Russian Post – Automatic Letter Sorting

Automatic letter sorting appeared in the USSR in the 60s. 180 letter sorting machines were commissioned and people were taught to write postal codes on envelopes. First attempts to use computer technologies failed due to many circumstances and after collapse of the USSR the post had to return to manual sorting again.

Now in the regions post will be grouped in containers and sent to the automatic letter sorting center in Moscow to be sorted. The center makes a detailed sorting till 3 millions mails a day. Nearly 25% of the country post exchange will be carried out through the Moscow center of automatic letter sorting. The Automatic Letter Sorting Center is the largest center in the Eastern Europe, its square is 29000 m2 where about 900 employees work. The center’s output is 3 million mails a day.

Correspondence inside of one region also will be sent initially to the center, they say it will make the process faster.

Paper correspondence initially goes to CFC (stamping machines).

The machine making interference with mail-bags and dust removal.

Then with help of mechanical devises standard letters and postcards are separated from nonstandard ones.

All the letters automatically face one direction with respect of text direction in the address part.

Making datestamps and waving lines for stamps cancellation (stamping).

Letters sorted according to size are put into containers and sent to the machine of coding and sorting of letters (LCSM).

Here letters of standard size 220х110 mm and 114х162 mm are sorted.

Code conversion.

Optical character reading.

The machine can read Cyrillic script too.

In case if a postal code or an address cannot be read, operators enter information manually.

The letters are spread automatically in the pigeonholes.

Letters collection and sending in necessary destinations is produced manually by operators.

Rated output of a sorting machine – 42000 mails an hour.

Manual sorting.

Putting into pigeonholes.

A machine for sorting and coding letters.

Correspondence weighing not more than 2.5kg and not thicker than 25mm.

Parcels sorting workshop.

Parcels are manually put on the distributing conveyor.

Coded information identification and allotment in accord with a program.

Automatic identification of bigger parcels – more than 60х30х30cm.

All in all here are 5 lines for standard parcels and one line for large-size ones, 300 address pigeonholes for standard parcels. Rated output – 30000 mails an hour.

Hybrid post workshop is a part of the center.

It receives messages texts from large corporate customers in electronic form then it prints them and sends to senders.

In October a new letter sorting center will be commissioned in St. Petersburg.

In plan view is foundation of centers in Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk,  Kazan, Mineral’nyye Vody. In all Russia needs at least 20 centers like this.

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