DIRECTION ALONG MEDIA DUPLEX PATH

BACKGROUND

[0001] Pnniing apparatuses include toner applicators, fusers, and media transport assemblies. The media transport assembly includes a simplex media path and a duplex media path. The simplex media path guides media to the toner appficator to position a respective side of the media towards the toner applicator to receive toner thereon and the fuser. The duplex media path guides the media to the simplex media path in a manner thai another side of the media is positioned towards the toner applicator to receive toner thereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[00021 Non-limiting examples are described in the following description, read with reference to the figures attached hereto and do not limit the scope of the claims. Dimensions of components and features illustrated in the figures are chosen primarily for convenience and clarity of presentation and are not necessarily to scale. Referring to the attached figures:

[00033 FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a printing apparatus according to an example.

[00G4J FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrating a printing apparatus according to an example,

[0005] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transporting media in a printing apparatus according to an example.

[0006] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of flushing media in a printing apparatus according to an example. [000?3 F!G. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a computing device including a processor and a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium to store instructions to flush media in a printing apparatus according to an example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0008] A printing apparatus includes a toner applicator, a fuser, and a media transport assembly. The media transport assembly includes a simplex media path and a duplex media path. The simplex media path guides media to the toner applicator to position a respective side of the media towards the toner applicator to receive toner thereon and the fuser. The duplex media path guides the media to the simplex media path in a manner that another side of the media is positioned towards the toner applicator to receive toner thereon. Media, however, may unintentionally stop in the media transport assembly due to firmware errors, losses of power, media jams, doors of printing apparatus being opened during the printing process, and the Sike, When media is unintentionally stopped in the media transport assembly, some of the media may be automatically advanced so that a user does not have to physically remove such media. Generally, however, automatic advancement ma only be done if the media in front of other media is able to be advanced, for example, as determined by a control module including firmware having machine-readable instructions,

[0009] As such, when a media jam occurs near an output of the printing apparatus, no media can be flushed out of the media transport assembly to prevent such flushing from causing damage to the printing apparatus. Accordingly, the amount of media that may be flushed out of the media transport assembly is Sow. Consequently, a user may have to manually locate the jammed media and remove it resulting in a poor user experience, a poor perception of product reliability, and increased opportunities for additional errors such as unintentionaiiy leaving portions of the media in the media transport assembly. [00103 In examples, a method of transporting media in a printing apparatus includes guiding the media in a foavard simplex direction by a simplex media path of a media transport assembly of the printing apparatus. That is, a respective side of the media is positioned across from a toner applicator to receive toner thereon and a fuser to fuse the toner thereon by the simplex media path. The method also includes guiding the media in the forward dupiex direction to the simplex media path by the duplex media path of the media transport assembly. Thai is, another side of th media is positioned towards the toner applicator and the fuser to receive the toner thereon.

[00113 The method also includes selectively moving the media in a reverse duplex direction opposite from the forward dupiex direction to direct the media along the duplex media path to an output area outside of the media transport assembly by the control module in response to a media flushing event. That is, using the reverse duplex direction of the dupiex media path in response to the media flushing event increases the amount of media that may be flushed from the media transport assembly without user intervention.

Accordingly, a good user experience, a good perception of product reliability, and reduced opportunities for additional errors such as unintentionally leaving portions of the media in the media transport assembly may be attained.

[00123 FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a printing apparatus according to an example. Referring to FIG. 1, in some examples, a printing apparatus 100 includes a toner applicator 11 , a fuser 12, a media transport assembly 13, and a control module 14. The toner applicator 1 1 applies toner to media. In some examples, the toner applicator 1 may include an intermediate transport member such as an intermediate blanket to transport toner therefrom to th media. Alternatively, the toner applicator 1 1 may include an optical photoconductive drum, binary ink developers, toner cartridges, or the like, to transport toner therefrom to the media. The fuser 12 fuses the toner to the media. The fuser 12 may include a heated drum, and the like. The media transport assembly 13 includes a simplex media path 13b and a duplex media path 3a to transport the media. [00133 Referring to FIG. 1 , the simplex media path 13b guides the media to the toner applicator 11 and the fuser 12 to position a respective side of the media towards the toner appiicator 1 1 to receive the toner thereon. The duplex media path 13a guides the media to the simplex media path 13b in a manner that another side of the media is positioned towards the toner applicator 11 to receive the toner thereon. The control module 14 includes a movement member 14a to selectively move the media along the duplex media path 13a in a forward duplex direction to direct the media to the simplex media path 13b, Alternatively, the movement member 14a also selectively moves the media in a reverse duplex direction opposite from the forward duplex direction to direct the media to an output area outside of the media transport assembly 13 in response to a media flushing event. In some examples, the movement member 14a ma include a first drive motor.

[0014 to som exam pies, the control module 14 may be

implemented in hardware, software including firmware, or combinations thereof. For example, the firmware may be stored in memory and executed by a suitable instruction-execution system. If implemented in hardware, as in an alternative example, the control module 14 may be implemented with any or a combination of technologies which are well known in the art (for example, discrete-logic circuits, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable-gate arrays (PGAs), field- rogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs)), and/or other later developed technologies, !n some examples, the control module 14 may be implemented in a combination of software and data executed and stored under the control of a computing device.

[00153 FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a printing apparatus according to an example. Referring to FIG. 2, in some examples, the printing apparatus 200 may include a toner applicator 11, a fuser 12, a media transport assembly 13, and a control module 4. The toner appiicator 11 applies toner to media. The fuser 12 fuses the toner to the media. The media transport assembly 13 (13a, 13b, 23c, 23d, and 26 collectively 13) includes a simplex media path 13b, a duplex media path 13a, a media loading path 23c, a media diverting path 23d, and a media diverter 26, to transport the media. [0018J Referring to F!G. 2, in some examples, the duplex media path 13a may include a first set of feed rollers 25a and the simplex media path may include a second set of feed roliers 13b. That is, the simplex media path 13b may include the second set of feed rollers 25b to guide the media to the toner applicator 11 and the fuser 12 to position a respective side of the media towards the toner applicator 11 to receive the toner thereon. The media may be transported to an output tray 29 along the simplex media path 13b after receiving toner and having the toner fused thereon. For duplex printing, the media may first be transported from the simplex media path 13b to the duplex media path 13a and, subsequently, transported to the output tray 29.

Additionally, the duplex media path 13a may include the first set of feed rollers 25a to guide fhe media to the simplex media path 13b in a manner that another side of the media is positioned towards the toner applicator 11 to receive the toner thereon, in some examples, the duplex media path 13a may be disposed substantially parallel to the simplex media path 13b and/or disposed to bypass the toner applicator 1 1 and the fuser 12.

[00173 Referring to FIG. 2, In some examples, the media loading path 23c may include a third set of feed rollers 25c to guide the media from at least one media input area to the simplex media path. The media diverting pat 23d may be disposed proximate to an intersection of the simplex media path 13b and the duplex media path 13a. The media diverter path 23d

communicates with the media diverter 28 to direct the media to the duplex media path 13a based on the control module 14 in response to the media flushing event. The media diverte 26 selectively moves between a simplex position to direct the media to the simplex media path 13b and a duplex position to direct the media to the duplex media path 13a based on a control module 14 in response to the media flushing event. In some examples, the media diverter 26 may include a movable gate, a movable path, and movable rollers.

[00183 Referring to FIG. 2, in some examples, the control module 14 may include a first drive motor 24a, a second drive motor 24b, a third drive motor 24c, and firmware 24d. The first drive motor 24a may include a forward driving direction and a reverse driving direction. For example, the first drive motor 24a moves the media along the duplex media path 13a in the forward duplex direction when in the forward driving direction. Alternatively, the first drive motor 24a moves the media along the duplex media path 13a in the reverse duplex direction d* when in the reverse driving direction in response to the media flushing event. That is, the first drive motor 24a selectively moves the media along the duplex media path 13a in the forward duplex direction d _< jf to direct the media to the simplex media path 13b, and in the reverse duplex direction d* opposite from the forward duplex direction d _df to direct the media to an output area outside of the media transport assembly 13 in response to a media flushing event. In some examples, the output area may include a du lex output tray 27.

[00193 Referring to FIG, 2, in some examples, the second drive motor 24b may include a forward driving direction to move the media along the simplex media path 3a in the forward simplex direction d _sf . For example, the second drive motor 24b may be coupled to the second set of feed rollers 25b to transport the media in the forward simplex direction d _sf . The third drive motor 24c may be coupled to the third set of feed rollers 25c to guide the media from at ieast one media input area 28 to the simplex media path 13b, The firmware 24d may include machine-readable instructions to identify the media flushing event. For example, the media flushing event may be an unintended stoppage of media Sacking unfused toner thereon. The unintended stoppage may be due to firmware errors, losses of power, media jams, doors of the printing apparatus 200 being opened during the printing process, and the like. Further, it is undesirable to flush media with unfused toner that may spread to other components in the media transport assembly 13 and likely cause print quality defects on subsequent media, and the like

[00203 FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transporting media in a printing apparatus according to an example. Referring to FIG. 3, in biock S310, the media is guided in a fon-vard simplex direction by a simplex media path of a media transport assembly of the printing apparatus to position a respective side of the media across from a toner applicator to receive toner thereon and a fuser to fuse the toner thereon. In biock S312, the media is guided in the forward duplex direction to the simplex media path by the duplex media path of the media transport assembly in a manner that another side of the media is positioned towards the toner applicator and the fuser to receive the toner thereon, in block S314, the media is selectively moved in a reverse dupiex direction opposite from the forward duplex direction to direct the media along the duplex media path to an output area outside of the media transport assembly by the control module in response to a media flushing event. In some examples, the method may also include guiding the media by a media loading path of the media transport assembly from at least one media input area such as a media input tray to the simplex media path. Additionally, the method may also include directing the media to the dupiex media path by a media diverter based on a control module in response to the media flushing event.

[00213 FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of flushing media in a printing apparatus according to an example. Referring to FIG. 4, in block S410, a first media is guided in a forward loading direction by a media loading path of a media transport assembly of the printing apparatus from at least one media input area to a simplex media path. In block S412, the first media is guided in a forward simplex direction by the simplex media path of the media transport assembly to position a respective side of the first media across from a toner applicator to receive toner thereon and a fuser to fuse the toner thereon, in block $414, the first media is guided in a forward duplex direction by the duplex media path of the media transport assembly in a manner that another side of the first media is positioned towards the toner applicator and the fuser to receive the toner thereon. In block S416, a second media is directed by a media diverter along the media loading path to the duplex media path based on a control module in response to a media flushing event, in block 3416, the second media is selectively moved in a reverse duplex direction opposite from the forward duplex direction to direct the second media along the dupiex media path to an output area outside of the media transport assembly based on a control module in response to the media flushing event. [0022] F!G. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a computing device including a processor and a non-transitory, computer-readabie storage medium to store instructions to flush media in a printing apparatus according to an example. Referring to FIG, 5, in some examples, the non-transitory, computer-readabie storage medium 55 may be included in a computing device 500 such as a printing apparatus to flush media therein. In some examples, the non-transitory, computer-readabie storage medium 55 may be implemented in whole or in part as instructions 57 such as computer-implemented instructions stored in the computing device locally or remotely, for example, in a server or a host computing device.

[00233 Referring to FIG. 5, in some examples, the non-transitory, computer-readabie storage medium 55 may correspond to a storage device that stores instructions 57, such as computer-implemented instructions and/or programming code, and the iike. For example, th non-transitory, computer- readable storage medium 55 may include a non-volatile memory, a volatile memory, and/or a storage device. Examples of non-volatile memory include, but are not limited to, electrically erasable programmable read only memory {EEPRO ) and read only memory (ROM). Examples of volatile memory include, but are not limited to, static random access memory {SRAM), and dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

[0024| Referring to FIG. 5, examples of storage devices include, but are not limited to, hard disk drives, compact disc drives, digital versatile disc drives, optical drives, and flash memory devices. In some examples, the non- transitory, computer-readable storage medium 55 may even b paper or another suitable medium upon which the instructions 57 are printed, as the instructions 57 can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a single manner, if necessary, and then stored therein. A processor 59 generally retrieves and executes the instructions 57 stored in the non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium 55, for example, to operate a computing device 500 such a printing apparatus to flush media therein in accordance with an example, in an example, the non-transitory, computer- readable storage medium 55 can be accessed by the processor 59.

[00251 ft is to be understood that the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate architecture, functionality, and/or operation of examples of the present disclosure. If embodied in software, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions to implement the specified logical function(s). if embodied in hardware, each block may represent a circuit or a number of interconnected circuits to implement the specified logical function(s). Although the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate a specific order of execution, the order of execution may differ from thai which is depicted. For example, the order of execution of two or more blocks may be rearranged relative to the order illustrated. Also, two or more blocks illustrated in succession in FIGS, 3 and 4 may be executed concurrently or with partial concurrence. All such variations are within the scope of the present disclosure.

[00263 ^" f ^" * ¹ ® present disclosure has been described using non-limiting detailed descriptions of examples thereof that are not intended to limit the scope of the general inventive concept. It should be understood that features and/or operations described with respect to one example may be used with other exampies and that not ail examples have all of the features and/or operations illustrated in a particular figure or described with respect to one of the examples. Variations of examples described will occur to persons of the art. Furthermore, the terms "comprise," "include," "have" and their conjugates, shall mean, when used in the disclosure and/or claims, "including but not necessarily limited to."

[00273 It is noted that some of the above described examples may include structure, acts or details of structures and acts that may not be essential to the general inventive concept and which are described for illustrative purposes. Structure and acts described herein are replaceable by equivalents, which perform the same function, even if the structure or acts are different, as known in the art. Therefore, the scope of the general inventive concept is limited oniy by the elements and limitations as used in the claims.