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US 7,188,929 B2Granted
Parallel printing architecture with containerized image marking engines
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorRobert M. Lofthus
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated printing system is provided and includes at least two image marking engines and at least one media feeder module. The printing system further includes a first forward generally horizontal interface media transport between the at least two image marking engines and the at least one feeder module for transporting media from the at least one media feeder module to at least one of the at least two image marking engines.
Claims37
An integrated printing system comprising:
- at least two substantially vertically aligned image marking engines;
- at least two substantially horizontally aligned image marking engines;
- at least one image marking engine common to both said vertically aligned image marking engines and said horizontally aligned image marking engines;
- at least one media feeder module;
- and,
- a first forward generally horizontal interface media transport between said at least two image marking engines and said at least one feeder module for selectively transporting media to and from said at least one media feeder module to one image marking engine and then selectively to any other image marking engine.
3 more elements
An integrated printing system comprising:
- at least two substantially vertically aligned image marking engines;
- at least two substantially horizontally aligned image marking engines;
- an input module;
- an output module;
- a media feeder module;
- at least one forward generally horizontal interface media transport for circulating media sheets selectively from said input module to and from a first image marking engine, at least a second image marking engine, and selectively bypassing at least a third image marking engine;
- and,
- at least one return generally horizontal interface media transport for circulating said media from said output module to said media feeder module.
5 more elements
A method for printing media adapted for a plurality of image marking engines, the method comprising:
- providing at least two generally vertically aligned image marking engines;
- providing at least two generally horizontally aligned image marking engines;
- providing at least one image marking engine common to both said vertically aligned image marking engines and said horizontally aligned image marking engines;
- providing at least one media feeder module;
- and,
- circulating media from said at least one media feeder module to an input module for distribution of said media in a selected order to and from said generally vertically aligned image marking engines and said generally horizontally aligned image marking engines by way of at least one forward generally horizontal media transport and at least one return generally horizontal media transport wherein said medial selectively enters and exits any one of said image marking engines and selectively enters any other one of said image marking engines.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.