Method of tracking the virtual location of a sheet of media to improve first copy time
AssigneeLexmark International, Inc.
InventorsBrian Bartley, Johnny Sears
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to printers and media fixing mechanisms such as fusers and management of fuser performance. An article, device, method, and system are provided in which the time to the fuser nip of a sheet of media may be calculated and may be compared to the fuser ramp time. When the fuser ramp time exceeds the time for the sheet of media to reach the fuser nip, the fuser may be turned on.
Claims20
A method for feeding media to a printer containing a media fixing mechanism containing a nip comprising:
- determining an actual feed time (FTa) for media;
- determining a pick delay (PD) for said media;
- adding said feed time (FTa) to said pick delay (PD) to obtain a time to a fuser nip (FTf);
- determining a ramp time (RT) for said fuser to reach a target temperature;
- and
- comparing said ramp time (RT) to said time to said fuser nip (FTf).
A system comprising:
- a printing device capable of determining an actual feed time (FTa) for media;
- determining a pick delay (PD) for said media;
- adding said feed time (FTa) to said pick delay (PD) to obtain a time to a fuser nip (FTf);
- determining a ramp time (RT) for said fuser to reach a target temperature;
- and comparing said ramp time (RT) to said time to said fuser nip (FTf).
An electrophotographic device comprising:
- a control circuit capable of determining an actual feed time (FTa) for media;
- determining a pick delay (PD) for said media;
- adding said feed time (FTa) to said pick delay (PD) to obtain a time to a fuser nip (FTf);
- determining a ramp time (RT) for said fuser to reach a target temperature;
- and comparing said ramp time (RT) to said time to said fuser nip (FTf).
An article comprising a storage medium having stored thereon instruction that when executed by a machine result in the following operations:
- determining an actual feed time (FTa) for media;
- determining a pick delay (PD) for said media;
- adding said feed time (FTa) to said pick delay (PD) to obtain a time to a fuser nip (FTf);
- determining a ramp time (RT) for said fuser to reach a target temperature;
- and
- comparing said ramp time (RT) to said time to said fuser nip (FTf).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.