Method and apparatus for controlling peak power requirements of a printer

Abstract

A thermal ink jet printer incorporates a copy speed feed control for reducing peak power requirements. Printing data supplied to the printer is scanned to determine image density or power consumption to dry ink in a dryer is determined. The speed of the sheet transport system is controlled in accordance with the image density so that, at high image densities, the speed of the sheet at the printer and/or at the dryer is reduced. A controller controls the speed of a drive motor driving the transport system in accordance with a determination of the density of the printed image from image print data or energy required for ink drying. A printer employing on-demand workstations having potentially high peak power usages can be made compatible with conventionally provided power supply systems.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.