Bulk Mailing Requires Precision Weighing

By Author: Larry Tang
Total Articles: 507
Comment this article

Email has become a popular method of communication. It is used in both the private and business worlds to quickly share ideas and information. It is an excellent method of requesting details on products and services. Messages may be sent over great distances quickly, easily and cheaply. Email is also used for advertising purposes. In fact, massive and unwanted email advertising has even earned its own special label of spam.

While email has earned a rightful place as a method of communication, old fashioned postal mail maintains a valid position for the distribution of information. There is nothing like a glossy colorful brochure to convey the quality of a product. Postcard advertising decks are convenient and fun to thumb through. Political mailings catch the eye of voters. Stock reports convey large amounts of information in standard formats. And there are certainly some items, such as free samples, that can simply not be squeezed through the Internet to arrive in a user's hand.

The United States Postal Service has devised a pricing system that offers special rates to organizations that produce large mailings. ...
... These prices are dependent on many items, some of which revolve on the pre-sorting work that the organization can provide before this mail enters into the Postal Service's domain. This may involve using full zip codes and bar coding that removes some of the efforts that would otherwise need to be provided.

Of course, it is necessary for the mailing organization to accurately convey information to the Postal Service, so that they can properly pay for their bulk mailing services. The most important piece of information is the number of items being mailed. It is the responsibility of the bulk mailer to make certain that the number of pieces are calculated properly. Most often, this may be done by weight. All of the pieces in a bulk mailing must be identical to each other. Therefore, they will all weigh exactly the same amount. If the weight of a single piece is accurately known, it is possible to weigh the entire mailing and determine the total number of pieces being processed.

Bulk mail scale systems that are used for this purpose must have two important, and somewhat opposite qualifications. It must be able to weigh a large number of pieces at the same time. So it must have a high capacity. On the other hand, it must be able to very accurately determine the weight of a single piece of mail. So it must have very high sensitivity. For example, the scale may need to have a capacity of 100 lb. Standard scales with this capacity will usually have a resolution of 0.02 lb. A single piece of mail may only weigh ¼ of an ounce, or even less. This translates to a weight of .0156 lb. It becomes very clear that the standard 100 lb industrial scale will not be able to accurately determine the weight of a single piece of mail.

One method of increasing accuracy is to weigh ten sample pieces, instead of just one. Of course, this will increase the single piece accuracy by a factor of ten times. But for the example noted, that will still not be accurate at all. Another method is to use two separate electronic scales for this bulk mailing system. While the main scale may have a capacity of 100 lb, the sampling digital scale can have a much smaller capacity. A standard electronic scale with a 1 lb capacity will have a resolution that is one hundred times better than the 100 lb scale. Along with the method of weighing 10 samples at the same time, the user can achieve very appropriate accuracy.

An alternate method is to choose a bulk mailing scale that has much higher native accuracy. Arlyn Scales Ultra Precision Scales are ideal for this purpose. They offer accuracy and resolution that is twenty times better than standard industrial scales. In many cases, this can allow a single scale to be used for preparing bulk mailings. These scales are also much more rugged that standard electronic scales. This is very useful when large mail totes are dropped onto the scale platform. Shock load and overload can be the major cause of failure of this type of industrial scale.
Arlyn Scales.com goal is to provide clients with superiority in equipment and service unrivaled in the scale industry. For almost 30 years Arlyn has manufactured top of the line industrial weighing equipment with an accent on quality, accuracy, advanced technology and durability. From Precision Scales to Animal Scales and everything in between, Arlyn Scales has it all.