U.S. patent application number 10/366513 was filed with the patent office on 2004-08-19 for apparatus and method for improved print output.
Invention is credited to Khalid, Najeeb.
Application Number | 20040159998 10/366513 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32849770 |
Filed Date | 2004-08-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040159998 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Khalid, Najeeb |
August 19, 2004 |
Apparatus and method for improved print output
Abstract
An apparatus and method for producing a stack of documents, each
having one or more pages, separated into documents. An input
mechanism receives printed sheet material, which is cut by a cutter
into document pages having a first dimension and flag sheets having
a different dimension. A page laying unit stacks pages
corresponding to a document in sequence and interposes flag sheets
between successive documents. The direction in which the dimension
of pages and flag sheets is different lies transverse to the
direction of cutting.
Inventors: |
Khalid, Najeeb; (Westmount,
CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
OGILVY RENAULT
1981 MCGILL COLLEGE AVENUE
SUITE 1600
MONTREAL
QC
H3A2Y3
CA
|
Family ID: |
32849770 |
Appl. No.: |
10/366513 |
Filed: |
February 14, 2003 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
270/58.31 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65H 35/0006 20130101;
B65H 33/04 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
270/058.31 |
International
Class: |
B65H 033/04 |
Claims
I/We claim:
1. An apparatus for stacking print output, the apparatus
comprising: an input mechanism for receiving printed sheet material
from a printer; a formatter for producing document pages and flag
sheets, the flag sheets having a different dimension than that of
the pages; and a page laying mechanism for sequentially stacking
pages and flag sheets to produce a stack of documents separated by
flag sheets.
2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the dimension of the
flag sheet is greater than the corresponding dimension of the
document pages.
3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the formatter
comprises a cutter for cutting the printed sheet material to
produce pages and flag sheets.
4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the dimension of the
flag sheet that is different than that of the document pages lies
in a direction transverse to a direction of cutting of the
cutter.
5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the cutter comprises
a blade that cuts the printed sheet material under tension.
6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the cutter comprises
a laser.
7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the cutter comprises
opposing blades for shearing the printed material.
8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the input mechanism
is adapted to receive the printed sheet material from a print
engine and to provide it to the cutter.
9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 adapted to receive printed
sheet material in web form.
10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 adapted to receive printed
sheet material in paper form.
11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 adapted to receive sheet
material in film form.
12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 adapted to receive sheet
material in metal form.
13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 adapted to receive sheet
material in cloth form.
14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the page laying unit
is further adapted to collate document pages.
15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the page laying unit
is further adapted to sort the document pages and flag pages.
16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the formatter
comprises means for retrieving pre-cut flag sheets for provision to
the page laying mechanism.
17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein the flag sheets
are of different character than the document pages.
18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the flag sheets
are of different colour than the page sheets.
19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the flag sheets
are of different texture than the page sheets.
20. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the flag sheets
are of different thickness than the page sheets.
21. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the flag sheets
are of different consistency than the page sheets.
22. A method for identifying pages corresponding to one or more
documents from a stack of pages, comprising the steps of: receiving
printed sheet material; separating the printed sheet material into
groups of pages; and introducing flag sheets having a different
dimension than the corresponding dimension of the pages between
consecutive groups of pages.
23. A method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the step of separating
comprises the step of cutting the printed sheet material into pages
having a first dimension and the step of introducing comprises the
step of cutting the printed sheet material into flag sheets having
a different dimension.
24. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the step of cutting
the printed sheet material into flag sheets comprises cutting the
printed sheet material in a direction transverse to the direction
along which the dimension is measured.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is the first application filed for the present
invention.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates to printing and in particular to an
apparatus and method for producing a stack of documents that are
easily identified and separated.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Retrieving printed documents from a stack of many printed
documents often proves to be a difficult and error prone task.
Determining where a multi-page document begins and ends in a stack
of pages, identifying the individual documents that are stacked in
an output tray and separating the desired document is a cumbersome
task. The problem is exacerbated with the advent of print servers,
in which a number of users may remotely direct a print job to a
common server.
[0004] In order to separate print jobs, whether or not sent from
different sources, numerous approaches have been attempted. First,
cover sheets may be automatically inserted between jobs. Such cover
sheets, which have the same dimension as the page sheets, not only
demonstrate the beginning (or end) of a print job, but also may
identify the particular job by the text printed out on the cover
sheet.
[0005] Other approaches have been attempted to ensure that one
document is separated from another. For example, the pages
comprising a print job may be stapled together. However, the
stapling process mutilates the pages of the document, which may not
be desirable. Alternatively, successive documents may be stacked at
a slightly offset from one another, so that a document may be
easily identified. Typically, the output tray is configured to
permit successive documents to be positioned at one of two offset
positions, so that every second document has the same offset
position. While this approach is effective for the purpose of
separating out document in the output tray, once a document in the
middle of the stack has been removed, the separation of the
adjacent document will be lost. Other output trays provide more
than two offset positions to avoid such difficulties, however, this
introduces considerable additional mechanical complexity to the
output path of the printer.
[0006] There is therefore a need for a printing apparatus and
method for producing a stack of documents that allows easy
identification and separation of documents.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] It is an object of the invention to provide a printing
apparatus and method for producing a stack of documents that are
easily identified and separated into respective documents.
[0008] Accordingly an apparatus is provided for stacking output of
a printer. The apparatus comprises an input mechanism for receiving
printed sheet material from the printer, a formatter for producing
document pages and flag sheets, and a page laying unit for
sequentially stacking pages and flag sheets to produce the stack of
documents separated by flag sheets. The flag sheets have a
different dimension than that of document pages, and thereby
facilitate separation and/or identification of the documents.
[0009] The input mechanism preferably comprises a feed mechanism
for controlling reception of the printed sheet material from a
printer at a cutter. The printer may be a laser-writing printer,
and ink-jet printer or a dye-sublimation printer.
[0010] The source of sheet material is preferably a web, and may
consist of paper, film, metal, or cloth, that is cut to size by the
cutter. The cutter preferably comprises means for cutting
consisting of a blade that cuts the printed sheet material under
tension, a laser cutter, or opposing blades for shearing the
printed sheet material.
[0011] Preferably the dimension of the flag sheet that is different
than the respective dimension of the documents pages is in a
direction transverse to a direction of cutting of the cutter.
[0012] The page laying unit may be adapted to collate document
pages, or sort document pages.
[0013] Also according to the objects of the invention, there is
provided a method for identifying pages corresponding to one or
more documents from a stack of pages. The method involves receiving
printed sheet material, separating the printed sheet material into
groups of pages and introducing flag sheets having a different
dimension than the corresponding dimension of the pages.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] Further features and advantages of the present invention
will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken
in combination with the appended drawings, in which:
[0015] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a printing apparatus
connected to a computer; and
[0016] FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the printing
apparatus shown in FIG. 1.
[0017] It should be noted that throughout the appended drawings,
like features are identified by like reference numerals.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0018] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram 100 of a computer 102
connected 104 to a printing apparatus 106. The connection 104 may
be a computer network such as an Ethernet implementation; a serial
connection such as universal serial bus (USB) or IEEE 1394 cable; a
parallel port connection; or a wireless connection such as
Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11 lb. The computer 102 preferably includes a
print manager 103. A plurality of remote computers 110 (only one
shown) may also be communicatively coupled to the computer 102 via
a packet switching network such as the Internet 114. Images (not
shown) 110 may be transferred from the remote computer 110 via the
Internet 114 to the print manager 103 in the computer 102, or may
originate in the computer 102.
[0019] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the
printing apparatus 106 shown in FIG. 1. The printing apparatus 106
includes a source of sheet material 204 which is preferably a web
202. The sheet material 204 may be, for example, paper, film,
metal, or cloth. The printing apparatus 106 also includes a first
feed mechanism 206 for feeding the sheet material 204 from the web
202 to a print engine 208 which may be, for example, a laser-writer
or an ink-jet print engine.
[0020] The print engine 208 prints images onto the sheet material
204. The images may be, for example, two or three dimensional
images; holographic images; text; or any combination thereof. The
print engine 208 may print on either or both sides of the sheet
material 204 to produce printed sheet material 212. The printing
apparatus 106 has a second feed mechanism 210 for feeding the
printed sheet material 212 from the print engine 208 to a cutter
214. The cutter 214 therefore includes a web input mechanism that
includes the second feed mechanism 210 for receiving the printed
sheet material from the print engine 208.
[0021] The cutter 214 cuts the printed sheet material 212 into
sheets 218 of an appropriate size. The cutter 214 may constitute,
for example, a blade, a laser or shearing mechanism.
[0022] The printing apparatus 106 also has a third feed mechanism
216 for feeding the sheets 218 from the cutter 214 to a stacker
220.
[0023] The stacker 220 is an embodiment of a page laying unit
adapted to lay the sheets 218 into a stack 222 of documents 224.
The stacker 220 may be, for example, a mechanism for sorting and/or
collating documents; or a tray for receiving
pre-sorted/pre-collated documents.
[0024] The printing apparatus 106 may include a processor 230
coupled by connections 235, 246, 248, 250 to monitor or control
other aspects of the printing apparatus 106. For example, the
processor 230 is coupled by connection 235 to sensor 260, which
senses a condition of the web 202, such as a "source empty"
condition. The processor 230 is coupled by connection 246 to the
print engine 208, whereby the processor 230 may transfer image data
to the print engine 208. The processor 230 is coupled by connection
248 to the cutter 214 for controlling the cutter 214 to cut the
printed sheet material 212 into sheets 218 in accordance with
available data and a predetermined program. Finally, the processor
230 is coupled by connection 250 to the stacker 220 for controlling
the operation of stacker 220 or for sensing a condition of the
stacker 220 such as a "tray full" condition.
[0025] The printing apparatus 106 also includes a communication
interface 232 coupled by a connection 234 to the processor 230 and
adapted to communicate with the computer 102 (FIG. 1) via the
connection 104, whereby print job information is obtained from the
computer 102. The processor 230 is also coupled by a connection 238
to a keypad 236 for a user (not shown) to input commands to the
processor 230, and coupled by a connection 242 to a display 240 to
permit the user to receive messages generated by the processor
230.
[0026] A memory 244 is also coupled to the processor 230 by a
memory bus 252 for intermediate storage and processing of images
received from the printer manager 103 (FIG. 1) via the connection
104 and the communication interface 232 before the image data is
transferred to the print engine 208.
[0027] The sheets 218 produced by the cutter 214 may be of a first
size, such as letter, legal or A4, referred to herein as pages; or
a second size having a dimension, such as length or width,
different from a corresponding dimension of the first size,
referred to herein as flag sheets 226. The dimension of the flag
sheets 226 is preferably greater than the respective dimension of
the pages.
[0028] The flag sheets 226 separate the pages into logical
groupings. An appropriate logical grouping may be a print job, a
part of a document, or any other serial set of pages identified by
a processor 230. For convenience, such logical groupings are
referred to herein collectively as documents 224.
[0029] The printing apparatus 106 produces the stack 222 of
documents 224 that are partitioned by flag sheets 226 that
facilitate identification and separation of individual documents in
the stack 222 and reduce retrieval errors.
[0030] Advantageously, the flag sheets 226 facilitate the
identification and/or separation of the documents 224 by a user
(not shown). It should be noted that the documents 224 may be
copies, unique documents, or any combination of 226 may be
identical to one another the two. Also, the flag sheets may have
unique printed images to facilitate identifying individual
documents 224.
[0031] Preferably, the shape of the pages in a document 224 or of
the flag sheet 226 separating the documents 224 is rectangular.
[0032] The use of flag sheets 226 having a different dimension than
the corresponding dimension of the pages constituting a document
224 provides a mechanism for easily identifying where a document
224 begins and ends, without mutilating the pages of the document
224, such as is the case with the use of staples. Additionally, the
identification of where documents 224 remaining in a document stage
222 begin and end is maintained, even if a document 224 has been
retrieved from the middle of the stack 222.
[0033] The embodiments of the invention described above are
intended to be exemplary only. The scope of the invention is
therefore intended to be limited solely by the scope of the
appended claims. For example, it may not be strictly necessary for
the printing apparatus 106 to use printed sheet material in a web,
which material is cut to length by a cutter. Rather, the printed
sheet material may be pre-cut and an appropriate size of printed
sheet material used for both the document pages and for the flag
sheets. For example, a document consisting of letter-sized pages
may be separated by a flag sheet of legal-size dimension. In such a
case, the identification of the separating flag sheets may be
enhanced by using printed sheet material for the flag sheet having
a different colour, texture, thickness or consistency than that
used for the pages of the document.
* * * * *