Importance

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Abstract

Selective collating and binding processes for manufacture of digest-size mail order catalogs, magazines or other materials. Such 'books' are most economically collated and bound in pairs on a '2-up' line that simultaneously produces two output streams of books. Mail order retailers and others require that the books be organized according to postal zones for favorable mail rate treatment. They also frequently prefer that various sets of customers receive various editions of the book; repeat buyers, for instance, may receive a more complete edition of a catalog than other buyers. Similarly, two or more mailers may desire that their mailing be combined, so that two or more sets of catalogs are packaged together for the same postal zones in order to receive favorable mail rate treatment. Processes of the present invention provide selective binding and collating on a 2-up line of such different catalogs, different editions of the same catalog, or different editions of different catalogs, or 'versions'. Processes of the present invention sort address records according to postal zone and version, pair records for books whose versions match and control the collating and binding process utilizing the paired records. The collated and bound books may be organized and packaged in one output stream with use of a custom crossover mechanism, or in two output streams.

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First Claim