Desk-top printer and related method for two-sided printing

A printing method comprising:

• providing a desk-top laser printer for printing documents encoded in computer generated digital signals, said laser printer having two laser printing assemblies disposed in a single desk-top housing, said laser printer including a digital processor disposed in said housing, said digital processor being operatively coupled to said laser printing assemblies, each of said laser printing assemblies having a respective removable toner cartridge;
• transmitting a multiple page document in digitally encoded form to said processor via a data input of said laser printer,
• operating said processor to detect odd pages and even pages in said document and to separate odd pages of said document from even pages thereof;
• moving a single or individual paper sheet through said housing from a paper input port to a paper output port along a predetermined path, said laser printing assemblies being disposed along opposite sides of said path;
• energizing one of said laser printing assemblies, in response to a signal from said processor, to print an odd-numbered page of said document along one side of said paper sheet;
• energizing the other of said laser printing assemblies, in response to another signal from said processor, to print an even-numbered page of said document along an opposite side of said paper sheet;
• and
• removing the toner cartridges of said laser printing assemblies from said laser printer and inserting replacement toner cartridges into said laser printer in place of the removed toner cartridges,
• said laser printer including a carriage movably mounted to said housing, said laser printing assemblies being mounted to said carriage, further comprising moving said carriage and said laser printing assemblies at least partially out of said housing for equipment servicing purposes.

A printing apparatus comprising:

• a desk-top printer housing having a paper input port, a paper output port and a data input port;
• a digital processor disposed in said housing and operatively connected to said data input port, said processor being programmed to detect odd pages and even pages in an electronically encoded document arriving via said data input port and to separate odd pages of said document from even pages thereof;
• paper moving means disposed in said housing for moving a paper sheet through said printer housing from said paper input port to said paper output port along a predetermined path, said paper moving means including only one print engine;
• a first laser printing assembly disposed in said housing along one side of said path for printing an odd-numbered page of said document along one side of said paper sheet;
• and
• a second laser printing assembly disposed in said housing along an opposite side of said path for printing an even-numbered page of said document along an opposite side of said paper sheet,
• said processor being operatively connected to said first laser printing assembly and said second laser printing assembly for controlling said first laser printing assembly to print said odd-numbered page of said document along said one side of said paper sheet and for controlling said second laser printing assembly to print said even-numbered page of said document along said opposite side of said paper sheet.