Multiple printer module electrophotographic printing device

[54] MULTIPLE PRINTER MODULE

ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING
DEVICE

[75] Inventors: Michael W. Barry; Francis A. Rowe, both of Duluth; E. Neal Tompkins,

Atlanta, all of Ga.

[73] Assignee: T/R Systems, Norcross, Ga.

[21] Appl. No.: 180,636
[22] Filed: Jan. 13,1994

[51] Int. CI.6 H04N 1/21; H04N 1/46;

G03G 21/00

[52] U.S. CI 358/296; 358/501; 358/401;

399/381

[58] Field of Search 355/321, 322,

355/323; 395/101, 109, 114, 115, 116;

358/401, 501, 524, 296

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,373,798 2/1983 Tsukada et al 355/3 DD

4,959,692 9/1990 Hayashi et al 355/253

5,012,285 4/1991 Oka et al 355/245

5,143,017 9/1992 Haneda et al 118/658

5,208,640 5/1993 Hone et al 355/321

Primary Examiner—Peter S. Wong
Assistant Examiner—Gregory J. Toatley, Jr.
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Gregory M. Howison

[57] ABSTRACT

A multiple print engine system includes a plurality of print engine modules (10) that are arranged in a parallel configuration. Each of the print engine modules (PEMs) is a dedicated print engine having an associated photoconductor drum (44) and a transfer drum (42). Paper is pulled from an associated paper bin (78) or (80) and passed through the transfer nip (46) between the two drums (44) and (42). The printed copy, either made by a monochrome process or a multipass color process, is then passed through a fuser (74) to a print buffer (16) which has an associated print buffer path (104). The paper is maintained in the print buffer until it is selected by the output combiner (20). The output combiner (20) extracts the paper from the print buffer (16) at a faster rate than it was processed by the associated one of the print engines (10). The images are distributed to the various print engines by an image distributor (30) which determines which image is associated with which engine. A print manager (32) determines which of the copies in the print buffers (16) are output to the output combiner (20) and, subsequently, to an output bin.

32 Claims, 10 Drawing Sheets