Thursday, March 15, 2018

Proving Accuracy With Postcard Mailers Production

By Jose Graham


Camera verification (including personalized document matching) is becoming common throughout the print, mail, & packaging industries. Older used mailing equipment is being updated more and more with new camera verification attachments and software. The following article will lead us through the topic Proving accuracy with Postcard Mailers production.

Most new direct mail equipment either already can match mail, or it has straightforward procedures to upgrade the unit. The move towards electronic verification comes from two primary trends within the market: An increased regulatory climate. More government regulations require companies to account for all documents or mailing pieces that run through their equipment.

Form Mail is compatible with almost every first PCL based inkjet printer in the mailing industry. This includes Secap, Rena, Pitney Bowes, Neopost, Hasler, and even older printers like Bryce and Astro. The appropriate driver automatically loads a template that shows the position of the cartridges in that specific printer. FlexMail also supports some of the higher-end cartridge printers, such as XiJet, Domino L-Series, Walco, and more.

In the first one, you have a standard six pocket inserter. One piece of the package is pulled from a pocket and dropped into a slot. The plot moves forward, where the inserter falls the next section on top, and so on. At the end of the process, the whole package is inserted into an envelope.

To make the 'package' personalized (having the envelope address match a name or address inside the package itself), you would have to print both items (the envelope and the contents of the container) in advance and "spot check" the inserting process every ten pieces or so. Not only that, but you would have to check them BEFORE the envelopes are sealed, which turns the sealing into an entirely new process. That puts a significant drag on production, and the process itself is still subject to error-a lot of error.

A two camera mail matching system can speed things up a little, but the envelopes would still have to be printed in advance. And the two stacks even have to be in perfect order or else you'd have to shut everything down to match it up again. In the second scenario, you roll up an inkjet address printer to the end of the inserter. The address printer prints the correct name on the outside of each envelope (to match the personalized documents inside).

Checking for correct orientation On a Printed Page. If an operator merges two stacks of printed material, what if they place a handful of pages upside-down or backward? A camera system can detect this and stop a folder or some other piece of finishing equipment. Read-Write & Track. If you have a personalized document, page, or signature, and it has to match an outer record that is also customized, it's much easier to print the outside material "on the fly" as opposed to pre-printing and matching.

These are only the tip of the iceberg. Camera verification has become a powerful tool, capable of many verification & reporting tasks. From logging files to sequencing to file auditing, the ability is readily available. What's more, the price for such camera verification equipment has come down substantially in the past years. To start verifying your jobs with camera systems, contact your mailing equipment vendor and find out what's available for your specific budget.




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