High speed continuous-forms printer

A printer comprising in combination:

• a printing mechanism for producing images on the surface of a length of continuous form paper;
• a tractor for moving the length of paper longitudinally up from a stack of paper laterally fanfolded at perforations between sheets, through the printing mechanism, and downward onto a fanfold stack after printing;
• a fixed height platform upon which the connected sheets are stacked in a fanfold arrangement;
• a frame extending accross the width of each major side of the decending length of paper;
• a first set of multiple swinging chains hanging from the frame on one major side of the decending length of paper;
• a second set of multiple chains hanging from the frame on the other major side of the decending length of paper;
• and each of the sets of chains include:
• a lower chain with a lower end hanging no more than 6 inches above the platform;
• and
• an upper chain with a lower end hanging above the lower end of the lower chain and from 10 inches below to 6 inches above a maximum operating stack height.

A printing process comprising the steps:

• supplying a length of continuous form paper which is prefolded laterally along linear perforations which connect between sheets;
• printing images on the surface of the length of paper;
• moving the length of paper longitudinally through printing means and downward onto a fanfold stack after printing;
• stacking the perforation connected paper sheets on a fixed height platform in a fanfold arrangement up to a maximum operating stack height;
• positioning a plurality of chains of different length for cooperating with the folding paper and positioning said plurality of chains so that the longest chains initially control the stacking of the paper and subsequently, as the paper stack grows, the shorter chains take over the function of controlling the stacking of the paper for minimizing jamming within the entire range of stack height between the start of stacking on the platform and the maximum operating stack height for the printer.