Siemens Wins $245 Million Order From U.S. Postal Service® For 550 Mail Sorting Systems

ATLANTA -- Siemens announced today that it has been awarded a $245 million contract  from the United States Postal Service (USPS) for 550 Advanced Facer Canceller Systems (AFCS) 200 to replace and  modernize its existing fleet of AFCS.  The AFCS currently being used has been in service for almost 20 years and is used by the Postal Service(TM) to cancel First-Class mail.

In addition to the design, build and installation of the replacement machines, the contract includes the delivery of ancillary equipment, spare parts, training and complete integrated logistics support services. Siemens and USPS engineers worked together to develop a system that integrated all the technical requirements of the USPS with the state-of-the-art developments in mail processing technology.

“We are delighted with the vote of confidence that the USPS has given us, continuing our many years of successful cooperation. The AFCS systems play an important role in mail processing and the new systems will help the U.S. Postal Service to further boost its productivity,” said Hans-Jörg Grundmann, CEO of Siemens Mobility. “The AFCS remains an essential element in the automated mail process. Siemens has worked closely with the USPS to modernize and streamline the highly sophisticated technology in this machine to extend its useful life another 10 years.”

The AFCS 200 will use the Siemens Advanced Color Reader (ACR) to detect and lift the address and other mail piece information for automatic reading.  The ACR’s greater capabilities will not only enable greater reading performance but also streamline the overall system design. 

This will be the first system in the USPS fleet to use Siemens’ channel gate technology.  The channel gate improves on traditional diverters by actually modifying the path of the letter through the machine rather than deflecting it in a particular direction.  The new technology greatly increases the throughput of the machine and will be a major contributor to the cost savings the USPS anticipates in the deployment of the AFCS 200. 

Production and installation of the AFCS 200 order is expected to be completed by March, 2011.

The AFCS was initially deployed in the early 1990’s and is primarily used to process first class mail sent by individuals.  The AFCS 200 program responds to the decline in this mail type in recent years, allowing the USPS to improve the performance and maintenance characteristics of the system while reducing the total number of machines.