Test deck being run through a Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS)

This is a "Phase II" model 994 Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS) used by the United States Postal Service throughout the United States. This is their most basic sorting device as it takes mail that has already received a bar code and gives it a greater depth of sort - right down to your letter carrier on his or her delivery route.

At the time of this recording there were nearly 600 sites using various phases and versions of the DBCS - my guess is there were easily a few thousand of these machines in use before the Postal Service started to downsize in the late 2000s. Each machine averaged about 30,000 pieces of mail per hour (depending on the length and thickness of the individual mail pieces), thus requiring a hefty amount of preventive maintenance each day. In this case the technician has placed a "test deck" in the machine's feeder to ensure accuracy of sortation and other adjustments. Normally, during the middle of the night, when most of the sortation takes place, there would hundreds of feet of "real" mail to run through the machine during a regular shift.

Also at the time of this recording the Postal Service was using a "Phase 6" model that was the newest design but still looked pretty much like the 15-year-old phase II you see in this video. Also, this particular machine was manufactured by ElectroCom Automation but the Postal Service purchased similar equipment from Siemens, Pitney Bowes, and other manufactures at different times from the early 80s through the 2000s.

Here's a link to my personal web page about the Postal Service:
http://www.rogerwendell.com/postal.html

03-13-2009

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• electrocom
• automation
• delivery
• bar
• code
• sorter
• dbcs
• usps
• united
• states
• postal
• service
• phase
• ii
• model
• 994
• test
• deck
• mail
• processing
• equipment
• mpe

[phatboi973]

My feet b kiilin me!

[zeekzilch]

@phatboi973

Yep, that job requires a lot of standing!

[maddride]

i'll give you $100 USD FOR IT!!!!!

[zeekzilch]

@maddride

I think the original machines cost about $185,000 each...

[maddride]

@zeekzilch yeah, i was just being stupid ^_^ :P

[zeekzilch]

@maddride

No problem!



[channelhismojo]

@zeekzilch Yeah, these were supposed to have been scrapped in Australia too but there are so many machinable rejects from the MLOCRs that were back to front or barcode contaminated in some other way that they retained the old OCRs and run all the faced-up rejects through on ocr mode to ignore the barcodes. Even then there are so many poorly addressed articles that manual sort rates are growing.

[zeekzilch]

@channelhismojo

This particular Phase II DBCS was nearly 15 years old at the time of the recording. Even now there are still a "ton" of Phase II machines in use around the country...

[channelhismojo]

The pickoff is like an old AEG OCR, but the stackers look like National Presort.