Method and apparatus for automatically selecting a printing plate for recording

摘要

The primary function of the optional handler is to make plates available on demand to the imaging engine. A multitude of plates are stored inside cassettes and these cassettes are loaded into the handler. There may be up to four cassettes residing in the handler and each cassette may contain plates having a different characteristic such as size thickness or type. The handler receives commands from the engine control sequencer which provides instructions as to what cassette needs to be accessed to make a plate of the appropriate plate characteristic available to the picker mechanism so the plate may be conveyed to the imaging engine.