Patent ID: 6246856
Filing Date: 2001-06-12
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
A printer or copier device for performance-adapted, monochrome and/or chromatic single-sided or both-sided printing of a recording medium, comprising:at least one electrophotography module for generating toner images, said at least one electrophotography module including:a continuous photoconductor on which the toner images are generated,a plurality of developer stations arranged along a surface of the continuous photoconductor and individually switchable to generate the toner images on said continuous photoconductor, said developer stations each being respectively allocated to a single color separation toner image;at least one transfer module including:an endless transfer band that has a transfer accepting region for accepting toner images from the at least one electrophotography module and a controllable transfer printing region for transfer printing of toner images onto the recording medium, wherein in a transfer printing condition of the at least one transfer module the endless transfer band contacts the recording medium and in a collecting condition of the at least one transfer module the endless transfer band is distanced from the recording medium;a transport channel including:controllable transport for the recording medium, the recording medium being a continuous web-shaped recording medium, said at least one electrophotography module and said at least one transfer module being arranged at at least one side of the transport channel;a controller coupled to the at least one electrophotography module and to the at least one transfer module and to the controllable transport that controls the at least one electrophotography module and the at least one transfer module and the controllable transport such that printing is a performed in two printing modes, said two modes being a start/stop mode and a continuous mode wherein,for printing a recording medium moved through the transfer printing region in the start-stop mode in a first operating condition of the apparatus, the color separation toner images in the collecting condition of the transfer module are serially transferred from the electrophotography module onto the transfer band and an exactly registered collective image is produced on the transfer band, said collective image then being transferred in the transfer printing region of the transfer module onto the recording medium, and,for printing a recording medium moved continuously through the transfer printing region in the continuous mode of the apparatus of the transfer module, the toner images are directly transferred from the at least one electrophotography module onto the endless transfer band and are transferred onto the recording medium without collecting.