Patent ID: 8240661

Claim:
A printing apparatus, comprising: a vacuum belt module including a belt support for supporting a movable continuous belt around a vacuum plenum assembly; a sheet feeder for supplying and moving an image receiving sheet through said vacuum belt module; an imaging apparatus for forming an image on said image receiving sheet; and a vacuum transport system, said vacuum transport system including a vacuum transport and said vacuum plenum assembly, said vacuum plenum assembly including a vacuum plenum and at least a portion thereof positioned within said vacuum belt module and a grooved plenum plate covering said vacuum plenum and facing an underside portion of said continuous belt, said plenum plate including a series of holes therein extending in a single line in a cross process direction and a series of grooves extending in a process direction, and wherein said vacuum transport includes a single and unitary shutter plate positioned within said vacuum plenum assembly and beneath said plenum plate, said shutter plate being adapted to move forward in said process direction and in reverse to said process direction in a horizontal plane to thereby block and unblock a predetermined number of said series of holes in said plenum plate in accordance with the size of image receiving sheet being conveyed by said sheet feeder to said vacuum transport, said shutter plate being stationary when said image receiving sheet is fed past said plenum plate, and wherein said series of holes in said plenum plate are located within said grooves of said plenum plate and extend beyond said shutter plate in said cross process direction.