Peer-to-Peer Print Server Distribution for Production Throughput
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial printing systems face inefficiencies in production printing due to the lack of distributed processing capabilities among multiple printers, leading to increased waiting times for final products.
Innovation Solution
An industrial printing system with a print server that performs distributed processing of jobs across multiple print servers, utilizing license information with date and time restrictions to determine capable servers and manage job distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If distributed processing is implemented among multiple print servers, then productivity and waiting time are improved, but device complexity increases due to license information management and processing determination mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the printing process into multiple independent processing stages that can be distributed across different print servers. Each print server handles specific portions of the overall printing job, allowing parallel processing and improving throughput while managing complexity through functional decomposition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a license information management mechanism as an intermediary that coordinates between print servers. This intermediary handles the complexity of license validation and job distribution, allowing the individual print servers to focus on processing without managing the coordination overhead themselves.
2Ease of operation
If print servers determine processing capability independently, then ease of operation is improved, but manufacturing precision and reliability deteriorate due to lack of coordinated license management
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where print servers report their processing status and license validity to the coordination system. This feedback loop ensures that independent processing decisions are aligned with overall system requirements, maintaining reliability while preserving operational autonomy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary license validation and capability determination before job distribution. By pre-checking license information and processing capabilities, the system ensures reliable matching of jobs to appropriate print servers, avoiding issues that would arise from post-processing corrections.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is an industrial printing system that efficiently performs peer-to-peer distributed processing for production printing without requiring manual intervention. The system has a plurality of print servers that perform distributed processing of a job. Each of the plurality of print servers includes a storage unit, a processing determination unit, and a processing management unit. The storage unit stores license information including date and time information of an available distribution destination for the distributed processing. The processing determination unit determines other print server that can process the job based on the license information stored in the storage unit. The processing management unit sends the job to the other print server determined to be capable of processing by the processing determination unit and requests processing.