Abstract: During first side printing, a media sheet is fed along a feed roller over a refeed guide toward a metering roller and into a print zone. As the trailing edge approaches a metering pinch line, the metering roller stops. After a drying time, the rollers reverse direction. The refeed guide directs the media sheet around the metering roller onto an inner guide having a reversible roller. When the trailing edge of the media sheet clears the refeed guide, the reversible roller is moved into contact with the metering roller causing such roller to reverse direction. The media sheet now moves back along the inner guide onto the feed roller. When the media sheet trailing edge is detected at the feed roller, the feed roller and metering roller change direction back to the original direction. The media sheet now is fed through the print zone for second side printing.

Abstract: A metering roller and feed guide are included in a desktop printer between a first roller and a print zone. During first side printing, a media sheet is fed along the first roller and directed by an upper feed guide over the refeed guide to a second roller. The metering roller feeds the media sheet through the print zone. As the trailing edge approaches a metering pinch line, the metering roller stops. After a drying time, the second roller reverses direction moving the media sheet back toward the refeed guide. The refeed guide blocks the original path and directs the media sheet toward a repick guide and the first roller. The media sheet is fed onto the first roller for second side printing. In one embodiment the media sheet is wrapped around the first roller and unwrapped into the input tray during the refeed process to accommodate long media sheets.

Abstract: A single manually operated mode selector lever controls selection of a push, pull or park mode of operation of a form feed tractor in a printer. The lever controls a cam which moves a spring-biased tractor drive shaft axially so that a gear on the drive shaft selectively engages a first gear which drives the shaft in a first direction, a second gear which drives the shaft in a second direction, or engages no gear so that the drive shaft is not driven. The form feed tractors are mounted on the drive shaft so that the shaft may move along its axis relative to the tractors or the tractors may be pivoted relative to the shaft. The mode selector lever also controls a mechanism which applies a force to a tractor plate so as to pivot the tractors about the drive shaft, thereby changing the orientation of the tractors relative to the platen. The force applied to the tractor plate is also transmitted to pressure or pinch rolls in the pull mode to relieve constraint on movement of the forms.