Print Fleet Settings Synchronization via Central Catalogue
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Solution Overview
Problem
In a print fleet system comprising multiple printer instances with shared system settings, inconsistencies in output quality can occur due to variations in system settings across different printers, leading to suboptimal or inconsistent print results.
Innovation Solution
A centralized registration system tracks changes to system settings across all printers, generating advice for users to ensure that settings are synchronized before printing, using a shared catalogue system and user interface integrated with the printer driver to display and confirm necessary adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If system settings are customized for each printer instance to optimize local performance, then print quality is improved, but consistency across the print fleet deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates master settings (stored centrally in the catalogue) from instance-specific adaptations (local modifications). Each printer instance maintains a segmented view of settings: inherited master settings and optional local overrides, allowing quality optimization per instance while maintaining overall fleet consistency through the central catalogue structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by detecting when a printer instance modifies its local settings and automatically notifying other instances through the catalogue system. This feedback mechanism ensures that setting changes are communicated across the fleet, maintaining consistency while allowing necessary local optimizations.
2Stability of the object's composition
If system settings are synchronized across all printer instances, then consistency is improved, but adaptability to local conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables local quality by allowing each printer instance to have instance-specific settings that differ from the master catalogue settings. Printers can locally adapt settings such as color calibration data and media registration to their specific hardware characteristics and local conditions, while still maintaining a baseline consistency through shared master settings.
Solution Approach 2:
The settings system is made dynamic, allowing settings to flow from the central catalogue to individual instances, with the option for local modifications. The system dynamically adjusts the level of synchronization based on instance-specific needs, enabling both consistency and adaptability simultaneously through configurable setting inheritance and override mechanisms.
3Adaptability or versatility
If each printer instance maintains independent system settings, then adaptability is improved, but detection of setting inconsistencies deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The catalogue system implements a feedback mechanism that automatically detects when a printer instance modifies its settings from the master catalogue. The system monitors setting changes, identifies variations from the standard configuration, and notifies other instances through the central catalogue, making inconsistency detection automatic rather than manual.
Solution Approach 2:
The central catalogue acts as an intermediary between the master settings and individual printer instances. It mediates by storing the authoritative setting definitions and automatically comparing instance settings against the catalogue, thereby simplifying the detection of variations without requiring direct peer-to-peer monitoring between printers.
4Manufacturing precision
If system settings are manually configured on each printer instance, then precision is improved, but time consumption deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-configuring master settings in the central catalogue that define the standard configuration for the print fleet. These master settings are prepared in advance and automatically distributed to printer instances, eliminating the need for manual configuration on each device and significantly reducing setup time while maintaining precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses copying by automatically replicating master settings from the central catalogue to multiple printer instances. Instead of manually configuring each printer, the standardized settings are copied and distributed across the fleet, ensuring consistency and accuracy while minimizing the time investment required for configuration.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a print fleet system comprising a plurality of printer instances which have a same set of at least one system setting, a registration system for registering print jobs in combination with system settings of the same set of at least one system setting of the plurality of printer instances, and an advice system for generating an advice for an operator,and a user interface system for displaying the advice, wherein the registration system comprises a value change made to the set of at least one system setting of a printer instance out of the plurality of printer instances before printing a print job on the print engine, the advice system is configured to generate an advice related to the same print job intended to be printed on another printer instance out of the plurality of printer instances, the advice concerning the change comprised in the registration system, and the advice system is configured to transmit signals representing the advice to the user interface screen for display in order to advice the operator before printing the same print job on the other printer instance. The invention also relates to a method to be applied by the print fleet system according to the invention.