Printing System Loop Scheduling for Mixed Media
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printing systems face challenges in scheduling sheets with different media properties, leading to inefficiencies and increased timing constraints due to varying setup times and media properties such as size, weight, and fiber structure.
Innovation Solution
A printing system equipped with a pattern recognition module that identifies repeating patterns in media properties and adjusts sheet entrance times for both passes through the paper path loop, ensuring that recognized patterns coincide, thereby minimizing timing constraints and optimizing scheduling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If sheets with different media properties are printed using a loop paper path with interweaving first and second passes, then productivity is improved by utilizing the loop capacity, but timing constraints increase due to varying setup times for different media types
Solution Approach 1:
The pattern recognition module identifies repeating patterns in the sequence of sheets before printing begins. This preliminary recognition allows the control unit to pre-calculate optimal entrance times for each sheet into the loop, ensuring that sheets with different media properties are scheduled to coincide with appropriate setup times for their respective media types, thus resolving the timing constraint issue before printing starts
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the entrance times of sheets into the loop based on their media properties and the identified repeating patterns. Rather than using fixed timing, the control unit flexibly schedules each sheet's entrance to optimize for both productivity and timing constraints, allowing the system to adapt to varying media requirements while maintaining efficient loop utilization
2Productivity
If the print speed is increased to twice the separation and working speed, then productivity is improved, but the complexity of scheduling sheets with different media properties increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pattern recognition module creates a simplified representation (copy) of the sheet sequence by identifying repeating patterns. Instead of managing complex individual scheduling for each sheet, the system works with pattern templates that capture the essential timing relationships, significantly reducing scheduling complexity while maintaining high print speeds
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of sheet entrance timing based on media properties and pattern recognition. By adjusting entrance times as a variable parameter rather than using fixed intervals, the system can accommodate different media setup times while maintaining high print speeds, effectively managing scheduling complexity through parameter optimization
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a printing system for cut sheets, the printing system comprising a control unit for controlling the printing of image data on a plurality of sheets and scheduling the plurality of sheets in a printing order, the plurality of sheets having different media properties, and a paper path comprising a loop in order to enable printing on the plurality of sheets in an interweaving first and second pass in the loop, and a print engine for disposing marking material on the sheets according to the image data. The print system comprises a pattern recognition module for recognizing a repeating pattern in the plurality of sheets on the basis of the media properties of the sheets. The control unit is configured to determine the entrance time of each of the plurality of sheets for entering the loop in the paper path for the first pass and for the second pass while taking the repeating pattern recognized by the pattern recognition module and a length of the loop into account.