The new franking scales Epelsa DL - The 6 digits ATMs

In May 2004 Correos published two new public tenders; the first for the acquisition of 79 new franking balances to be connected to the Postal IRIS system, and the second for 168 units that could work independently or be linked to IRIS (the software installed in Spain post offices).

In agreement with the proposal offered by the Spanish company EPELSA, Correos selected 5 post offices in Madrid province for testing the new prototypes of franking balance model DL-Iris/Postal.

The first balance came into use from April 16th, 2004, and the rest over the next few days. In all the cases the balances in service (ET-RL/Iris) were replaced.

In order to simplify procedures, a new numbers for equipment did not occur, and the new balances took the numbers of the ones they replaced, including their internal counters.

The 5 prototypes have the numbers 4060, 4529, 4559, 5018 and 6562.

Initially installed for a test period of 4 to 6 weeks, the lack of incidents and the good performance have caused this period to be extended indefinitely. The most part of this prototypes were installed in post offices with high productivity, and many ATM designs have been used by this balances.
The general appearance of the new prototypes is very similar to the model Epelsa ET-RLT; the only visible difference externally is the upper LCD screen with a 2-line display.
   

But the most important changes are inside.

For the ATM printing the balances incorporates a thermal printer of 8 dots per millimeter. And, very important, it has graphical possibilities; therefore any type of image or design could be printed on stamps (ATMs), and any receipts.
Evidently this opens up many new possibilities for the future of the ATMs.
Company EPELSA has also developed a second model of balance for the second tender of Correos, the DLT-Iris; identical to the model DL-Iris, the only difference is that model DLT can stand alone, incorporating the current postal tariffs in the keyboard.

The ATMs issued with these balances have identical characteristics to this ones issued with balances ET-RL, because the head printing is also hi-res (8 dots/mm).
 
But the big news is that the number of digits that can be printed for the face value is 6; this assumes that for franking values smaller than 10.00 EUR, the balance prints 3 asterisks in front of the face value instead of the 2 normally found.

And another of the great new features these balances incorporate is a security system that cancels with vertical lines printing the blank labels issued at the start or after certain operations.

This is done to prevent the possible falsification of ATMs from blank labels, but it's still an innocent and totally insufficient system if it does not go accompanied of other much more drastic measures. At the moment it's only another curiosity or rarity for collectors ...

The adjust labels are identical to this ones issued with balances ET-RL, although the prototypes do not always print the date.
The image on the right shows an interesting sequence of labels issued automatically by the balance when finalizing a work day and to initiate it the following day: the first adjust label includes the date (August 6th) and an indication of weight, next one is a blank label annulled with the vertical lines, and the third adjust label, with the date of the following day (August 7th).

The receipts are processed by the software Iris postal system, and are identical to this ones issued by the other balances.


During the third week of October 2004 began the installation of the 79 new franking balances of the first tender of Correos and won again by the Epelsa company.

The new balances Epelsa DL-Iris/Postal are identical to the prototypes, they work connected to the Iris system, and also all the printing characteristics remain, especially the issue of 6-digits ATMs or the printing of the black vertical lines on the blank labels.
The numbers of these balances are included between 7613 and 7691, both inclusively. The installation is being made during the third quarter of 2004 in post offices distributed by all the country.


It's expected that all the new future balances in Spain will have these same characteristics. In the mid term the exists also the possibility of the removal of the totality of the balances Epelsa ET-RLa/Iris, this ones with more years in service and printing the ATMs of 4 and 5 large digits, by new balances DL-Iris.
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This page was created: 20.07.04. Last updated:  21.11.04 . English edition rewritted by S. Goodman (04.10.04)