Patent ID: 8548371

Claim:
A system for producing bound electrophotographic prints, the system comprising: a print engine having a printing module to form a toner image on a receiver; a fuser with a heater that heats the toner image to fuse the toner image to the receiver to form a print; a stacking system that stacks the print and a sheet in a stacking area with the fused toner image between the print and the sheet; a heating system having a heat source that applies a heat along an edge of the stack; and a controller that causes the toner image to have toner in a binding area proximate to the heated edge of the stack and in an image area that is separated from the binding area by a separation area, wherein a portion of the heat applied at the edge of the stack heats the binding area to cause toner in the binding area to fuse for a second time and a residual portion of the heat applied heats the separation area, but the separation area does not heat the image area to an extent sufficient to fuse toner in the image area, and wherein a level of adhesion between the print and the sheet is based on a pattern of toner in the binding area, and the controller determines a size of the separation area based upon one of an amount of heat to be applied during the second fusing, or an amount of toner that is to be fused during the second fusing.