Parallel printing system

Abstract

Disclosed is a print media interposer system and method. The print media interposer system comprises two or more interposer modules, one or more interface modules, and a controller. The interposer modules are adapted to receive one or more print media input stacks from one or more printing systems. Subsequently, the print media interposer system merges the received print media input stacks in a predetermined sequence.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a printing system according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a printing system according to another exemplary embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a printing system according to another exemplary embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B illustrate a method of document production according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a document production method according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a printing system according to another embodiment of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to FIG. 1, illustrated is a printing system according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure. The printing system includes an interposer 2, a controller 4, n printing systems where n≧2 6, a print media stack transport system 8 and a post print media handling system 10.

The interposer 2 includes multiple interposer modules 12, 14, 16 and 18. Interposer module 12 includes an interposer module print media input 22 and corresponding interposer module print media input stack 30. Inter poser module 14 includes an interposer module print media input 24 and corresponding interposer module print media input stack 32. Interposer module 16 includes an interposer module print media input 26 and corresponding interposer module print media input stack 34. Interposer module 18 includes an interposer module print media input 28 and corresponding interposer module print media input stack 36. The fourth interposer 18 output is operatively connected to the input of an interface/purge module 20 which includes a print media output path operatively connected to the post print media handling system 10, and a print media purge path 33 which routes purged print media to a purge output stack 38.

With continuing reference to FIG. 1, the exemplary printing system illustrated includes a communication interface between the controller 4 and the interposer system 2, a communication interface between the n printing systems 6 and the controller 4, a communication interface between the n printing systems 6 and the print media stack transport system 8, and a communication interface between the controller 4 and the print media stack transport system 8. In addition, the print media stack transport system 8 is operatively connected to the interposer module system 2 as indicated by the arrows from the print media stack transport system 8 to the interposer system 2. Each arrow represents a print media stack delivery to a respective interposer module print media stack input.

In operation, the printing system illustrated in FIG. 1 receives a document print job via the controller 4. The controller 4 assigns each document sheet of the document print job to one of the n printing systems. For example, assuming the document print job includes 100 sequential sheets of printed media, and the system includes a first and second printing system. The controller may assign the first 50 pages of the print job to the first printing system and the last 50 pages of the print job to the second printing system.

Subsequently, the controller 4 communicates the first printing system print job to the first printing system, and communicates the second printing system print job to the second printing system. The printing systems print their respective sheets and output the printed sheets to a sheet stacking output. After completion of their respective print jobs, the first and second printing systems communicate to the controller 4 and/or the print media stack transport system 8, the completion of the print jobs.

At this point, the print media stack transport system 8 transports the first printing system output stack to the interposer 2, or more specifically an interposer module print media input, such as interposer module print media input 22, 24, 26 or 28. Furthermore, the print media stack transport system 8 transports the second printing system output stack to the interposer 2, or more specifically an interposer module print media input such as interposer module print media input 22, 24, 26 or 28. However, the first and second printing system output stacks are transported to different interposer module print media inputs for further processing by the interposer system 2.

For purposes of illustrating the operation of the interposer system 2 from this point, assume the output stack of the first printing system is transported to the first interposer module print media input 22, thereby positioning the first printing system output stack as the first interposer module print media input stack 30. Furthermore, assume the output stack of the second printing system is transported to the second interposer module print media input 24, thereby positioning the second printing system output stack as the second interposer module print media input stack 32. With the printing system output stacks positioned, as discussed above, printed sheets 1-50 of the original print job are located within the first interposer module 12 and printed sheets 51-100 of the original print job are located within the second interposer module 14.

To assemble or compile the printed sheets, the interposer system sequentially processes the first interposer print media input stack by routing these printed sheets via interposer module print media paths 23, 25, 27 and 29. The printed media sheets are subsequently routed to the post print media handling system 10 via the interface/purge module print media output 31. Subsequent to the sequential processing of printed sheets 1-50, printed sheets 51-100 are sequentially routed via interposer module print media paths 25, 27 and 29. Printed sheets 51-100 are then routed to the post print media handling system 10 via the interface/purge module print media output 31.

At this point, the original print job is completed, provided any post handling of the printed sheets is finished.

The printing system illustrated in FIG. 1 and described heretofore, provides a means of integrating the output of multiple printing systems, whereby the printed media of the multiple printing systems is compiled and/or merged by an interposer system as disclosed. A print media transport system provides a means for integrating the multiple printing systems and the interposer system.

Other variations and modifications of the printing system described heretofore are described below.

With continuing reference to FIG. 1, an optional interface/purge module 20 is illustrated. The interface/purge module provides an interface from the interposer modules to the post print media handling system 10. In addition, the interface/purge module provides a means for discarding unneeded media sheets which are included in the interposer module print media input stacks. For example, one exemplary embodiment of this disclosure includes a traveler sheet printed by each printing system and located at the top of the respective printing system output stack. The traveler sheet identifies one or more attributes associated with the print stack. For example, the document print job ID, the interposer module destination, etc. Once the print stack and associated traveler sheet have been placed in the appropriate interposer module input, the traveler sheet is processed by the interposer system and ejected via the interface/purge module 20.

Another exemplary embodiment of the printing system illustrated in FIG. 1, comprises 2, 3, 5, 6, or more interposer modules and 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more printing systems, where the printing systems are a combination of monochrome, color, etc. In addition, the document job processed by the controller 4 can be divided and assigned to printing systems based on the color content of a particular sheet or other marking attributes which must be performed by one or more specific printing systems. The output stacks of the printing systems may contain one or more printed media sheets in a predetermined order such as odd numbered pages, even numbered pages, or identical printed sheets for placement within a stream of sheets being merged and compiled by the interposer system.

With reference to FIG. 2, illustrated is another exemplary embodiment of this disclosure. The printing system includes an interposer system 40, a controller 42, a controller graphical user interface (GUI) 64, a first printing system 44, a second printing system 46, a third printing system 48, and a print media stack transport system 50.

The interposer system 40 includes a first interposer module 52, a second interposer module 54, a third interposer module 56, a fourth interposer module 58, an interface/purge module 60 and an interposer print media output stacker 62.

The first printing system includes a printing system sheet feeder 66, a printing module 68 for image marking, an output stacker 70 and a GUI 72.

The second printing system includes a printing system sheet feeder 74, a printing module 76 for image marking, an output stacker 78 and a GUI 80.

The third printing system includes a printing system sheet feeder 82, a printing module 84 for image marking, an output stacker 86 and a GUI 88.

The print media stack transport system 50 includes a stack transport command output 89, a first print media stack cart 90, a second print media stack cart 92 and a third media stack cart 94.

With continuing reference to FIG. 2, the exemplary printing system illustrated includes a communication interface 95 between the controller 42 and the interposer 40, a communication interface 112 between the controller 42 and the print media stack transport system 50, a communication interface 114, 116 and 118 between the controller 42 and the first printing system 44, the second printing system 46 and the third printing system 48 respectively. In addition, the printing system illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a print media flow path 96 from the first printing system 44 to the print media stack transport system 50, a print media flow path 98 from the second printing system 46 to the print media stack transport system 50 and a print media flow path 100 from the third printing system 48 to the print media stack transport system 50.

Print media flow 102, 104, 106 and 108 represent print media flow via the print media stack transport system 50 to interposer modules 52, 54, 56 and 58, respectively. Print media flow 110 represents the optional print media flow from the interposer print media output stacker 62 via the print media stack transport system 50.

In operation, the printing system illustrated in FIG. 2 receives a document print job via the controller 4 or GUI 64. The controller 4 and/or GUI 64 can be connected to a network (not shown) which provides the document print job file(s). The controller 4 assigns each document sheet of the document print job to one of the three printing systems 44, 46 and 48. Subsequently, the controller 4 communicates a first printing system print job, a second printing system print job and a third printing system print job to respective printing systems 44, 46 and 48.

The printing systems complete their assigned/communicated print jobs and produce print stacks at their respective output stackers 70, 78 and 86.

The print media stack transport system transports the printing system output stacks from the output stackers 70, 78 and 86 to the appropriate interposer modules 52, 54, 56, and 58.

From this point, the interposer system 40 assembles the document print job in the appropriate sheet sequence and ejects any unnecessary sheets, such as a traveler sheet, via the interface/purge module. The assembled document print job is outputted from the interposer system 40 via the interposer print media output stacker 62.

The assembled document print job can be optionally transported via the print media stack transport system 50 to a subsequent operation, for example, a finishing module or storage area, or another means of transporting the assembled document print job can be provided.

With reference to FIG. 3, illustrated is another exemplary embodiment of this disclosure. The printing system includes an interposer system 120, a controller 124, a first printing system 126, a second printing system 128, a third printing system 130, a fourth printing system 132, a print media stack transport system 134, and a print media stack buffer 136.

In addition, a print media finishing module 122 is integrated with the interposer system 120.

The operation of the printing system illustrated in FIG. 3 is similar to the printing systems discussed with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. Notable differences include four printing systems, the integrated print media finishing module 122 and print media stack buffer 136.

The print media stack buffer 136 provides an area to store print media output stacks from one or more of printing systems 126, 128, 130 and 132, until the interposer system 120 has completed any previous document print jobs and/or is put into service. Furthermore, the print media stack buffer 136 provides a staging area for storing one or more print media stacks until all print media stacks required for assembly by the interposer system 120, are completed by the printing systems 126, 128, 130 and 132.

With reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B, illustrated are flow charts representing a method of document production according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure. The diagrams of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B provide an example of the operation of an interposer system, as related to a document print Job A.

Initially, the document print Job A 150 is divided and assigned to one or more printing systems which produce stack a 152, stack b 154, and stack c 156. Subsequently, stack a 152 is assigned 158 to a first stack input of the interposer system, stack b 154 is assigned 160 to a third stack input of the interposer system, and stack c 156 is assigned 162 to a second input of the interposer system. As illustrated in FIG. 4A, stack a includes sheet 1, sheet 2, sheet 5; stack b includes sheet 3, sheet 4 and sheet 7; and stack c includes sheet 6.

Subsequent to the loading of stack a, stack b and stack c, the interposer system merges sheets from the interposer stack inputs to assemble print Job A.

With reference to FIG. 4B, illustrated is a flow chart representing the operation of an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure.

In operation, the scheduling software initially creates 170 one or more stacks for interposition to create a document Job A.

Next, the stacks are loaded 172 into interposer inputs.

Next, the scheduling software locates and acknowledges 174 all stacks for Job A are present.

Next, the scheduling software receives acknowledgement 176 that the finishing device is ready for Job A.

Next, the scheduling software references the job structure and sends 178 feed commands to each interposer input to reassemble the document job in correct sequence.

Finally, document job sheets 1, 2, 3, . . . are sequentially fed 180 out of the interposer into the finishing device.

With reference to FIG. 5, illustrated is another exemplary flow chart illustrating a document production method according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure.

Initially, the system receives 190 a document job from an incoming job queue.

Next, the scheduling software examines 192 Job A and determines the applicable printer or printing system on a sheet by sheet basis.

Subsequently, the scheduling software assigns 194 each sheet in Job A to a printer or printing system.

At this point, printing system 1 prints 196 its assigned sheets, printing system 2 prints 198 its assigned sheets and printing system 3 prints 200 its assigned sheets.

Next, printing system 1 compiles 202 its sheets into a stack, printing system 2 compiles 204 its sheets into a stack, and printing system 3 compiles 206 its sheets into a stack.

At this point, the stacks are transported 208 to the interposer system.

Next, the stacks are loaded 210 into interposer trays.

Next, the scheduling software locates and acknowledges 212 all stacks for Job A are present.

Next, the scheduling software receives 214 acknowledgement that the finishing device is ready for Job A.

Next, the scheduling software references the job structure and sends 216 feed commands to each interposer tray to reassemble the document job in correct sequence.

Finally, document job sheets 1, 2, 3, . . . are sequentially fed 218 out of the interposer into the finishing device.

With reference to FIG. 6, illustrated is another exemplary embodiment of a printing system according to this disclosure. The printing system includes an interposer system 230, a first monochrome printing system 240, a second monochrome printing system 248, a color printing system 256, a first print media stack cart 266, a second print media stack cart 268 and a third print media stack cart 270.

The interposer system includes a first interposer module 232, a second interposer module 234, a third interposer module 236 and a finishing/stacker module 238.

The first monochrome printing system 240 includes a sheet feeder module 242, a monochrome printing module 244 and a sheet output stacker 246.

The second monochrome printing system 248 includes a sheet feeder module 250, a monochrome printing module 252 and a sheet output stacker 254.

The color printing system 256 includes a sheet feeder module 258, a color printing module 260, a duplex/interface module 262 and an output module 264. The output module 264 includes an output stack 272.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the first print media stack cart 266 transports stacks from the first monochrome printing system 240 to the interposer system along print media flow paths 274 and 280. The second print media stack cart 268 transports stacks from the second monochrome printing system 248 to the interposer system along print media paths 276 and 282. The third print media stack cart 270 transports stacks from the color printing system 256 to the interposer system 230 along print media paths 278 and 284.

It will be appreciated that various of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

Claims

1. A print media interposer system comprising: two or more interposer modules adapted to receive one or more print media input stacks, the interposer modules operatively connected to a print media path adapted to receive print media from the print media input stacks;one or more interface modules, the interface modules operatively connected to the two or more interposer modules; anda controller operatively connected to the two or more interposer modules and the one or more interface modules, the controller configured to control the sequencing of print media sheets from the print media input stacks to the one or more interface modules, and the controller configured to generate a command to transport one or more print media stacks produced by one or more printing systems to predetermined interposer print media stack inputs,Wherein the print media interposer system is configured to merge the received print media input stacks in a predetermined sequence and output the merged print media to a post print media handling system.

2. The print media interposer system according to claim 1, further comprising: a purge module operatively connected to the two or more interposer modules, wherein the purge module is configured to selectively eject print media sheets from the one or more print media input stacks.

3. The print media interposer system according to claim 1, further comprising: two or more printing systems operatively connected to the controller; anda print media stack transport system operatively connected to the two or more printing systems and the controller, wherein the print media stack transport system transports print media stacks from the two or more printing systems to two or more interposer modules.

4. The print media interposer system according to claim 3, further comprising: a print media stack buffer area, the buffer area operatively connected to the media stack transport system, wherein the buffer area stores print media stacks from the two or more printing systems.

5. The print media system according to claim 3, the print media stack transport system comprising: one or more print media stack carts, wherein the print media stack carts transport print media stacks from the two or more printing systems to the two or more interposer modules.

6. The print media system according to claim 3, wherein the two or more printing systems comprises a first printing system and a second printing system, and the controller is configured to execute a print job by performing a method comprising: receiving a first document job from a job queue;assigning each document sheet of the first document job to the first printing system or the second printing system, wherein the first document job is divided into a first printing system print job and a second printing system print job;communicating the first printing system print job to the first printing system and communicating the second printing system print job to the second printing system, the first printing system and second printing system communicating to the controller the completion of their respective print jobs;commanding the print media stack transport system to transport the first printing system output stack to the interposer first stack input;commanding the print media stack transport system to transport the second printing system output stack to the interposer second stack input; andcommanding the interposer modules to assemble the first print job from the interposer first and second stack inputs, wherein the printed document sheets associated with the first and second stack inputs are selectively merged and routed to create a printed document sheet sequence representative of the first document print job.

7. The print media interposer system according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to selectively route predetermined print media associated with the first and second stack inputs to the purge module and selectively purging the predetermined print media.

8. The print media interposer system according to claim 3, further comprising: an image quality control module, wherein the image quality control module measures and controls the image quality of the two or more printing systems.

9. The print media interposer system according to claim 8, the image quality module further comprising: a scanner, andone or more periodic calibration target files associated with the two or more printing systems, wherein the scanner output and the one or more periodic calibration target files control set points associated with the one or more printing systems' total response curves.

10. The print media interposer system according to claim 3, the two or more printing systems comprising: a monochrome printing system; anda color printing system.

11. The print media interposer system according to claim 3, further comprising: a graphical user interface operatively connected to the controller, the graphical user interface configured to command a user to transport one or more print media stacks from the two or more printing systems to one or more interposer module stack inputs.

12. The print media interposer system according to claim 1, wherein the post print media handling system comprises a print media finishing module.

13. The print media interposer system according to claim 1, wherein the print media interposer system is configured to read one or more traveler sheets associated with the print media input stacks produced by the one or more printing systems.

14. The print media interposer system according to claim 13, wherein the traveler sheets identify the contents of the print media input stack below the traveler sheet.

15. The print media interposer system according to 14, wherein the traveler sheets identify the document job ID and/or the destination interposer stack input.

16. A method of executing a document job comprising: receiving a first document print job in a controller, the controller generating a first printing system print job and generating a second printing system print job, wherein the first document print job is divided to generate the first and second printing system print jobs;the controller communicating the first printing system print job to the first printing system and communicating the second printing system print job to the second printing system;the first printing system printing the first printing system print job and outputting the first printing system print job printed documents to a first output stacker operatively connected to the first printing system;the second printing system printing the second printing system print job and outputting the second printing system print job printed documents to a second output stacker operatively connected to the second printing system;the controller commanding a print media stack transport system to transport the first printing system print job printed documents from the first output stacker to an interposer first stack input;the controller commanding a print media stack transport system to transport the second printing system print job printed documents from the second output stacker to an interposer second stack input; andthe controller commanding the interposer system to assemble the first document print job from the first and second stack inputs, wherein the printed sheets associated with the first and second stack inputs are selectively merged and routed to create a printed document stream representative of the first document print job.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising: selectively routing predetermined print media associated with the first and second stack inputs to a purge module operatively connected to the interposer system, and selectively purging the predetermined print media.

18. The method according to claim 16, further comprising: outputting the first document print job to a print media finishing module operatively connected to the interposer system.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the print media finishing module comprises a book binder.

20. A xerographic interposer system comprising: two or more interposer modules adapted to receive one or more print media input stacks, the interposer modules operatively connected to a print media path adapted to receive print media from the print media input stacks;one or more interface modules, the interface modules operatively connected to the two or more interposer modules;a controller operatively connected to the two or more interposer modules and the one or more interface modules, the controller configured to control the sequencing of print media sheets from the print media input stacks to the one or more interface modules, and the controller configured to generate a command to transport one or more print media stacks produced by one or more printing systems to predetermined interposer print media stack inputs;two or more printing systems operatively connected to the controller; anda print media stack transport system operatively connected to the two or more printing systems and the controller,wherein the print media stack transport system transports print media stacks from the two or more printing systems to two or more interposer modules, and the print media interposer system is configured to merge the received print media input stacks in a predetermined sequence and output the merged print media to a post print media handling system.