PRINTER HAVING TRANSPORT ASSEMBLY SUITABLE FOR WIDE PRINT MEDIA
A printer comprising: a fixed printhead assembly defining a print zone; an input transport assembly for feeding print media along a media path and into the print zone, the input transport assembly being positioned upstream of the print zone; and an exit transport assembly positioned downstream of the print zone for receiving the print media from the print zone. The input transport assembly exerts a higher gripping force on the print media than the exit transport assembly and the exit transport assembly is configured to provide a higher transport speed than the input transport assembly, such that the print media has a degree of slippage relative to the exit transport assembly.
1 . A printer comprising:
a fixed printhead assembly defining a print zone;
an input transport assembly for feeding print media along a media path and into the print zone, the input transport assembly being positioned upstream of the print zone;
an exit transport assembly positioned downstream of the print zone for receiving the print media from the print zone,
wherein:
the input transport assembly exerts a higher gripping force on the print media than the exit transport assembly; and
the exit transport assembly is configured to provide a higher transport speed than the input transport assembly, such that the print media has a degree of slippage relative to the exit transport assembly.
2 . The printer of claim 1 , wherein the exit transport assembly comprises a moving belt assembly.
3 . The printer of claim 2 , wherein the moving belt assembly comprises a plurality of moving endless belts and at least one vacuum chamber for gripping the media on an upper surface of the belts.
4 . The printer of claim 3 , wherein the moving belt assembly is a modular assembly comprised of a plurality of moving belt modules and a plurality of stationary vacuum chamber modules disposed in an alternating arrangement such that the moving belt modules are spaced apart across the media path.
5 . The printer of claim 4 , wherein the moving belt modules and stationary vacuum chamber modules each have sidewall openings defined therein, such that a common vacuum chamber extends through all the modules in the moving belt assembly.
6 . The printer of claim 4 , wherein each moving belt module comprises at least one endless belt tensioned between a drive pulley and an idler pulley, and wherein each drive pulley of the moving belt assembly is mounted on a common drive shaft for rotation therewith.
7 . The printer of claim 1 , wherein the input transport assembly comprises a drive roller assembly.
8 . The printer of claim 1 , wherein the printer is configured to move the print media past the fixed printhead assembly at a first speed when the media is engaged with both the input and exit transport assemblies, and is further configured to move the print media at a second speed once a trailing edge of the print media has disengaged from the input transport assembly, wherein the second speed is greater than the first speed.
9 . The printer of claim 8 , wherein the moving belt assembly comprises an encoder for monitoring the speed of the media.
10 . The printer of claim 1 , wherein a fixed vacuum platen is positioned in the print zone.
11 . The printer of claim 1 wherein the fixed printhead assembly includes a staggered array of fixed inkjet printheads that overlap each other to collectively span the media path.
12 . The printer of claim 1 , which is a wide format printer.
13 . The printer of claim 12 wherein the media path is greater than 17 inches wide.