Patent ID: 8351840

Claim:
A method of printing in a printing system comprising a plurality of marking engines each including an internal simplex path and an internal duplex path, a cross-over module disposed for interleaving media sheets, and a media supply source exclusively disposed at a start of a media path within the system, the method comprising: selectively directing a first sheet from the media supply source to a first marking engine; printing the first sheet with the first marking engine; receiving the first sheet from the first marking engine at a first transport path included in a cross-over module disposed between the first marking engine and a second marking engine; directing the first sheet from the first transport path to a media path spanning the plurality of marking engines and being completely separated from the internal simplex path and the duplex path in each engine; selectively directing at least a second sheet from the media supply source to the spanning media path; bypassing the first marking engine from the media source to the cross-over module using the spanning media path; transporting the second sheet to a second transport path included in the cross-over module; directing the second sheet to the second marking engine using the second transport path; printing the second sheet with the second marking engine; delivering the second sheet from the second marking engine to the spanning media path; and, delivering the first and second sheets to an associated finishing device.