Wet paper handling of ink jet images to allow passive drying

A method of handling and drying wet, printed sheets in an ink jet printer having an upper guide device and a lower guide device, the method comprising the steps of:

• feeding a plurality of sheets sequentially from a sheet supply tray to a sheet printing area;
• printing an image on each of the sheets in the sheet printing area to form wet printed sheets;
• sequentially feeding each of the wet printed sheets from the sheet printing area to a printed sheet receiving tray to locate a first one of the wet printed sheets on a plurality of fingers positioned at the printed sheet receiving tray;
• moving the fingers in a conveying direction to pick up the first one of the wet printed sheets and convey the first one of the wet printed sheets towards a sheet stacking tray;
• indexing the fingers in a stepping manner to position an empty shelf of the fingers at the printed sheet receiving tray to receive subsequent ones of the printed sheets;
• drying the wet printed sheets under ambient conditions while conveying the wet printed sheets toward the sheet stacking tray, the wet printed sheets becoming dried printed sheets;
• feeding the fingers and the dried printed sheets into contact with the upper guide device thereby deforming the fingers;
• feeding the fingers past the sheet stacking tray;
• and
• picking the dried printed sheets off of the fingers and stacking the dried printed sheets in the sheet stacking tray.

An ink jet printing apparatus comprising:

• an ink jet printhead for forming images on sheets;
• sheet feeding means for feeding a sheet past the printhead to create wet printed sheets;
• printed sheet receiving tray means for receiving the wet printed sheets fed past said printhead by the sheet feeding means;
• a sheet stacking tray located downstream of the printed sheet receiving tray in a conveying direction of the wet printed sheets;
• and
• a plurality of resilient, deformable fingers movable along the paper conveying path secured to an endless conveying device for ambiently drying the wet printed sheets printed by said ink jet printhead while conveying the sheets in a conveying direction from said printed sheet receiving tray to said sheet stacking tray;
• an upper guide device located upstream of the sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the upper guide device deforming the fingers into a sheet stacking position adjacent the sheet stacking tray;
• and
• a lower guide device located downstream of the sheet stacking tray in the conveying direction, the lower guide device guiding the fingers to flip from the sheet stacking position into a sheet receiving position adjacent the printed sheet receiving tray means.