Patent ID: 7383016

Claim:
An electrophotographic imaging device comprising: an imaging apparatus for forming a toned image on a substrate including an image transfer station for transferring said toned image from at least one image bearing member to said substrate; a fuser assembly configured to fuse said toned image to said substrate; a transport device configured to transport said substrate from said image transfer station to said fuser assembly; and a controller configured to control said image transfer station to operate at an image process rate and to control said transport device to operate at a transport process rate, said controller having a first mode of operation where said image process rate of said image transfer station is different from said transport process rate of said transport device when a handoff is performed to pass said substrate from said image transfer station to said transport device; wherein said imaging apparatus and said transport device are further configured such that when said handoff is performed and said controller is operating in said first mode of operation, a leading edge of said substrate traveling at least substantially at said image process rate is caused to slip over and onto said transport device, which is operating at the transport process rate different from the image process rate, until said substrate has left a nip area of said image transfer station.