Paper Counting?

[arossetti]

We have a monthly postcard mailer (35m) that we run digital. Through the post office tracking software in accuzip we notice that we are missing some pieces. We would like to ensure the customer that all pieces leave our facility but how can we count the postcards before mailing?

We have a digital counting scale but since we are dealing with toner the variation in toner amounts per piece can throw off the counts. We have thought about a digital caliper also but depending on the amount of pressure we use to hold the stack that could change the stack height, and if we measure at different parts of the postcard the toner layer could add up.

Any thoughts? Do they make a counting machine like they do for money?

Additionally we are talking about a small number that we are off maybe 75 of the 35,000 however we would like to be able to confidently blame the post.

[Al Ferrari]

Vacuumatic - World leaders in paper counting technology

and Google "paper counting" for other options.

Al

[arossetti]

Thank you for your very informative post Al. Unfortunately we are not in the market for a $10,000+ piece of equipment for this job. Does anyone else have any industry tips/tricks to accurately count with a few hundred dollar budget? Or a way to normalize the per piece weight / thickness of a digitally printed postcard?

[dabob]

Are you printing variable data on them????? If you are just add a "count" field in 5 pt. light face font in an out of the way corner. . . . that was each piece will be #er and you will be able to track what happens to the missng pices (at least in you shop}

[ondemandbindery]

You know, look at that percentage. You actually do a great job with that low of a loss. You are probably in the .2 percent range. I do not know of any machine that is realistically that accurate. Well I say that and if I had to put any thought into how to tighten up the margin it would most likely have to be some type of a camera system. There is always a percentage that will never reach the end users in this industry. Yes I have dealt with producing some projects that were exceptions in reference to waste but across the board I would take that number all day long. Anything you try to do to improve that number is going to go easily 4 digits to the left of the decimal point cost wise.

HTH,

John

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

with a good digital counting scale and a big enough sample maybe 50 - 100 piece you should be able to accurately count, slight difference in toner will not throw off a big sample...

[Craig]

Are you using Accutrace to track the mailers? If so I believe they told me that not every piece is always scanned at the Post Office. I would, with great confidence put blame on the Post Office, they screw more stuff up than anyplace I know. How such an inept group can stay in business... oh wait their funded by the Govt. that's why!!

[Printdog]

Count the sheets before you run them through the digital machine the keep track of waste and you will know the end count for sure.

[narseman]

We have a digital counting scale but since we are dealing with toner the variation in toner amounts per piece can throw off the counts.....
....... we are off maybe 75 of the 35,000 however we would like to be able to confidently blame the post.

Toner variation will average out after about 50 for a sample. So sample it at say 200 pieces, and it very unlkely to be off by much at all. (Bigger samples, smaller batches).

Oh yea.. I'm confident. You CAN blame the post.