Method and apparatus for clearing paper jam in a printing device

Abstract

A paper clearing mode is provided in a printing device such as a copier or printer to automatically eject stopped sheets of paper after the jammed paper is manually cleared. The printing device indicates on a display panel only the location(s) of the jammed paper, i.e., the jam location that triggered the print engine to stop printing. The display does not indicate to the user the locations of other sheets of paper that are stopped along the paper transport path but not jammed. Following the displayed instruction, the user manually clears the jammed paper, but does not clear the stopped sheets. After the jammed sheet is cleared, the printing device automatically discharges the stopped sheets from the paper path as a part of the jam recovery process.

1 . A method implemented in a printing device for clearing a jam in a recording medium transport path during processing of a job, comprising:
 detecting a jam condition in the recording medium transport path including one or more locations of jammed sheets of recording medium and one or more locations of stopped sheets of recording medium;   notifying a user the locations of the jammed sheets without notifying the user the locations of the stopped sheets;   receiving a user input indicating that the jammed sheets have been cleared; and   ejecting some or all of the stopped sheets from the transport path.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, after the ejecting step, performing a jam recovery process, wherein the jam recovery process includes re-printing one or more pages of the job being processed. 
     
     
         3 . A printing device comprising:
 a recording medium transport path;   a plurality of sensors located along the transport path for detecting recording medium jamming or stopping conditions;   a control section for controlling the transport path; and   a user interface section connected to the control section for generating output signals and receiving user input signals,   wherein the control section detects a jam condition in the recording medium transport path including one or more locations of jammed sheets of recording medium and one or more locations of stopped sheets of recording medium based on signals received from one or more of the sensors, controls the user interface section to generate output signals to notify a user the locations of the jammed sheets without notifying the user the locations of the stopped sheets, and controls the transport path to eject some or all of the stopped sheets after receiving a user input signal via the user interface section indicating that the jammed sheets have been cleared.   
     
     
         4 . The printing device of  claim 3 , wherein the transport path comprises a print engine for printing images on the sheets of recording medium and one or more finishing units operating on printed sheets of recording medium. 
     
     
         5 . The printing device of  claim 3 , wherein the control section controls the transport path to perform a jam recovery process after ejecting the stopped sheets, wherein the jam recovery process includes re-printing one or more pages of a job being processed.