Patent ID: 8684516

Claim:
A flat-bed printer comprising substrate support apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a table including a support surface for supporting at least one substrate during printing, the support surface defining a first region including a plurality of substrate apertures, wherein the table is adapted for supporting one or more substrates partially covering the first region and a mask having cut-outs generally corresponding to the or each substrate, a negative pressure source for applying negative pressure to the substrate apertures to hold the or each substrate to the first region of the table, a plurality of mask apertures located in a second region of the support surface separate from the first region of the support surface and a negative pressure source for applying negative pressure to the mask apertures to hold a mask to the support surface, so that a mask is held by pressure applied to both the substrate and the mask apertures, the negative pressure source for applying negative pressure to the substrate apertures and the negative pressure source for applying negative pressure to the mask apertures being one of: a first negative pressure source for applying a negative pressure to the substrate apertures and a second negative pressure source for independently applying a negative pressure to the mask apertures; or a negative pressure source coupled to a routing device for controlling individually and independently the application of negative pressure to the substrate apertures and to the mask apertures, wherein the negative pressure source for applying negative pressure to the substrate apertures and the negative pressure source for applying negative pressure to the mask apertures are configured to selectively release the negative pressure from the substrate apertures while retaining the negative pressure at the mask apertures, so that pressure can be applied to the substrate apertures and the mask apertures independently to enable selective release of a substrate from the support surface while retaining the mask by negative pressure applied to the mask apertures.