Patent ID: 7390084

Claim:
A method for increasing the printing speed of an ink jet printer capable of producing both simplex and duplex prints by providing multiple transfixing modes, comprising: operating a print head adjacent a rotatable intermediate transfer drum to eject ink droplets from said print head to form ink images on said intermediate transfer drum; maintaining a coating of release agent on said intermediate transfer drum prior to the formation of ink images thereon to assist in a transfer of said ink images therefrom; selectively rotating a positionable transfixing roll at a transfixing station; and configuring a controller and a memory to control said printer process operations and to move said transfixing roll into and out of a nip forming position with said intermediate transfer drum with different timing sequences to control both the transfixing speed of the transfixing station and the transfer of release agent from said intermediate transfer drum onto said transfixing roll, the movement of said transfixing roll with different timing sequences comprising: identifying whether a current printing job to be done by said printer is for simplex or duplex prints; operating the transfixing station in a duplex transfixing mode for duplex prints; and operating the transfixing station in a simplex transfixing mode for simplex prints by: entering a number Q of simplex prints to be printed; selecting n number of simplex prints necessary to clean release agent from the transfixing roll; solving equation Q−n=K, where K is zero when Q is equal or less than n and where n=Q when K is zero; operating the transfixing station in a simplex transfixing mode 1 for simplex prints when K is a positive number; checking for a last print of K simplex prints; operating the transfixing station in a simplex transfixing mode 2 upon completion of K simplex prints or when K is zero; and stopping the printer when a last print of n simplex prints have been produced.