Dearborn Mid-West Conveyor (DMW) has been a major system supplier to the United States Postal Service for over 25 years. We have successfully completed all types and sizes of Bulk Mail, Tray Mail and Loose Mail Systems. The size of the projects have ranged from several conveyors at one facility to a complete nationwide $61 million program in which equipment was installed in all 21 BMCs and most of the P&DCs. DMW takes pride in being able to supply complete systems that begin with an experienced team of Project Managers who work directly with Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Procurement and Manufacturing, and Installation teams to fulfill the Postal Service's requirements and needs. DMW's commitment includes constant communication with the Customer during all phases of the project, including testing and commissioning of the System, as well as training for Postal employees. The U. S. Postal Service is made up of a vast number of mail processing facilities. There are three main types of facilities, these include the Bulk Mail Centers (BMCs), Air Mail Centers (AMCs) and Parcel and Distribution Centers (P&DCs). The Bulk Mail Centers process large and small parcels, shrink wrapped bundles, sleeved and banded letter trays, as well as sacks and pouches. The mail is transported to and from the BMCs in large over-the-road vans that are filled with either rolling containers of parcels, bundles and trays, or bed loaded with sacks and pouches. The BMCs use Bulk Mail conveyor systems to sort the mail to be sent to other BMCs, AMCs and P&DCs all around the country. The Air Mail Centers process the same type of mail as the Bulk Mail Centers and have similar types of conveying equipment. The major difference is, as the name implies, the AMCs are located at airports. So, in addition to the mail being transported to and from the facility in vans, the mail is also transported in special containers designed to fit inside airplanes. The Parcel and Distribution Centers process parcels, shrink wrapped bundles, trayed mail, and loose mail. Like the BMCs, the mail is transported to and from the facility on large over-the-road vans. The P&DCs sort the mail to a smaller area of the country. The conveyor systems in a P&DC are for Bulk Mail type, Tray Mail type and Loose Mail type. Bulk Mail Systems (back to top) The Bulk Mail System begins on the inbound docks where the mail is unloaded from the vans, which contain either rolling or cardboard containers or sacks & pouches. If the vans contain the containers, these are taken to Container Unloaders, which tilt the container up to dump the contents onto a belt conveyor. If the van is bed loaded with sacks and pouches, an Extendible conveyor is used to reach into the van, up to 55'-0". The Extendible conveyor is manually loaded and the sacks and pouches are fed directly onto the main take away belt conveyor. The parcels, sacks, and pouches are then transported to the Induction area where the mail is placed on a Sorter. The Induction area can either be a manual process where keyers will enter a destination code, or a completely automatic process with bar code scanners. Either a Cleated Belt Loader, which is used for sacks and pouches, or a series of belts called a High Speed Induction Unit (HSIU) is used to induct the mail onto the Sorter. The Sorter can be either a Tilt Tray type or a Belt type with diverter paddles. The Sorter then feeds many container loaders, each being a different location. When full, the containers are taken out to the loading docks and again loaded onto vans. During the unloading and loading process, an In-Floor Towline is often used to transport the rolling containers from the docks to the unloaders or the filled containers back to the loading docks. Tray Mail Systems (back to top) The Tray Mail System begins much the same way as the Bulk System except that after the trays are unloaded from the vans, they must be loaded manually onto the conveyors. This is because they have to be properly orientated so that their bar code tag can be read by scanners which, in turn, direct the trays to their destination within the facility. The Tray System is used to convey letters to and from Automation Machines that sort individual letters' zip codes within a city. The Tray System is made up of Motorized Drive Roller Conveyors and Incline and Decline Belt conveyors. Vertical Lift Units and Incline and Decline Spirals are used when there is not enough space for the Belt conveyors. Other types of equipment that can be part of the Tray System are Staging Towers, used to store a small number of trays near a particular area, and Automatic Storage and Retrieval Units, which can store thousands of trays. Loose Mail Systems (back to top) The Loose Mail System is used to sort large and small envelopes so that they can be placed into trays or be processed through the Automated Sorting machines. To begin with, the loose letters are dumped into the belt conveyor system. The first process is then to separate the letters size mail from larger envelopes called flats. This process is called culling. The first step is done manually to remove bent or damaged mail that cannot be processed through the Culling machines. The letters are then sorted by size. Like-sized mail is sent to areas where they are manually put in trays. These trays are then placed on the Tray system to be sent to other processing areas within the facility, or sleeved and banded to be loaded into containers and sent to other facilities.