JP4278144B2 - Image forming apparatus and failure repair information management method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a failure repair information management method capable of appropriately managing information related to failure and repair by having communication means.

  In recent years, an image forming apparatus and a host computer that performs maintenance of the image forming apparatus are connected by a telephone line or the like, and mail is transmitted / received on a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) network such as the Internet. There are many things that are possible. In addition, image forming apparatuses have become highly functional, and it has become possible to realize functions as a file server using a network such as centralized management of image information. State management software that can perform management is also widely used.

In such a network environment, as a method of quickly and accurately transmitting a failure of the image forming apparatus to the host computer, when the image forming apparatus fails, the failure data is changed to a mail format and automatically set to the host computer. It has been proposed that a failure is notified by sending a mail (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-67166

  However, information about when and what kind of failure occurred is recorded on the host computer side, and failure repair information such as when and what kind of failure was repaired is recorded in the database on the host computer side and managed. In addition, since no failure repair information is left on the image forming apparatus side, there is a problem that the user cannot use the failure and failure repair information quickly and easily on the image forming apparatus side. In addition, the status management software indicates the current status of the image forming apparatus, and cannot manage what kind of failure has occurred in the past or how often the failure has occurred. There was a problem that it was difficult to prevent failure.

Therefore, the present invention provides a failure detection means for detecting a failure state, a communication control means for sending and receiving mail via a network, failure state information detected by the failure detection means or a host computer using the communication control means. By providing storage means for storing at least one of the received failure repair information of the mail, it becomes possible to manage the past failure information and the failure repair information on the image forming apparatus side. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus and a failure repair information management method in which the frequency can be easily known, and the convenience of the user for failure management and failure prevention is improved.

The invention according to claim 1 is a failure detection means for detecting a failure state, a communication control means for sending and receiving mails via a network, and the communication control from failure state information detected by the failure detection means or from a host computer. An image forming apparatus having storage means for storing at least one of the failure repair information of the mail received by the means for registering sender information of a person who can send the failure repair information by the mail Registration means; and determination means for determining whether or not the sender information of the failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means matches the sender information registered in the registration means. And the storage means stores the sender information of the failure repair information in the mail received by the communication control means by the determination means. When matching the registered in the registration means the sender information is to store the repair information of said received e-mail in the storage means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the communication control unit further transmits the failure state information to the host computer by mail .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the storage unit can further read the stored fault repair information by a computer connected to the network .

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the failure detection means detects the failure state, the communication control means transmits and receives mail via the network, and the storage means detects failure state information detected by the failure detection means. Or storing at least one of the failure repair information of the mail received from the host computer by the communication control means, wherein the registration means transmits the failure repair information by the mail Registering sender information of a person who can perform the sender information of the failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means by the judging means and the sender information registered in the registration means A step of determining whether or not they match, and the storage means is connected to the communication control means by the determination means. If the sender information of the failure repair information of the received mail matches the sender information registered in the registration means, the failure repair information of the received mail is stored in the storage means. This is a fault repair information management method .

  According to the present invention, the failure detection means detects a failure state, the communication control means transmits / receives mail via the network, and the failure repair of the mail received from the host computer by the failure state information or the communication control means. By storing the information in the storage means, it becomes possible to manage past failure information and failure repair information on the image forming apparatus side, and it is possible to easily know the past failure type and failure frequency. Can be improved.

  Past failure information and failure repair information can be managed on the image forming apparatus side, and an image forming apparatus with improved user convenience is sent to the failure detection means for detecting the failure state and mail via the network. This is realized by providing communication control means for transmitting and receiving and storage means for storing failure state information or failure repair information received from the host computer by the communication control means.

  The configuration and operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of an image forming apparatus 11 and a host computer 12 in the first embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 11 includes a failure detection unit 11-1 that detects a failure state, a nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 that stores at least one of state information or failure repair information of a mail received from a host computer by a communication control unit, and Communication control means 11-3 for sending and receiving mail via the network is provided, and these are controlled by the main control section 11-4.

  Further, the image forming apparatus 11, the host computer 12 and the user computer 14 installed in a service center or the like are connected to a network via a communication line 13 such as Ethernet (R).

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a digital copying machine when a digital copying machine is used as the image forming apparatus in the present embodiment.

  The image data of the document 22 read by the reading control unit 21-1 is subjected to image processing by an image processing unit (not shown) of the main control unit 21-3 and then sent to the writing control unit 21-4.

  The writing control unit 21-4 performs lighting control of a laser diode (not shown) based on image data sent from an image processing unit (not shown) of the main control unit 21-3, and performs electrostatic control on the electrophotographic process 21-7. A latent image is formed.

  On the other hand, toner is transferred to a transfer sheet conveyed from a sheet feeding unit (not shown) by an electrophotographic process 21-7. The toner is fixed on the transfer paper by a fixing unit (not shown) heated by the fixing heater 21-8, and a copy 23 is formed.

  The fixing heater 21-8 is controlled by the main control unit 21-3, the IO control unit 21-5, and the fixing control unit 21-6 so that the fixing unit always has a desired temperature during operation. Further, during standby, in order to reduce the power consumption of the system, the temperature may be controlled to be lower than that during operation, and power supply may be cut off.

  The failure detection means 21-11 detects a failure inside the digital copying machine 21, and the communication control means 21-13 communicates with the host computer 12 or the like.

  The failure history detected by the failure detection means 21-11 and the failure repair information received from the host computer 12 or the like are stored in the nonvolatile storage means 21-12.

  The storage operation of failure information and failure repair information of the image forming apparatus in the first embodiment configured as described above will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  The flow shown in FIG. 3 is executed by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) (not shown) on the main control unit 11-4 of the image forming apparatus 11. FIG. 3 shows that a failure occurs in the image forming apparatus 11 with the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 installed, and the failure information is stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 of the image forming apparatus 11 and from the host computer. It is the figure which showed the state which memorize | stores the failure repair information transmitted with the mail in the non-volatile memory | storage means 11-2.

  Whether or not a failure has occurred in the image forming apparatus 11 is determined by the failure detection unit 11-1 (S301). When it is detected that a failure has occurred, the failure information is stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 of the image forming apparatus 11 (S302). The failure information includes, for example, a failure type, a failure occurrence time, a failure occurrence location, and the like.

  Then, the failure information is mailed to the host computer 12 provided in the service center or the like by the communication control means 11-3 of the image forming apparatus 11 (S303).

  A service person visits the user based on the above failure information and repairs the failure portion of the image forming apparatus 11, and then registers the failure repair information in the host computer 12 (S304). The host computer 12 sends the registered failure repair information to the image forming apparatus 11 via the communication line 13 (S305).

  The image forming apparatus 11 registers the mail failure repair information received from the host computer 12 in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 (S306). The failure repair information includes, for example, a repair method, repair time or repair fee.

  The user uses the computer 14 connected to the network to access the image forming apparatus 11 via the communication line 13 to determine what kind of trouble has occurred in the past and how often the trouble has occurred. You can get information about what you are doing.

  Also, instead of sending the failure information by mail to the host computer 12 provided in the service center or the like by the communication control means 11-3 of the image forming apparatus 11 in S303, the failure information is sent from the user to the service person by telephone or the like. You may be notified.

  Next, a storage operation of failure information and failure repair information of the image forming apparatus in the second embodiment will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows that a failure occurs in the image forming apparatus 11 with the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 installed, and the failure information is stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 on the image forming apparatus 11 side and the host computer. 12 is a diagram showing a state of storing in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 when the failure repair information transmitted by e-mail from 12 is from a sender registered in advance. FIG. The flow shown in FIG. 4 is executed by a CPU (not shown) on the main control unit 11-4 of the image forming apparatus 11 similarly to the flow shown in FIG.

  The failure detection unit 11-1 determines whether a failure has occurred in the image forming apparatus 11 (S401). When it is detected that a failure has occurred, the failure information is stored in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 of the image forming apparatus 11 (S402). The failure information includes, for example, a failure type, a failure occurrence time, a failure occurrence location, and the like.

  Then, the failure information is mailed to the host computer 12 provided in the service center or the like by the communication control means 11-3 of the image forming apparatus 11 (S403).

  A service person visits the user based on the above failure information and repairs the failure portion of the image forming apparatus 11, and then registers the failure repair information in the host computer 12 (S404). The host computer 12 sends the registered failure repair information to the image forming apparatus 11 via the communication line 13 (S405).

  The image forming apparatus 11 determines whether or not the sender of the email about the failure repair information received from the host computer 12 matches the sender information registered in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 (S406). If they match, the image forming apparatus 11 registers the failure repair information of the mail received from the host computer 12 in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 (S407). The failure repair information includes, for example, a repair method, repair time or repair fee.

  On the other hand, if the sender of the email about the repair information received from the host computer 12 does not match the sender information registered in the nonvolatile storage means 11-2, the email is from an unregistered sender. Is recognized, an error is displayed on the operation panel, the sequence is terminated, and registration in the nonvolatile storage means 11-2 is prohibited (S408). The sender information includes, for example, the name, identification ID, or affiliation of the service person who performed the repair.

  The user uses the computer 14 connected to the network to access the image forming apparatus 11 via the communication line 13 to determine what kind of trouble has occurred in the past and how often the trouble has occurred. You can get information about what you are doing.

  In addition, since the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2 is used as a medium for registering sender information capable of transmitting failure repair information to the image forming apparatus 11 by e-mail, it is necessary to provide a separate device as the registration unit. The manufacturing cost can be reduced. Further, the non-volatile storage unit 11-2 may be a non-volatile storage unit that stores adjustment values of each user, for example, initial setting values when the image forming apparatus 11 is started up. Various information can be stored by the apparatus, and the internal mechanism of the image forming apparatus 11 can be simplified.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the nonvolatile storage unit 11- is only used when the sender of the mail about the failure repair information received from the host computer 12 matches the sender information registered in the nonvolatile storage unit 11-2. By saving in 2, it is possible to improve security by preventing unauthorized access by a third party who is not registered as an appropriate sender. In addition, it is possible to prevent incorrect and incorrect repair information from being registered by a person who is not a proper sender, and to guarantee the accuracy of the content of the repair information stored in the image forming apparatus.

  Further, by sending the failure state information to the host computer by the communication control means, it is possible to automatically send the failure state information of the image forming apparatus to the host computer, and the accuracy of the transmission information is guaranteed. Further, it is possible to save labor for the user to manually report failure status information by telephone or the like. In addition, it is not necessary to provide another communication line by implementing bidirectional communication using the same communication line as the communication line for sending the failure repair information from the host computer to the image forming apparatus.

  In addition, since the stored failure repair information can be read by a computer connected to the network, the user can access failure information and failure repair information stored in the image forming apparatus even from a geographically distant location. This improves user convenience. Further, if the image forming apparatus main body can be accessed, the user can obtain failure information and the like even if the host computer cannot be accessed, and the convenience of the user can be further improved.

  The present invention can also be applied to a printer, a facsimile machine, a scanner, a copier, and a multi-function machine having these functions.

1 is a system configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus and a host computer according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the memory | storage operation | movement of failure repair information in 1st embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the memory | storage operation | movement of the failure repair information in 2nd embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Image forming apparatus 11-1 Failure detection means 11-2 Nonvolatile memory means 11-3 Communication control means 12 Host computer 14 Computer

Claims (4)

Failure detection means for detecting a failure state;
Communication control means for sending and receiving e-mails over a network;
Storage means for storing at least one of failure state information detected by the failure detection means or failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means from a host computer;
An image forming apparatus having,
Registration means for registering sender information of a person who can send the failure repair information by the email;
Determination means for determining whether or not the sender information of the failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means matches the sender information registered in the registration means;
The storage means receives the sender information when the sender information of the failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means by the determination means matches the sender information registered in the registration means. images forming apparatus characterized by storing the repair information of the mail in the storage means. Said communication control unit, an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the further mailing the failure state information to the host computer. Wherein the storage unit, the image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said repair information is further stored it can be read by a computer connected to the network.   A step of detecting a failure state by the failure detection means;
  A step in which the communication control means transmits and receives mail via a network;
  Storing at least one of failure status information detected by the failure detection means or failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means from a host computer;
  A fault repair information management method comprising:
  A step of registering sender information of a person who can register the failure repair information by the mail;
  A step of determining whether or not the sender information of the failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means matches the sender information registered in the registration means;
  The storage means receives the sender information when the sender information of the failure repair information of the mail received by the communication control means by the determination means matches the sender information registered in the registration means. The failure repair information management method, wherein the failure repair information of the mail is stored in the storage means.

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