Abstract: The mailpiece sorting machine includes a bin sorting conveyor (1) that acts under the control of a control unit (4) to move the bins (3) over sorting outlets (S1, S2, Sn) having removable storage trays (5). The control unit is suitable for detecting (20) that a current mailpiece has a destination address that does not correspond to an available sorting outlet in the machine. If such a situation is detected, a manipulator robot (R) comes to replace the tray of a sorting outlet with an empty tray (or with a tray already containing mail for the same destination address) into which the current mailpiece is sorted, while the replaced tray is placed on standby on a rack (8).

Abstract: A method of merging a postal article (3) with machine-sorted mail arriving in a stack and on edge in an ordered sequence of mail articles (12), the method comprising steps consisting firstly in forming a digital image of said postal article (3), the image including a postal delivery address (6), then, on the basis of data produced in said sorting machine and of said digital image, in determining in said ordered sequence of mail articles (12) a location at which said postal article (3) is to be inserted in order to perform the merging, and finally in generating an identification signal that visually designates said location directly in the stack so as to assist an operator (5) with performing said merging.

Abstract: A postal sorting machine comprises a conveyor system having a conveyor adapted to move mailpieces along a certain conveyor path along sorting outlets of the sorting machine. The sorting machine includes at least one pass sensor to detect the mailpieces in motion on the conveyor going past at a certain point of the conveyor path and to respond to a detection of the mailpiece by delivering a pass detection signal to a monitoring and control unit which responds to the detection signal by delivering a control signal for an electromechanical actuator of the conveyor. The pass sensor is a virtual sensor. A movement tracking system generates digital images of the mailpieces. An emulator generates 3D-modeled mailpieces and detects interactions between the 3D-modeled mailpieces a 3D model of the conveyor to generate the pass detection signal.

Abstract: A method of merging a postal article (3) with machine-sorted mail arriving in a stack and on edge in an ordered sequence of mail articles (12), the method comprising steps consisting firstly in forming a digital image of said postal article (3), the image including a postal delivery address (6), then, on the basis of data produced in said sorting machine and of said digital image, in determining in said ordered sequence of mail articles (12) a location at which said postal article (3) is to be inserted in order to perform the merging, and finally in generating an identification signal that visually designates said location directly in the stack so as to assist an operator (5) with performing said merging.

Abstract: A conveyor system includes a conveyor (4) adapted to move articles (3) along a certain conveyor path, at least one pass sensor designed to detect an article in motion on the conveyor going past at a certain point of the conveyor path and to respond to a detection of the article going past by delivering a pass detection signal (SD) to a monitoring and control unit (8) via a field-bus (9), is characterized in that it further includes a tracking system (10) suitable for generating digital images containing the articles in motion in the conveyor, in that the pass sensor is a virtual sensor represented in a 3D digital model of the conveyor, and in that it includes an emulator (11) configured to transform the images generated by the tracking system into pass detection signals that are delivered to the monitoring and control unit via the field-bus.