duty cycle (redirected from duty cycles)

(1) A machine's rated capacity to continuously perform work under normal conditions. It generally applies to mechanical devices such as printers, in which case it would indicate the number of pages that can be printed per month without a problem.

(2) The ratio of a device operating versus cooling down. An 80% duty cycle means that it is capable of running 80% of a specified time period and turned off for the remainder.