US 12,073,136 B2
Industrial printing system, print server, and grouping process method for peer-to-peer grouping of production printing jobs
Taku Matsuo, Concord, CA (US)
Assigned to KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc., Osaka (JP)
Filed by KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc., Osaka (JP)
Filed on Oct. 17, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/967,718.
Prior Publication US 2024/0126492 A1, Apr. 18, 2024
Int. Cl. G06F 3/12 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 3/1262 (2013.01) [G06F 3/1205 (2013.01); G06F 3/1243 (2013.01); G06F 3/1282 (2013.01); G06F 3/1285 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An industrial printing system for production printing having a plurality of print servers that performs distributed processing of jobs, each of the plurality of print servers comprising:
a condition setting unit configured to set a grouping condition for grouping the jobs;
a condition sharing unit configured to share the grouping condition set by the condition setting unit with another print server;
a job acquiring unit configured to acquire a plurality of jobs that meets the grouping condition from the other print server; and
a job processing unit configured to group and print, with a grouped state, the plurality of jobs acquired by the job acquiring unit; wherein
each of the plurality of jobs is determined to meet the grouping condition that is shared with the other print server;
the condition setting unit sets a condition related to paper, color printing, finishing, roll paper, or ganging as the grouping condition, and, for each condition, further sets a release condition to execute printing; and
in the grouping by paper, color printing, and finishing, a release condition is set to execute printing when the plurality of jobs is acquired for a number of papers set in a paper feeding tray or at a specific time is come.