Patent ID: 7260339

Claim:
A method of operating a fuser unit for duplex printing, comprising: providing a hot roll and a backup roll in nipped relation, and a drive system including a drive motor for causing the rotation of the rolls; operating the motor at a first process speed in a first direction for advancing media between the hot roll and backup roll for fusing an image on a first side of the media; reversing the direction of operation of the motor to begin duplex routing of the media by operating the motor in an opposite direction from the first direction; re-reversing the direction of operation of the motor while media is routed back to the nip formed between the hot roll and the backup roll before the media leaves the fuser unit; disengaging the hot roll and the backup roll from the drive system during the reversing step, said re-reversing step occurring when the media has been pulled back into the fuser unit far enough to clear a set of output rolls of the fuser unit; and operating the motor at a speed greater than the first process speed for a time to drive the hot roll while the media is being routed back to the nip formed between the hot roll and the backup roll.