Patent ID: 7746524

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: an image transfer zone configured to transfer an image to a media sheet, the image transfer zone including a media sheet input and a media sheet output; and a media sheet inverter apparatus including a first media sheet input, a first media sheet output operatively connected to the image transfer zone media sheet input, a second media sheet input operatively connected to the image transfer zone media sheet output, a second media sheet output, a bi-directional media sheet inverter operatively connected to the first media sheet input, the first media sheet output, the second media sheet input and the second media sheet output, wherein the bi-directional media sheet inverter is configured to invert a media sheet received at the first media sheet input, invert a media sheet received at the second media sheet input, and route a media sheet received at the first media sheet input to the second media sheet output using a pass-through route providing a redundant media sheet route bypassing the image transfer zone, a first gate operatively connected to the bi-directional media sheet inverter and configured to route a media sheet received at the first media sheet input to the bi-directional media sheet inverter for inverting or routing to the second media sheet output, and the first gate is configured to route an inverted media sheet from the bi-directional media sheet inverter to the first media sheet output, and a second gate operatively connected to the bi-directional media sheet inverter and configured to route a media sheet received at the second media sheet input to the bi-directional media sheet inverter for inverting and the second gate configured to route an inverted media sheet from the bi-directional media sheet inverter to the second media sheet output.