Patent ID: 8224231

Claim:
A printing system comprising: a sheet media source adapted to dispense individual sheets of media; a finishing unit operatively spaced from said sheet media source and adapted to receive individual sheets of media, said finishing unit including a sheet media inlet, a first compiling module in operative communication with said sheet media inlet, and a second compiling module in operative communication with said sheet media inlet, the second compiling module in parallel relation to said first compiling module, said first and second compiling modules each adapted to: a) receive a plurality of individual sheets of media that together comprise a set of sheets of media; b) perform a finishing operation on said plurality of individual sheets of media to form a finished set of sheets of media; and, c) stack a plurality of finished sets of sheets of media; at least one marking unit operatively disposed between said sheet media source and said finishing unit, said at least one marking unit adapted to receive said individual sheets of media from said sheet media source and operative to generate a continuous stream of marked sheets of media at a predetermined imaging rate associated with a consistent sequence of pitches; and, a control system in communication with at least said finishing unit, the control system configured to execute a method of performing a print job including finishing two or more sets of at least two marked sheets of media per set, the method comprising: a) the at least one marking unit generating a continuous stream of marked sheets of media at the predetermined imaging rate, the continuous stream of marked sheets of media including the two or more sets of at least two marked sheets of media; b) routing in marking sequence the continuous stream of marked sheets of media to the finishing module at substantially the predetermined imaging rate or greater; c) the finishing module, selectively routing marked sheets associated with a first set to the first compiling module and routing marked sheets associated with a second set to the second compiling module, whereby a sheet processing rate associated with the parallel combination of the first compiling module and second compiling module is substantially equal to the predetermined imaging rate or greater, and the first compiling module stacks the first set in a first stack operatively associated with the first compiling module, and the second compiling module stacks the second set in a second stack operatively associated with the second operating module; d) performing a finishing operation upon the first set using the first compiling module, while concurrently continuing to route media sheets associated with the second set to the second compiling module at a processing rate substantially equal to the predetermined imaging rate or greater; and e) performing a finishing operation upon the second set using the second compiling module.