Double-sided high speed printing apparatus and method
AssigneeEscher-Grad Technologies, Inc.
InventorNajeeb Khalid
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for double-sided high-speed printing on a continuous sheet of printable material having a first guide, a second guide, a third guide, and a fourth guide providing a first print area between the first and second guides for printing on a first side of the material and a second print area between the third and fourth guides for printing on a second side of the material. A first plurality of print heads print in the first print area and a second plurality of print heads print in the second print area. The first and second plurality of print heads all fire in a same direction. Bends in the material provided by the guides permit a compact arrangement that eliminates flutter of the material in the print areas.
Claims11
A printing apparatus for printing on both sides of a moving, continuous sheet of printing material, the apparatus comprising:
- a first guide in contact with a first side of the sheet;
- a second guide in contact with second side of the sheet;
- a first print head disposed between the first guide and the second guide for printing on the first side;
- a third guide in contact with the second side of the sheet,
- a fourth guide in contact with the first side of the sheet;
- and
- a second print head disposed between the third guide and the fourth guide for printing on the second side.
A method of printing on both sides of a continuous sheet of printing material, the method comprising the steps of:
- continuously rolling a first side of a sheet over a first guide and a second side of the sheet over a second guide;
- printing on the first side of the sheet between the first guide and the second guide;
- continuously rolling the second side of the sheet over a third guide and the first side of the sheet over a fourth guide;
- and
- printing on the second side of the sheet between the third guide and the fourth guide.
A printing system for printing, cutting and stacking printed material from a continuous sheet of printing material, the system comprising:
- a print engine having:
- a first guide in contact with a first side of the sheet;
- a second guide in contact with a second side of the sheet;
- a first print head disposed between the first guide and the second guide for printing on the first side,
- a third guide in contact with the second side of the sheet;
- a fourth guide in contact with the first side of the sheet;
- and
- a second print head disposed between the third guide and the fourth guide for printing on the second side;
- a cutter for cutting the continuous sheet of printing material into pages;
- and
- a stacker adapted to lay the pages in a stack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.