Bell and Howell, a leading provider of solutions and services for paper-based and digital messaging, will showcase its Criterion APEX sorting system at drupa 2012. The Criterion APEX is one of the fastest sorters in the mailing industry, and has already a loyal European customer base.

Bell and Howell will be exhibiting in Hall 4, Booth A24, May 3-16 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

“With the privatization of the European postal systems, businesses are looking for fast and dependable postal equipment to reliably process a wide variety of mail,” said Hank Martin, vice president of postal software marketing for Bell and Howell. “The Criterion APEX offers modularity and functionality that allows pre-sort businesses as well as private mail carriers to adapt as their business expands, and has the option to be configured as a multi-line optical character reader (MLOCR) or barcode reader. This flexibility drives down the cost per mailpiece while improving overall productivity.”

Designed to handle the full spectrum of letter mail, the APEX sorter efficiently processes mail in uniform batches or mixed with various types and sizes. Processing time is minimized, and throughput is maximized by applying constant gap and pitch control to every mailpiece.

Other options for the APEX sorter include the doubles detector (which helps to maintain integrity by detecting and rejecting doubles), a metal detector, height detector, indicia detector, thickness detector, linerless in-line high-speed labeler, and a significantly extended magazine for more efficient labor utilization.

Bell and Howell’s NetSort sorting software will be demonstrated the first time to the European market space. NetSort had been newly developed to accommodate the needs of the Intelligent Mail barcode in North America and has been the proven solution for several years. It provides true client-server architecture with web-based access, enterprise-level database, robust item-level tracking to ensure accuracy and accountability, reporting and data export to other systems, and a variety of other customer benefits. With a proven track record, NetSort will be able to cover the needs of the changing environments in the different postal markets in Europe.