Canon Production Printing Holding B.V.

Deformation is reduced or prevented in a printed print medium during steam treatment by a print medium treatment device for a printer. The print medium treatment device includes a steam treatment unit for treating a first side of a print medium with steam, the steam treatment unit including a steam generator connectable to a steam chamber; and a conveyor for transporting the print medium through the steam chamber. The conveyor includes a holding device for engaging a second side of the print medium opposite the first side, such that the print medium is flattened against the conveyor.

A corona treatment apparatus comprising a conveyor ( 10 ) for conveying sheets ( 18 ) to be treated along a transport path ( 16 ), a number of corona electrodes ( 20 ) disposed along the conveyor ( 10 ) on a first side of the transport path ( 16 ), a ground electrode ( 22 ) arranged on an opposite second side of the transport path ( 16 ) and opposite to the corona electrodes ( 20 ), and a suction box ( 26 ) for attracting the sheets ( 18 ) to the ground electrode ( 22 ) by drawing-in air through perforations of the ground electrode, wherein the ground electrode ( 22 ) is stationary and the conveyor ( 10 ) has a perforated conveyor belt ( 12 ) that runs over the ground electrode ( 22 ) and is made of a dielectric material, characterized in that the conveyor belt ( 12 ) has perforations that are larger than the perforations in the ground electrode ( 22 ).

When duplex printing non-rectangular sheets of printable media, the sheets require proper registration to prevent misalignment of front and back images. This is ensured by: determining relative orientations of three different edges of a sheet being transported towards print station on a first pass; registering the sheet on the first pass by aligning one of the edges with respect to a predetermined alignment direction; printing a first image on a first side of the registered sheet; flipping the sheet on a second pass; registering the flipped sheet by aligning one of the edges with respect to a predetermined alignment direction; and printing a second image on a second side of the registered, flipped sheet aligned with the first image based on the determined relative orientations.

The present invention relates to a method for operating a printing apparatus and an printing apparatus suitable for performing such a method. In particular the present invention relates to a method for operating a printing apparatus, the printing apparatus comprising a page-wide curing array, the printing apparatus being operable in at least a gloss mode and a mixed matt-gloss mode.

A calendering unit for a printing device is described that efficiently and gently matches the gloss of the printed and unprinted partial regions of the recording medium by calendering a recording medium printed to by the printing device.

A device and a method for after-treatment of a recording medium that has been printed to is provided. A fluid is applied onto the front side of the recording medium that has been printed to at least on its front side. The printed front side is contacted by a contact transfer element. The fluid is applied and/or distributed by the contact transfer element for after-treatment of the recording medium.

A method of printing and stacking sheets improves the relative alignment of images in a stack of printed sheet. The method includes feeding a sheet at least twice past a printhead assembly for printing an image on both sides of the sheet, wherein in the first and second passes the respective front and back images are aligned with respect to a first edge of the sheet by detecting a skew angle between the first and second edges and applying the skew angle to align the front and back images; and stacking the sheet, wherein the sheet is registered to a predetermined stacking reference direction by one of its edges, and wherein during the stacking, the sheet is registered by its first edge.

When using a flipping wheel to flip sheets of weak or long media, there is a risk that these sheets collapse upon themselves. To reduce this risk, a method of stacking sheets includes flipping a sheet while holding its leading edge and bringing the leading edge down towards a stack support; bringing a trailing portion of the sheet into contact with a guide member positioned over the stack support; forming an overpressure in an inner volume of the bent sheet during flipping, while its trailing portion is in contact with the guide member; and maintaining the overpressure and contact while a trailing edge of the sheet travels along the guide member.

A method of handling sheets in a printing device including a processing assembly that processes passing sheets by applying a processing parameter that is associated with a media type of each passing sheet, includes determining that a sequence of at least one sheet that is to pass through the processing assembly is to remain blank and that the sequence is preceded or followed by a sheet that is to be printed upon, controlling the processing assembly to apply the processing parameter for the sheet to be printed upon to this sheet to be printed upon during the passage of this sheet through the processing assembly, and for the sequence of at least one sheet that is to remain blank, controlling the processing assembly to ignore the processing parameter during the passage of the sequence through the processing assembly.

A stacker module includes a lift table, a stacker configured to place sheets that are successively supplied thereto onto the top of a stack forming on the lift table, a controller configured to lower the lift table as the stack grows, a height-adjustable eject table, and an eject mechanism configured to transfer a completed stack from the lift table onto the eject table. The eject mechanism is height-adjustable for transferring stacks onto the eject table in different height positions of the lift table.