Patent ID: 6893175

Claim:
A printing system for use in a high velocity document processing system using lower velocity print technology, the system comprising: a transport path comprising an upstream transport conveying documents at a transport velocity, a downstream transport conveying documents at the transport velocity, a print transport located between the upstream transport and the downstream transport, the print transport driven independently of the upstream transport and the downstream transports and comprising a plurality of individually controllable rollers; an upstream print head contiguous with the print transport to print on documents transported thereon; a downstream print head, downstream of the upstream print head, and contiguous with the print transport to print on documents transported thereon; a controller controlling a first one of the upstream or downstream print heads to print on transported documents, the controller further switching to a second of the upstream or downstream print heads when the first one is out of service, the controller further controlling a roller group of less than all of the plurality of individually controllable rollers according to a predetermined motion profile, whereby under nominal conditions the roller group decelerates the print transport to a nominal print velocity prior to a printing operation in a first segment, maintains the nominal print velocity during the printing operation in a second segment, and accelerates the print transport back to the transport velocity after completion of the printing operation in a third segment; and wherein the controller controls the roller group to comprise of an upstream portion of the plurality of individually controllable rollers if the upstream print head is in use, and to comprise a downstream portion of the plurality of individually controllable rollers if the downstream print head is in use.