Patent ID: 7954815

Claim:
A printing apparatus, comprising: an imaging apparatus for forming an image on an image receiving media; a sheet feeder for supplying and feeding the image receiving media toward said imaging apparatus; a vacuum transport system for conveying said image receiving media past an imaging zone of said imaging apparatus, said vacuum transport system including a rigid, flat, interconnected vacuum belt comprising a series of individual segments entrained around spaced idler rolls with a portion of said individual segments of said vacuum belt being positioned in a horizontal plane between said spaced idler rolls; and a high motion quality drive member positioned upstream of one of said spaced idle rolls and in said horizontal plane downstream of said imaging apparatus and on top of and in contact with an exterior portion of said vacuum belt, said drive member being adapted to drive said vacuum belt at a constant linear velocity and thereby control the motion of said vacuum belt and ensure high quality images on said image receiving media.