Media registration system with sheet curl control

A printmaking device for pre-curling and registering media comprising:

• a media hold-down transport adapted to move a sheet of media along a media transport path, said sheet including a lead edge, a trail edge, and a first side edge and a second side edge therebetween, wherein said lead edge is approximately parallel to said trail edge;
• and
• a pre-curling and registration system along said media transport path including
• a media curler system for pre-curling at least one of said lead edge and said trail edge of said sheet towards the media hold-down transport;
• a deskew mechanism coupled to said media curler system for pivoting said media curler system about a pivot axis to deskew said sheet, said pivot axis extends perpendicular to said media transport path;
• and
• a printing module including said media hold-down transport for transporting said sheet past a marking system, operatively connected to said media transport path, said printing module for printing an image on said pre-curled sheet,
• wherein said media transport path moves said sheet in a process direction and said lead edge enters said pre-curling and registration system, said media curler system pre-curls said sheet towards said media hold-down transport, as said sheet is being pre-curled, said deskew mechanism pivots said media curler system about said pivot axis to correct any skew errors in said sheet, said media transport path moves said sheet from said pre-curling and registration system to said printing module.

A method pre-curling and registering media comprising:

• moving a sheet of media along a media transport path in a process direction to a pre-curling and registration system, said sheet having a lead edge, a trail edge, and a first side edge and a second side edge therebetween, wherein said lead edge is approximately parallel to said trail edge;
• simultaneously, pre-curling said sheet and pivoting said sheet about a pivot axis to correct any skew errors in said sheet, said pivot axis extends perpendicular to said media transport path and traverses said media transport path;
• and
• delivering said sheet to a printing module.