The U.S. Postal Service(USPS) will expand testingof Flats Sequencing System(FSS) technology to automatesorting of large envelopes,magazines, cataloguesand circulars.

The FSS equipment sortsflat mail at a rate of about16,500 pieces per hour.Scheduled to operate 17hours a day, each machinewill be capable of sequencing280,500 pieces a day, tomore than 125,000 deliveryaddresses.

A prototype FSS was testedlast year and a full-sizepre-production machine isscheduled for installationsoon at the Dulles, VA, mailprocessing facility, where itwill operate six days a weekfrom August 2007 to July2008.

USPS will study and measurethe system’s effect ontransportation, logistics andwork methods before deploymentin 2008. Phase I of theFSS program calls for aninitial order of 100 machinesto be installed at 33 postalfacilities beginning summer2008.