All shipments of direct marketing materials arrive at the sorting centres in plastic crates that are stacked onto wheeled containers. Upon arrival the shipments are weighed and the letters or catalogues counted. The resulting data is checked against the shipping documents and printed out on a ticket.
The HGW-I indicator is equipped with an internal memory for storing client names, product types and tare weights. When an operator lifts a container, the indicator first asks him to enter the type of container and the type and number of plastic crates in the container. From these data the scale computes the total tare weight of the shipment. Then the indicator prompts the operator to enter the type of mail. From its memory the indicator activates the piece weight attached to this type and calculates the number of envelopes or catalogues in the shipment. If the shipment is divided over several containers, the scale adds up the results into totals. Finally a ticket is printed that shows date and time, the client’s name, the weight of the mailing shipment, number and type of envelopes in the mailing, and the destination of the shipment within Deutsche Post.
When a shipment consists of catalogues stacked directly onto a single container, the software programme can be bypassed and the weight of the shipment is simply checked against the weight declared on the shipping documents and printed out when necessary.
We can memorise the weight of the different crates, as well as data about client names and sorting centre. The memorised crate weights make the actual weighing process much easier, as there is no complicated calculations to be done in case of a mix of different crates. That makes for less errors.