Multiple printer module electrophotographic printing device
First Claim
1. A multiple high speed image recording system, comprising:
- a print job receiving device for receiving a print job comprised of a plurality of pages, some of said pages being different;
a page separator for separating said received print job into a plurality of separate pages;
a page distributor for distributing said separated pages in accordance with a predetermined distribution scheme;
a plurality of print engines;
a communication network for interconnecting said page distributor to each of said print engines;
said page distributor operable to send each of said separated pages to a select one or select ones of said print engines in accordance with said distribution scheme such that each of said pages can be sent to one or more of said print engines and wherein different pages in said print job can be sent to different ones of said print engines; and
each of said select ones of said print engines operable to print the pages received thereby from said page distributor.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A multiple print engine system includes a plurality of print engine modules (10) that are arranged in a parallel configuration. Each of the print engine modules (PEMs) is a dedicated print engine having an associated photoconductor drum (44) and a transfer drum (42). Paper is pulled from an associated paper bin (78) or (80) and passed through the transfer nip (46) between the two drums (44) and (42). The printed copy, either made by a monochrome process or a multipass color process, is then passed through a fuser (74) to a print buffer (16) which has an associated print buffer path (104). The paper is maintained in the print buffer until it is selected by the output combiner (20). The output combiner (20) extracts the paper from the print buffer (16) at a faster rate than it was processed by the associated one of the print engines (10). The images are distributed to the various print engines by an image distributor (30) which determines which image is associated with which engine. A print manager (32) determines which of the copies in the print buffers (16) are output to the output combiner (20) and, subsequently, to an output bin.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A multiple high speed image recording system, comprising:
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a print job receiving device for receiving a print job comprised of a plurality of pages, some of said pages being different; a page separator for separating said received print job into a plurality of separate pages; a page distributor for distributing said separated pages in accordance with a predetermined distribution scheme; a plurality of print engines; a communication network for interconnecting said page distributor to each of said print engines; said page distributor operable to send each of said separated pages to a select one or select ones of said print engines in accordance with said distribution scheme such that each of said pages can be sent to one or more of said print engines and wherein different pages in said print job can be sent to different ones of said print engines; and each of said select ones of said print engines operable to print the pages received thereby from said page distributor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for recording multiple images, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a print job comprised of a plurality of pages, some of the pages being different; separating the received print job into a plurality of separate pages; distributing the separated pages in accordance with a predetermined distribution scheme from a central distributing point; providing a plurality of print engines; interconnecting the central distributing point to each of the print engines; sending from the central distributing point each of the separated pages to a select one or select ones of the print engines in accordance with the distribution scheme such that each of the pages can be sent to one or more of the print engines, and wherein different pages in the print job can be sent to different ones of said print engines; and printing at each of the select ones of the print engines the pages received thereby from said central distributing point. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification