JP2009075153A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow dehumidification with excellent power consumption efficiency regardless of the state of a power supply switch. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus adapted to supply paper stored in a paper feed cassette to an image forming means and form an image on the paper by the image forming means includes a dehumidifying heater 2 for dehumidifying the paper stored in the paper feed cassette; a control part 11 controlling the image forming operation and the dehumidifying heater 2; an operation part 13 for setting an attribute of the paper; and a jam history DB 20 storing, in the event of jam occurrence during image forming operation, print information for each of the paper attribute, print condition and environmental condition set on the occurrence of jam in association with jam information showing the jam occurrence as jam occurrence information. The control part 11 performs current-carrying control of the dehumidifying heater 2 based on the jam occurrence information stored in the jam history DB 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser printer, a digital copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a digital multifunction machine having these functions combined to form an image on a sheet-like recording medium, and particularly for preventing condensation and dehumidifying. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus provided with a heating source.

  In an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method such as a copying machine, there is a problem that paper jam occurs due to an environment in which a paper feed cassette is installed inside the apparatus. As a countermeasure, a heater for dehumidifying the paper feed cassette is arranged in a main part, and a power supply line is provided to operate the heater even at night when the power switch is turned off. The heater is generally controlled so as to have an appropriate humidity after the humidity is saturated, and the power consumption is generally determined based on the control. Usually, the energized state is maintained without any control. Therefore, from the viewpoint of power saving, a configuration has been proposed in which a contact of a timer for controlling energization of the heater is interposed in the power supply line so that the energization is performed at dawn with a high possibility of condensation. As an example of this, the invention described in Patent Document 1 is known.

According to the present invention, when a power switch is turned off, only necessary power can be consumed and overall power consumption can be reduced. An image forming unit for forming and outputting an image, and the image forming In an image forming apparatus having a heating source that keeps a predetermined part of a part warm, the load of the image forming part is connected to a power supply line, the power supply line is branched, and the heating source is connected to the branched power supply line. The power line branch section is provided with a power switch for switching power supply to the load of the image forming section and the heating source, and a timer for controlling energization of the heating source to the power line after the branch is provided. It is characterized by interposing contacts.
JP-A-9-269706

  However, the above-mentioned known technology is only dehumidified at night when the power switch is turned off, and even in the daytime when the power switch is turned on, the humidity of the paper is high and jamming is likely to occur. There is no effect. Therefore, if it is operated even when the power switch is turned on, it is against the demand for power saving. Particularly in recent years, in order to save power, not only the fixing temperature is controlled, but also the power supply to the hard disk drive, which is an installed storage medium, the CPU of the control microcomputer sleeps, the control power is turned off, etc. In a situation where the control is performed in stages, there is room for further improvement in order to efficiently dehumidify regardless of the state of the power switch.

  Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to enable dehumidification with excellent power consumption efficiency regardless of the state of the power switch.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the first means supplies the paper stored in the paper feed cassette to the image forming means, and the image forming apparatus forms an image on the paper by the image forming means. A heating unit for dehumidifying the paper stored in the paper cassette, a control unit for controlling the image forming operation and the heating unit, an operating unit for setting the attributes of the paper, and a jam during the image forming operation A storage unit that associates print information for each paper attribute, print condition, and environmental condition set at the time of the occurrence of the jam and jam information indicating that the jam has occurred, and stores it as jam occurrence information. The control means controls the operation of the dehumidifying means based on the jam occurrence information stored in the storage means.

  The second means is the first means, wherein the control means searches the storage means for jam occurrence information corresponding to the paper attributes set via the operation means, and when the jam is searched, The dehumidifying means is operated.

  The third means searches the storage means for jam occurrence information corresponding to the paper attribute set through the operation means in the second means, and when the jam is searched, the same setting is used. It is characterized by comprising notifying means for notifying that a jam has occurred in the past and that the dehumidifying means has been operated.

  A fourth means is any one of the first to third means, wherein the control means totals the number of jam occurrence information of the same content in the storage means, and the number is stored in the storage means as the number of jam occurrences. It is memorized.

  According to a fifth means, in the fourth means, when a jam occurrence threshold value for turning off the heating means is set via the operation means, and the control means is configured such that the jam occurrence frequency is equal to or more than the set threshold value. The operation of the dehumidifying means is stopped.

  A sixth means informs that the dehumidifying means is not effective for the corresponding jam by the notifying means when the number of occurrences of the jam exceeds the threshold in the fourth means, or Selection means for selecting whether to stop the operation of the dehumidifying means is provided.

  The seventh means is characterized in that, in the first means, the attribute of the paper includes at least one of a type, a size and a margin of the print paper.

  An eighth means is characterized in that, in the first means, the printing condition is single-sided or double-sided printing.

  A ninth means is characterized in that, in the first means, the print condition includes a paper feed tray used for printing.

  According to a tenth means, in the first means, the print condition includes a post-processing condition.

  The eleventh means comprises environmental condition detection means for detecting environmental conditions during printing in the first means, and the storage means, when a jam occurs, the attributes of the paper, the print conditions, and the environmental condition detection means. Is stored as jam generation information.

  A twelfth means is characterized in that in the eleventh means, the environmental condition includes one of temperature and humidity at the time of printing.

  A thirteenth means is characterized in that, in any one of the first to twelfth means, the dehumidifying means is a dehumidifying heater or a blower fan.

  The fourteenth means comprises a communication means for transmitting / receiving jam occurrence information to / from another image forming apparatus connected via a network in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to thirteenth means, wherein the storage means And storing jam occurrence information received from another image forming apparatus.

  The fifteenth means is characterized in that, in the fourteenth means, when the number of jam occurrences stored in the storage means exceeds the threshold, the jam occurrence condition is transmitted to the management center via the network. To do.

  In the embodiment described later, the dehumidifying means is the dehumidifying heater 2 or the dehumidifying heater section 12 or a blower fan (not shown), the controlling means is the controlling section 11, the operating means is the operating section 13, and the storing means is the jam history DB 20. The communication means corresponds to the communication section 19 and the network corresponds to the code NT.

  According to the present invention, since energization control of the heating unit is performed based on the jam occurrence information stored in the storage unit, it is possible to perform dehumidification with excellent power consumption efficiency regardless of the state of the power switch.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, a paper feed cassette 3 is mounted at the lower part of the main body of the image forming apparatus 1, and a dehumidifying heater 2 is disposed inside the main body to dehumidify the paper feed cassette 3 and prevent jamming of recording paper. Yes. Since the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 itself is known, the description of the mechanical components such as the reading unit, the writing unit, the image forming unit, and the sheet conveying unit will be omitted. An operation unit 13 and a display unit 14 which will be described later are provided on the upper front of the apparatus.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of a control configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, a printer 16 including a writing means, an image forming means, a paper conveying means, etc., and an image as an image reading means for a control unit 11 constituted by a main control microcomputer for controlling a power saving operation. The reading unit 18, the sensor 17, the communication unit 19, the operation unit 13, the display unit 14, the recording unit 15, and the dehumidifying heater control circuit 21 are connected to each other. Among these, the dehumidifying heater control circuit 21 controls the dehumidifying heater unit 12 including the dehumidifying heater 2 disposed in the paper feed cassette 3 of the image forming apparatus, and controls the energization to the dehumidifying heater 2. It consists of a semiconductor switch circuit. Further, the control unit 11 outputs a drive signal for energizing the dehumidifying heater to the dehumidifying heater control circuit 21. The control unit 11 includes at least a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM 22. The CPU expands the program code stored in the ROM to the RAM 22, uses the RAM 22 as a work area, and executes a program defined by the program code. Execute.

  The sensor 17 is an environmental sensor that detects the humidity and temperature of the portion where the dehumidifying heater 2 is installed, and the recording unit 15 is for managing jam information relating to a jam that has occurred in the past, and stores the jam recording history DB 20. It consists of HDD. The display unit 14 is composed of an LCD and functions as a user interface for turning the dehumidifying heater 2 on and off. The operation unit 13 has various keys for setting the paper size of the printer, the attribute of the weight, or the number of copies, double-sided / single-sided printing, print conditions such as print magnification, the threshold value of the number of jam occurrences, 14 is provided, and an operation signal corresponding to the operation is output to the control unit 11. The communication unit 19 includes a communication interface such as a NIC, and performs transmission / reception with external data via the network NT.

  In the image forming apparatus configured generally as described above, a history of jam is managed for jam processing. This history management process accumulates a history of jam when a jam occurs. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the history management processing. In this history management process, the print paper attributes and print conditions are set by the user as a premise of explanation, and the set print paper attributes and print condition setting information are temporarily stored in the RAM 22 in the control unit 11.

  When a jam occurs during execution of a job according to the setting, the control unit 11 refers to the jam recording history DB 20 described in the storage unit 15 including the HDD. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of the jam record history DB 20. As can be seen from the figure, as jam occurrence information, the print paper attributes (paper type, weight, size, etc.) set by the user at the time of jam occurrence, print conditions (single / double-sided, paper feed tray, post-processing) Setting contents), environmental conditions (temperature, humidity), and occurrence information (jam occurrence number) indicating that a jam has occurred are stored in association with each other.

  If a jam occurs under such conditions, the print paper attributes and print condition setting information when the jam occurs are acquired (step S101), and the determined print paper attributes and print condition settings are obtained. Is searched for jam information (step S102). Next, when a jam having the same setting as the print paper attribute and print condition occurs (step S103-Y), the number of jam occurrences is counted up in the jam occurrence information, and the jam recording history DB 20 is updated and recorded (step S103-Y). S104). On the other hand, if no jam occurrence information with the same setting is found (step S103-N), new jam occurrence information is created in the jam record history DB 20, and the number of jam occurrences is set to an initial value 1 (step S105). ).

  Based on the jam occurrence information stored in the jam record history DB 20 by such history management processing, the attribute of the printing paper having a high jam occurrence rate and the setting of the print condition in the past are set by the dehumidifying heater from the control unit 1 at the time of print setting. A drive signal for energizing the dehumidifying heater section 12 is output to the control circuit 21 to turn on the dehumidifying heater 3 and notify that fact. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at this time. Note that whether or not the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned on is effective in reducing jamming is determined based on the threshold value input by the user in advance from the operation unit 13 by the user. When it is determined that the dehumidifying heater 2 is not effective in reducing jamming, the control unit 11 stops outputting the drive signal to the dehumidifying heater control circuit 21 and the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned off from the control unit 11 or the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned off. It is informed that it is not effective in reducing jamming, and it can be selected whether the dehumidifying heater is turned on as it is.

  In the processing procedure of FIG. 5, first, when the user sets and inputs printing paper attributes and printing conditions from the operation unit 13, they are temporarily stored in the RAM 22 of the control unit 11 (step S201), and printing is performed. Next, the control unit 11 refers to the jam record history DB 20 and searches for jam occurrence information that matches the attributes of the print paper and the print condition settings (step S202). When the jam occurrence information with the same setting is not retrieved (step S203-N), this process is terminated.

  If it is found that the same setting jam has occurred (step S203-Y), the control unit 11 outputs a drive signal for energizing the dehumidifying heater unit 12 to the dehumidifying heater control circuit 21, and the dehumidifying heater is output. 2 is turned on, and a message indicating that the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned on is displayed on the display unit 14 (step S205). Thereafter, the control unit 11 determines the number of jam occurrences based on the retrieved jam occurrence information. In this determination, threshold information on the number of jam occurrences set in advance by the user (operator) is read from the storage unit 15, and it is determined whether or not the number of jam occurrences exceeds the threshold (step S206).

  If the number of jam occurrences does not exceed the threshold value in this determination (step S206-N), it is determined that the jam has occurred in the past but is not yet at the stage of turning off the dehumidifying heater, and this process is terminated. On the other hand, if the number of jam occurrences exceeds the threshold (step S206-Y), it is determined that the dehumidifying heater has no effect on the jam, and the user determines whether or not to turn off the dehumidifying heater (step S207), and operates the determination result. Input from the unit 13. When the dehumidifying heater OFF is selected from the operation unit 13 (step S206-Y), output of the drive signal from the control unit 11 to the dehumidifying heater control circuit 21 is stopped, the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned off (step S208), and the display unit 14 is displayed. The fact that the dehumidifying heater 2 has been turned off is notified (step S209).

  On the other hand, if it is selected not to turn off the dehumidifying heater from the operation unit 13 (step S207-N), the dehumidifying heater 2 displays on the display unit 14 that the jam is not effective (step S210). Thereafter, it is determined whether or not to transmit jam information to a server such as a management center via the communication unit 19 (step S211). When transmitting, the jam information is transmitted to the server via the network NT ( Step S212) When the process is finished and not transmitted, the process is finished as it is. On the management center side, it is possible to perform maintenance corresponding to frequent jams from the jam information transmitted to the server.

  As a result, by transmitting the jam occurrence information to an image forming apparatus of the same model in the server and similarly reporting the jam occurrence information, it is possible to share information on a condition with a high jam occurrence rate.

  Further, if detailed jam occurrence information is provided to the management center or the like, it becomes possible for a service person to perform appropriate maintenance with reference to the jam information during maintenance. The server may be provided at a location different from the management center, and the image forming apparatus may transmit jam information to the management center via the server.

  In the present embodiment, dehumidification is performed by the dehumidifying heater 2 as shown in FIG. 2, but instead of the dehumidifying heater 2 or in addition to the dehumidifying heater, a blower fan is provided to perform the same control, and the dehumidifying heater. 2 Dehumidification control similar to that at the time of installation can be performed. In this case, the same control can be performed using a blower fan installed in the image forming apparatus in advance.

As described above, according to this embodiment, there are the following effects.
1) When a user sets and inputs print paper attributes and print conditions from the operation unit 13, the jam recording history DB 20 is referred to, and jam occurrence information that matches the print paper attributes and print condition settings is retrieved. Is retrieved, the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned on to adjust the humidity of the main part of the apparatus, so that it is possible to turn on the dehumidifying heater 2 only when there is a risk of jamming. As a result, the power switch It is possible to perform dehumidification excellent in power consumption efficiency regardless of the state.

2) When the user sets and inputs print paper attributes and print conditions from the operation unit 13, the jam recording history DB 20 is referred to and jam occurrence information that matches the print paper attribute and print condition settings is searched. When a corresponding jam is searched in this search, it is found that a jam has occurred in the past with the same setting, and a message indicating that the dehumidifying heater 2 has been turned on is displayed on the display unit 14. Can be recognized and that the dehumidifying heater 2 has been turned on.

3) Since the number of jam occurrence information having the same contents in the jam record history DB 20 is totalized and stored in the jam history DB 20 as the number of jam occurrences, frequent jam information can be collected.

4) It is possible to set a jam generation threshold value for turning off the dehumidifying heater 2 through the operation unit 13, and the control unit 11 exceeds the set threshold value so that the heating of the dehumidifying heater 2 is effective. If it is determined that the dehumidifying heater 2 is not present, the dehumidifying heater 2 is stopped, so that wasteful power consumption can be avoided.

5) As an operation of the image forming apparatus when the set threshold value is exceeded, the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned off or a notification means (display unit 14) notifies the jam that the dehumidifying heater 2 is not effective, and the dehumidifying heater 2 is turned on. Since it can be selected from the operation unit 13 whether to keep it ON, it is possible to always keep the dehumidification heater 2 ON.

6) By subdividing the paper attribute, printing conditions, and the above-mentioned environmental conditions such as jammed conditions, the timing at which the dehumidifying heater 2 can be turned on can be selected accurately, so that unnecessary power consumption is not consumed. Can be increased.

7) In the image forming system connected to the server via the network, by transmitting / receiving the jam occurrence information, the communication unit 19 that transmits the jam occurrence information to another image forming apparatus and the received jam occurrence information are stored. Therefore, it is possible to collect more jam occurrence information and to select a timing at which the dehumidifying heater 2 can be turned on accurately. As a result, unnecessary power consumption can be saved.

8) When the jam occurrence threshold is exceeded, the jam occurrence condition is transmitted to the management center (server), so that it is possible to perform maintenance on frequently occurring jams.

1 is a perspective view illustrating an overall configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an outline of a control configuration of the image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of a log | history management process. It is a figure which shows the content of jam recording log | history DB. It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure of the dehumidification heater performed based on the jam generation information memorize | stored in jam recording log | history DB by log | history management processing.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Dehumidification heater 3 Paper feed cassette 11 Control part 12 Dehumidification heater part 13 Operation part 14 Display part 15 Recording part 16 Printer 17 Sensor 18 Image reading part 19 Communication part 20 Jam history DB
21 Dehumidifying heater control circuit

Claims (15)

In an image forming apparatus that feeds paper stored in a paper feed cassette to an image forming unit and forms an image on the paper by the image forming unit.
Dehumidifying means for dehumidifying the paper stored in the paper cassette;
A control means for controlling the image forming operation and the heating means; an operating means for setting attributes of the paper;
When a jam occurs during an image forming operation, the print information for each attribute, print condition, and environmental condition set at the time of the jam is associated with the jam information indicating that the jam has occurred and stored as jam occurrence information. Storage means for
With
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the operation of the dehumidifying unit based on the jam occurrence information stored in the storage unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
The control means searches the storage means for jam occurrence information corresponding to the paper attributes set via the operation means, and operates the dehumidifying means when a jam is found. apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.
Jam occurrence information corresponding to the attribute of the paper set via the operation means is searched from the storage means, and when the jam is searched, a jam occurs in the past with the same setting, and the dehumidifying means operates. An image forming apparatus comprising an informing means for informing the user of the effect. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the control unit counts the number of jam occurrence information having the same contents in the storage unit, and stores the number as the number of jam occurrences in the storage unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4.
A threshold for jam occurrence to turn off the heating means through the operation means is set,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit stops the operation of the dehumidifying unit when the number of jam occurrences is equal to or more than the set threshold value. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4.
Selection means for selecting whether the dehumidifying means is ineffective for the corresponding jam by the notifying means when the number of occurrences of the jam exceeds the threshold, or for stopping the dehumidifying means. An image forming apparatus comprising the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attributes of the paper include at least one of a type, a size, and a margin of a print paper. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
An image forming apparatus, wherein the print condition is single-sided or double-sided printing. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
An image forming apparatus, wherein the print condition includes a paper feed tray used for printing. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
The image forming apparatus, wherein the print condition includes a post-processing condition. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.
Environmental condition detection means for detecting environmental conditions during printing,
When the jam occurs, the storage unit stores, as jam occurrence information, a paper attribute, a print condition, and an environmental condition at the time of occurrence of the jam detected by the environmental condition detection unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11.
The image forming apparatus, wherein the environmental condition includes one of temperature and humidity during printing. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the dehumidifying means is a dehumidifying heater or a blower fan. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 13,
Communication means for transmitting and receiving jam occurrence information to and from other image forming apparatuses connected via a network,
An image forming apparatus, wherein the storage unit stores jam occurrence information received from another image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14.
When the number of jam occurrences stored in the storage unit exceeds the threshold value, an image forming apparatus transmits a jam occurrence condition to a management center via the network.

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