Patent ID: 8169626

Claim:
A printing system comprising: a marking engine; a paper path which carries sheets of print media to the marking engine from an upstream direction and carries sheets of print media which have been marked by the marking engine in a downstream direction; a buffer system comprising: a first sheet buffer in the paper path upstream of the marking engine; and a second sheet buffer in the paper path downstream of the marking engine, at least one sheet feeder, at least one conveyor system, and at least one finisher, the sheet feeder, conveyor system, and finisher all being under the control of a central controller; the conveyor system conveying the sheets of print media from the sheet feeder along the paper path to the marking engine via the first sheet buffer, and from the marking engine to the finisher via the second sheet buffer, the central controller receiving timing information from at least one of the sheet feeder, conveyor system, and finisher whereby the central controller times the movement of each sheet through the printing system, the controller timing the movement of the sheets through the marking engine based on a fixed total residence time for the sheet in the marking engine and second sheet buffer.