books and displays the bundle number and the number of missing books on a large overhead LED display.  This allows the operators at the end of the line to pull those bundles for insertion with the re-orders when they arrive at their station.  Bundles with missing books are registered within milliseconds of the identification of an out of sequence condition.  New bundles added to the display blink the number of missing books for thirty seconds to alert operators to pull the identified bundle.  When there are no bundles with missing books, then the current bundle number is only identified on the overhead displayed.

Using the IBIS will mean there is consistently less mixed mail and a larger number of qualifying bundle counts in your production runs.  Depending upon run size the return on investment in a IBIS can be as quick as one month based on mailing cost savings alone.

System description:

The system was designed to:

1. Take an input from a 9416 printer interface board (PIB)

2. Decode the signals to determine the book sequence number and bundle number

3. Determine if a book is missing using the sequence number given.

4. Display the bundle number from which the book was missing followed by he number of missing products for that bundle.  The display would scroll old bundles off the screen as new ones were added.

The system is composed of three main components; 9416 interface, micro controller, and large moving LED display.  All the parts selected are “off-the-self” components with the exception of the specific wiring which is unique to the system.  The micro controller is programmed with a custom application that handles the entire system control and monitors the production line.

The moving LED signs are available in a range of sizes and options.  The options are basically either color (red/green/amber) or just red.  The size can be either one or two lines with varying number of characters that can be displayed per line.

Installation:

The stand-alone system was designed to be an easy to integrate and install by plant personnel.  The elements of installation consists of:

1. Setup print controller (tape formatting) to output necessary information <book separator>BUNDLE:SEQUENCE_NUMBER<book separator>

2. Connect PIB board to system interface.

3. Connect all power connections.

4. Connect micro controller to moving LED display.

5. Connect micro controller to 9416 interface device.

Options:

One Line Displays

Example of 330 LED display.

The display format is:  Bundle Number / Number of products. 

• 215R/C (red/color) Series one line LED Display
  - 2.1 inch high characters
  - 1 - 2 bundles displayed

• 220C (color) Series one line LED Display
  - 2.1 inch high characters
  -  2 - 4 bundles displayed

• 320C (color) Series One Line LED Display
  -  3.1 inch high characters
  -  2 - 4 bundles displayed

• 330C (color) Series one line LED Display
  - 3.1 inch high characters
  -  3 - 4 bundles displayed

Two Line Displays

Example of 4120R LED display.

The display format is:  Bundle Number on upper line and  Number of Products on lower line.

• 4080C/R (red/color) Series two line LED Display
  -  .7 inch high characters
  -  1 – 4 bundles displayed

• 4120C/R (color/red) Series two line LED Display
  - 2.1 inch high characters
  -  3 – 9 bundles displayed

Optional customization for specific application requirements is also available.