High speed continuous feed printing system

Details High speed continuous feed printing system High speed continuous feed printing system

2003-04-01

2004-09-07

Chau, Minh (Department: 2854)

Printing

Rolling contact machines

Rotary

C101S220000, C101S230000, C101S257000, C399S364000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06786149

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to continuous feed printing systems, and more particularly to a continuous feed printing system with duplex capability which can be easily configured for backup operation with minimum down time.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A continuous feed (CF) printer, as opposed to cut sheet printers, prints on a band/roll of paper and not on discrete separate sheets. The band/roll is separated into single sheets once printing is complete. Typically, a CF printer drives the paper using sprocket holes on the edges, but so-called pinless friction drive or any other solution is possible as well. Continuous feed printing systems are used in many industries, such as banks, insurance companies and print shops for printing such items as forms and checks. A printer with duplex printing capability prints on one side of the paper, then the other. A cut sheet printing system uses a single print engine which prints on one side of the paper, turns the paper over and prints on the other side. Continuous feed printing systems with duplex capability employ two print engines: one engine prints on one side of the continuous paper; the printed paper is fed to the second engine which prints on the other side of the paper. Continuous feed printing systems are generally preferred for high speed production print jobs since duplex printed output suffers from fewer registration errors than cut sheet printing systems.
The standard continuous feed duplex printing system employs two printers. If either printer in inoperable, the user must wait for maintenance to be completed before the print job can be continued or restarted. If one engine is down for any reason, the whole duplex line is down. In a high speed production printer, it can often take more than a day to complete repairs (e.g., waiting for parts, waiting for a tech rep, etc). Currently, in the continuous feed marketplace, a backup solution requires providing another full duplex line, i.e., four printers (2+2). It would be desirable to have a continuous feed printing system with duplex capability with a less expensive backup capability which would minimize downtime.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A continuous feed printing system, according to the invention, includes at least three CF printing devices and a plurality of print-related devices for providing pre-processing and post-processing operations to effect duplex printing. The printing devices and print-related devices are selectably operable in accordance with a defined print line segment. A print line manager defines and manages the defined print line segments, which include a first duplex print line segment and a second duplex print line segment; wherein the first duplex print line segment defines a first duplex print path in which first and second CF printing devices have been configured for duplex operation and the second duplex print line segment defines a second duplex print path in which one of the first and second CF printing devices and a third CF printing device have been configured for duplex operation. In the event of a failure of the first duplex print line segment, duplex operation may be continued by selecting the second duplex print line segment and re-threading paper according to the second duplex print path. The printing devices and the print-related devices may be connected to a common print line bus for receiving operation signals in accordance with the defined print line segments. The printing devices may be connected to a local network. Print data which is used in performing a desired print job is provided to the various printing devices via transmission through the local network. The local network is separate from the print line bus. The print line manager may be implemented as a separate hardware or software module or as a software layer installed within one of the printers.
Other print line segments may be defined and managed by the print line manager. For example, if first and second CF printing devices are configured in a first print line segment for duplex operation, the third CF printing device may be configured to operate as a simplex printer (according to a simplex print line segment). The third CF printing device may also be configured as a backup duplex printer. Indeed, a multiplicity of print line segments may be defined and managed by the print line manager, the multiplicity including all the combinations and permutations of connections among the CF printing devices and print-related devices. Configuration information for each print line segment may be stored with each CF printing device and print-related device. By selecting the desired print line segment, the system is automatically configured, requiring only rethreading of the paper path. The continuous feed printing system may have multiple system configurations. For example, one system configuration may include two print line segments: printers
1
and
2
operating according to a first print line segment for duplex printing and printer
3
operating according to a second print line segment for simplex printing. Another system configuration may include printers
1
and
3
operating according to a third print line segment for duplex printing and printer
2
operating according to a fourth print line segment as a backup duplex printer. Within each print line segment, each printer (and each associated print-related device) will have to be configured to provide the desired print operation (for example, a printer configured for duplex printing will have a different configuration than a printer configured for simplex printing).
The continuous feed printing system of the invention defines a “Suplex” system, i.e., a duplex configuration which requires only one backup printer, for a total of three printers. In the event of an inoperable printer, the reconfiguration of the print line does not require any hardware modifications other than the paper threading according to the new paper path (i.e., no re-cabling is required). This automatic reconfiguration is very simple and takes less than a few minutes.
The Suplex system combines three continuous feed printers, which can be used as either any combination of two printers to form a Duplex line, in which case the third printer can be used as a back up or simplex printer or three simplex printers. The Suplex system can be extended to more than three printers. The Suplex system uses printing devices and associated pre and post processing devices which are interconnected by a common hardware link (which may be the print line bus or PLB) and employs the print line segmentation system and method as described in co-assigned, U.S. patent application number Ser. No. 09/950,073 filed Sep. 12, 2001 for “Print Line Segmentation”, which is incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this application.
The Suplex system offers the capability of smoothly manipulating any of three simplex lines and achieving multiple, different configurations of one duplex and one simplex or one duplex and one backup. The Suplex system may implement print line segmentation using the Print Line Bus (PLB) as the common hardware link. A single Print Line Manager (PLM) may be used to handle the pages processed throughout the whole print line. The only physical activity required of users to change the configuration is to re-thread the paper appropriately. No other hardware or software (in most cases, no system re-boot is required) manipulations are required. Data to be printed may be distributed through a local area network, while the devices statuses may be reported through the PLB.
A common database may be used to allow sharing of configuration parameters among the three printers of the line. A synchronization mechanism keeps the same setup/configuration on each of the three printers, regardless of their current state are (i.e., power OFF, Power ON). This database synchronization allows the user to easily change the configuration without having to separately update the (Backup) printers that may not be part of the line.
The Suplex system is a genera

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