Method of scheduling copy sheets in a dual mode duplex printing system

A method of scheduling copy sheets for being duplex printed, comprising the steps of:

• inserting said copy sheets into a duplex paper path loop of an image forming apparatus, said duplex paper path loop having a plurality of pitches, each pitch corresponding to a length of said duplex paper path loop capable of being occupied by a single copy sheet;
• forming images on each side of said copy sheets;
• outputting said copy sheets from said duplex paper path loop toward a final destination;
• and
• wherein said scheduling is selectively conducted based upon at least said final destination, in one of a burst mode, where said copy sheets are consecutively inserted into said duplex paper path loop from a main storage tray for duplex printing without skipping any pitches in the duplex paper path loop between consecutively inserted copy sheets, and an interleave mode, where said copy sheets are inserted into said duplex paper path loop from the main storage tray for duplex printing with skipped pitches in said duplex paper path loop between at least some of the consecutively inserted copy sheets.

A method of scheduling sheets for printing and outputting collated sets of plural copy sheets, said copy sheets being output from a copy sheet paper path of an image forming apparatus, said copy sheet paper path having a length equal to at least one pitch wherein a pitch corresponds to a length of a copy sheet in a process direction of said copy sheet paper path, and including an insertion station where copy sheets are inserted into said paper path, an imaging station where an image is formed on a side of said copy sheets, and an output station where copy sheets having an image formed on at least one side are output from said copy sheet paper path, comprising the steps of:

• inserting said copy sheets into said copy sheet paper path at said insertion station;
• forming an image on at least one side of each copy sheet at said imaging station;
• outputting said copy sheets from said copy sheet paper path at said output station toward a final destination;
• and
• wherein said scheduling is selectively conducted in one of a first mode, where for each set of copy sheets to be printed, said copy sheets are consecutively output from said copy sheet paper path without any skipped pitches between each output copy sheet, and a second mode, where for each set of copy sheets to be printed, said copy sheets are output from said copy sheet paper path with skipped pitches between at least some of said consecutively output copy sheets, whereby copy sheets are output from said copy sheet paper path at a lower frequency in said second mode than in said first mode.

A method of scheduling sheets for printing and outputting collated sets of plural copy sheets by an image forming apparatus, said image forming apparatus having a duplex paper path loop providing a plural copy sheet capacity duplexing path equal to M pitches, a value of M varying based upon the size of said copy sheets so that said scheduling is selectively conducted on one of a plurality of different pitch modes, a value of M varying for each different pitch mode, said duplex paper path loop including an insertion station for inserting copy sheets into said duplex paper path loop, an imaging station for forming images on a side of said copy sheets, a sheet inverter for inverting copy sheets having images formed on one side by said imaging station and conveying said side-one-imaged sheets toward said imaging station for side two imaging, and an output station for outputting copy sheets from said duplex paper path loop toward a final destination, said image forming apparatus being capable of outputting sheets containing one or more page images on one or both sides, said method comprising the steps of:

• determining whether to con said scheduling in one of a burst mode, where for each set of copy sheets to be printed, said copy sheets are consecutively output from said duplex paper path loop without any skipped pitches between each output copy sheet, and an interleave mode, where for each set of copy sheets to be printed, said copy sheets are output from said duplex paper path loop with skipped pitches between at least some of said consecutively output copy sheets;
• inserting copy sheets into said duplex paper path loop, forming one or more page images on one or both sides of said copy sheets based upon a predetermined print command, and outputting said copy sheets from said duplex paper path loop toward a final destination in one of said burst mode and said interleave mode based on said determining step;
• and
• wherein said determining step is based upon whether any on-line finishing devices located at the final destination of said copy sheet sets are incapable of receiving copy sheets at a rate at which said copy sheets are output from said duplex paper path when operating in said burst mode.