JP3315758B2 - Printing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus provided with a plurality of paper output trays and applied to printers, facsimile machines, copiers and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, some printers, copiers, facsimile machines and the like have a plurality of paper discharge trays, sorters and mailboxes.

[0003]

The use state of each of the plurality of paper discharge trays has not been uniquely changed. Therefore, if a paper ejection error such as a paper ejection full (full) occurs in the paper ejection tray during printing output, it is necessary to suspend printing until the error is cleared, which reduces the work efficiency. I was

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus capable of improving the printing operation efficiency when a paper ejection error occurs.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, in a printing apparatus having a plurality of sheet discharge tray for receiving the sheets after printing the indicia from the host computer
Character data, print data and page layout
Storage means for storing printout information and the like.
Bitmap data or print code
Printer control that outputs various commands such as commands
And multiple output trays.
The printer controller
Prints in response to these commands and data.
An engine unit for discharging paper to a designated paper discharge tray,
The printer controller periodically sends commands
Inquire the status of the output tray to the engine
Status is registered in the table, and if a paper ejection error occurs,
The other trays that can be discharged by referring to the table
It is characterized by selection .

[0008] The present invention is characterized in that the other discharge tray, which is a discharge tray for handling errors, can be installed. Ma
One of the multiple output trays
Not set as a tray, but set as a paper output tray for other processing
It is characterized by. Also, put the test printout paper on the other
The paper is discharged to a paper discharge tray for processing.

An operation panel capable of various inputs and displays.
When a paper ejection error occurs in the engine section
The printer controller registers the status of the paper discharge tray.
Refer to the recorded table to find a tray that can
If not, it will cause an error in the currently selected output tray.
And displaying the error .

A table for registering the state of the discharge tray is provided.
Trays, tray status, paper presence, and host
Computer or any other paper that can be ejected from the operation panel
A link indicating whether or not it is the target of processing to find a ray
And features that you register and capacity information.

[0009]

In the printing apparatus having the above-described configuration, even if a paper discharge error occurs in the paper discharge tray during printing output, the paper is discharged to another paper discharge tray, so that there is no need to interrupt printing.

In addition, by setting all the output trays as appropriate without fixing them to the error-compatible output trays, even if the output trays are assigned to each user, they can be set. The discharge tray can be used by another user, and the range of use is expanded.

When a test print such as a summary sheet or a font list is performed, a special discharge tray is provided.
By discharging paper to the (output tray for other processing), it is possible to easily take out the test print output paper from the plurality of paper output trays.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control portion of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a printer controller, and 2 denotes a printer supplied from a paper feed tray (not shown) as is well known. Print on the paper,
And a plurality of output trays for receiving printed paper (not shown)
An operation unit for displaying various setting modes and setting modes; 4, a host computer, which is a host device of the printer; 5, a disk device, which is an external storage device such as a floppy disk device or a hard disk device; Reference numeral 6 denotes an IC card for supplying font data and programs from the outside.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a non-volatile storage device (NVRAM) for storing the content of a mode instruction from the operation panel 3 and the like.
8 is a program ROM storing a control program of the printer controller 1, 9 is a font ROM for storing font pattern data and the like, and 10 is a program ROM.
OM8 program, mode instruction from operation panel 3,
A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 for controlling the entire printer controller 1 by a command from the host computer 4 and the like, a work memory 11 of the CPU 10, an input buffer for input data, a page buffer for print data,
This is a RAM used as a memory for download fonts and the like.

Reference numeral 12 denotes an engine interface (hereinafter, an interface is referred to as an I / F) for communicating commands and status with the engine unit 2 and print data.
A panel I / F 13 communicates commands and status with the operation panel 3, and a host I / F (usually a Centro I / F or RS232) communicates with the host computer 4.
C) and 15 are disk I / Fs for communicating with the disk device 5, and 16 is a data bus.

In FIG. 1, a printer controller 1
When receiving data (character codes, control codes, control commands) from the host computer 4 through the host I / F 14, the data is temporarily stored in the input buffer of the RAM 11. Next, the data held in the input buffer is taken out, and page layout information such as the head address of the font pattern for each character, the width of the font pattern, the height of the font pattern, the print position, etc. is stored in the page buffer. Store.

When the page buffer is completed for one page, the data in the page buffer is developed in the frame buffer as a bit map. When the development is completed, a feed tray selection command, a discharge tray selection command, and a print command are sent to the engine unit 2 through the engine I / F 12, and the bitmap data developed in the frame buffer is output as video data.

On the other hand, the engine unit 2 feeds paper from a designated paper feed tray in accordance with the paper feed tray selection command, the paper discharge tray selection command, and the print command sent from the printer controller 1, and outputs the paper to the fed paper. On the other hand, printing is performed in accordance with the video data, and after printing, the sheet is discharged to a designated discharge tray.

Table 1 is a discharge tray state registration table, which is stored in the CPU 10 of the printer controller 1.

[0020]

[Table 1]

The CPU 10 periodically sends each discharge tray (identification number: ID) in response to a discharge tray state inquiry command.
= 0, 1, 2, 3...) To the engine unit 2, and in the table, states of the respective discharge trays (dischargeable,
The paper discharge tray full, paper discharge unit cover open, etc.) and the paper presence state (exist, empty) are registered.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the output tray selection command output. First, the status of the currently selected output tray is checked with reference to the table (S1), and the status of the output tray is checked. If possible (YES in S2), a command to select the same discharge tray as the currently selected discharge tray is sent to the engine unit 2 (S3).

However, if the currently selected discharge tray is not in a dischargeable state and a discharge error has occurred (S2).
NO), the process of finding other output trays that can be output (hereinafter,
(Refer to link tray processing) (S4), and if found (YES in S5), a command to select the newly found paper ejection tray is sent to the engine unit 2 (S3). If no error is found (NO in S5), an error is displayed on the currently selected discharge tray, and the process waits until the error is cleared (S6).

In the link tray process, the printer controller 1 sequentially refers to the state of each discharge tray from the discharge tray of the designated ID, searches for a dischargeable and empty state, and finds the one that is dischargeable. If it is not found, the paper ejection tray ID is returned, and if not found, the currently selected paper ejection tray ID is returned.

(Table 2) shows another example of the discharge tray state registration table. Linkable information is added to (Table 1).

[0026]

[Table 2]

The linkable information in the table of (Table 2) designates a discharge tray to be subjected to link tray processing by a command from the host computer 4 or a key input from the operation panel 3. , Target output tray during link tray processing (circled in Table 2)
To find a discharge tray that can discharge paper.

Further, if a user ID is registered as linkable information in a printer which can be connected to a network, it is possible to correspond to a plurality of users, and a discharge tray is allocated for each user. Even in the case of print output, the discharge tray can be set by another user, so that it is possible to prevent a problem that printing cannot be performed even if another user attempts to execute printing.

The linkable information includes at least one
By setting one of the output trays as an output tray for other processing so as not to be selected as an output tray for error as described above, the output tray is assigned to each user. In such a case, the use of the discharge tray for other processing can respond to a new user's print request, and can also discharge only a special print output.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the output tray selection command output at the time of test printing, which is basically the same as the flow chart of FIG. 2 (the same processing as the processing described in FIG. The difference is that the specified tray is a discharge tray for other processing (S11) when test printing of a summary sheet, a font list, or the like (S11), and the discharge tray for other processing. If it is possible to discharge the paper (YES in S2), a command to select the paper discharge tray is sent to the engine unit 2 (S3).

However, if the sheet cannot be discharged to the discharge tray for other processing at the time of test printing (NO in S2, YES in S12), an error is displayed on the discharge tray for other processing and waits for error release.
(S6). In this way, at the time of test printing, by discharging the sheet only to the discharge tray for other processing, it is easy to take out the sheet on which the test print is output.

[0032]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention , when any paper ejection error occurs in the engine section,
Printer control to change the output tray
The other paper that can be discharged by referring to the registered contents of the table
The printing operation can be lengthened because the output tray can be selected.
To a tray that can be ejected quickly without interruption
Print operation when a paper ejection error occurs
It is possible to improve efficiency .

Further, by allowing select discharge tray for error handling, and or continue to the network, is used for multiple users, even if the output by assigning discharge tray for each user, Even if another user attempts to execute printing, a problem that printing cannot be performed does not occur, and printing can be continued without interrupting output when an error occurs.

Further, to ensure at least one discharge tray for another process, without the paper discharge tray for error handling, by not allocating to a user, printing when an error occurs for a plurality of users Can be responded to a new user's print request while the continuation is possible.

Further, by outputting the test print to the discharge tray for other processing , the test print can be used by a plurality of users.
Even when the output trays are allocated and output for each user, the result of the test printing such as the summary sheet and the font list can be easily obtained at any time on the common output tray.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control portion of a printer which is an embodiment of a printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an output tray selection command output.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a discharge tray selection command output at the time of test printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Printer controller, 2: Engine unit, 10
... CPU (central processing unit).

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65H 29/60 B41J 13/00 B41J 29/48 B65H 31/24 B65H 39/11

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] A printing apparatus having a plurality of paper output trays for receiving printed paper, receives print data from a host computer, and receives the print data.
Record to store data and page layout information
Bitmap that has storage means and expands the print data
Various commands such as data or print command
It has a printer controller for output and multiple output trays, and you can sense the status of those output trays.
As well as the frame from the printer controller
Command and data, and print it.
An engine unit for discharging paper onto a paper tray, wherein the printer controller periodically issues a command.
To the engine section to check the status of the output tray.
Is registered in the table and a paper ejection error occurs
The other trays that can be discharged by referring to the table
A printing device characterized by selecting i . 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said another discharge tray, which is a discharge tray for handling errors, can be installed. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of discharge trays is set as a discharge tray for other processing without being set as a discharge tray for error handling. 4. The sheet printed on the test print is discharged to the discharge tray for another processing.
The printing device according to the above. 5. An operation panel capable of various inputs and displays.
When a paper ejection error occurs in the engine unit,
The printer controller registers the status of the output tray and
Refer to the table that has been set, and
Error occurs in the currently selected output tray.
2. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the printing device displays the following. 6. A table for registering a state of the discharge tray.
The tray contains the tray status, paper presence status, and host
Computer or other tray that can be ejected from the operation panel.
Linkable to indicate whether or not it is the target of processing to find a
Information 6. Recording according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
The printing device according to claim 1.