Print medium feed system using pre-existing printing apparatus

Abstract

The invention accomplishes print medium feed functions, at least in part, by making use of pre-existing printer apparatus that is used to accomplish other functions of the printer. For example, the invention can enable the use-of a single print drive mechanism to accommodate multiple print medium feed paths within a printer and, in particular, feed paths in which print media are fed into the print drive mechanism in different (e.g., opposite) directions. Additionally, the invention can enable a rotatable media guide that can be positioned in one position to guide a sheet of a print medium during a print operation and in another position to release the sheet of the print medium after the printing operation, to be positioned in still another position to facilitate guiding a sheet of a print medium into a print drive mechanism after the sheet has traversed a gap in the feed path. The invention can also enable sensing of print medium insertion into a print medium feed path using pre-existing sensing apparatus within a printer that is used for other sensing purposes.

Claims aren’t available for this document.