JP2000209415A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To hold reception data inside a memory even after data output when a memory residual amount is present upon receiving FAX during nighttime standby that dew condensation easily occurs. SOLUTION: The state of a main power source switch in a FAX standby state is confirmed. When the main power source switch is OFF, it is judged as a FAX standby state. Upon receiving data in the FAX standby state, a fixing device or the like is turned ON and this machine is shifted to a printable state. Simultaneously, the reception data are preserved in a memory device such as a hard disk. When the machine becomes the printable state, the reception data are printed. Even if the dew condensation occurs at a drum due to the fluctuation of an ambient temperature or the like during FAX standby and printed image data are abnormal and can not be read, the data inside the memory can be outputted again. When the residual amount of a memory device becomes equal to or less than a fixed value, the processing of deleting the data whose printing is ended from the oldest one or the like is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, for example, a laser facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a digital multifunction peripheral having a facsimile function and a copy function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Plain paper facsimile machines, copying machines, etc.
In the A-apparatus and the like, dew condensation may occur on the photoconductor when the power is turned off, such as at night. When a copying operation is performed in a state where dew has formed on the photoconductor, toner does not adhere to the photoconductor, resulting in poor image quality. Therefore, conventionally, as a countermeasure, a heating element such as a nichrome heater is installed near the photoreceptor, and even when the apparatus is turned off, the temperature around the photoreceptor is kept at a certain value or more to prevent dew condensation, or before copying. For example, an operation of removing dew condensation on the photoreceptor using transfer paper is performed.

[0003]

In the case of a system in which a heating element is provided in the vicinity of the photosensitive member to maintain the temperature inside the apparatus as in the above-mentioned prior art, power is always consumed by the heating element, resulting in a large power loss. . In addition, in the method of removing dew condensation using transfer paper, the user can operate the copier, but the user needs to perform the dehumidifying operation when outputting received data at night or the like with a facsimile machine. Can not. It is also possible to perform the dew condensation operation automatically when the power is turned on. However, the current power of the image forming apparatus such as a copying machine is automatically turned off when the standby state continues for a certain time or more for energy saving. In many cases, the dew condensation operation is performed every time the power is turned on, so that waste is increased and the user is hard to use.

[0004]

A first aspect of the present invention is a heat roll fixing type plain paper facsimile apparatus.
When data is received in the night standby mode, the received data is held in the memory even after outputting the data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a plain paper facsimile apparatus of a heat roll fixing system, when data is received in the night standby mode, the first received data or the destination data is stored in the memory even after the data is output. It is characterized by being held.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the reception data is held only when the temperature in the facsimile apparatus is equal to or lower than a predetermined value.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects, a dedicated key is provided on the operation panel.
The reception data held even after data is output can be deleted by the dedicated key.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a copying / fax multifunction apparatus to which the present invention is applied. As is well known, when a document 2 is placed on a contact glass 1, the size of the document is reduced. The sensor 3 detects the presence or absence of the document 2 and the size of the document,
When a copy start key (not shown) is depressed, the original 2 is exposed by the exposure lamp 4, and the original 2 is moved through the first mirror 5, the second mirror 6, the third mirror 7, and the lens 8.
The image is read by the CD image sensor 9, converted into an electric signal, and subjected to image processing. The laser diode 10 is controlled based on the image-processed data, and the laser light generated by the laser diode is exposed through a cylinder lens 11, a polygon mirror 12 rotating at high speed and a constant speed, a lens 13, a writing mirror 14, and the like. The light is irradiated onto the body 15, and an image is written on the photoconductor 15.

Around the photosensitive member 15, there are provided a charging device 16, a developing device 17, a transfer belt 18, a cleaning device 19 and the like. The photoconductor 15 is provided with the cleaning device 1.
After being cleaned by 9, the charging device 16 uniformly charges to a predetermined high potential. Charged photoconductor 15
Is irradiated with the laser light, the surface potential on the photoconductor 15 changes in accordance with the intensity of the irradiated light, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductor 15. This electrostatic latent image is stored in the developing device 1
7, the toner image is visualized by adsorbing the toner.

On the other hand, the transfer papers 21 stacked on the paper feed tray 20 are fed one by one, and are sent by the registration rollers 22 so that the transfer papers 21 overlap the toner image on the photoconductor 15. Further, the transfer paper 21 is conveyed by the transfer belt 18 to which a high voltage is applied, and the toner image is transferred at a contact portion between the transfer belt 18 and the photoconductor 15. The transfer paper on which the toner image has been transferred is further conveyed by a transfer belt 18 and sent to a fixing device 23 heated by a halogen heater, where the transferred toner image is fixed. The transfer paper 21 that has completed the fixing is detected by the paper discharge sensor 24 that the transfer paper 21 has been discharged outside the apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the digital multi-function peripheral. The control of the multi-function peripheral includes a liquid crystal / LED display 31, an operation controller 30 for performing various key input controls 32, sheet feeding, conveyance, and fixing. , A main controller 33 that performs process control, an image processing controller 34 that performs image control / scanner reading control, and an ADF that performs ADF control
A controller 35, a sorter controller 36 for controlling a sorter, a paper feed tray controller 37 for controlling a paper feed unit, various loads 38, facsimile transmission / reception management,
FAX controller 39 for file management, G3 controller 40 for G3 protocol control, G4 controller 41 for G4 protocol control, memory device 42 for saving files, main power switch 43 for changing system status, main controller And a power supply device 44 for supplying power to peripheral devices, an AC switch 45 for switching the supply of AC power to the entire device, and the like.

At the time of FAX reception / printing, data sent from the line is sent to the FAX controller 39 via the G3 controller 40 (or the G4 controller 41). The data stored in the FAX controller 39 is
After the image data is transferred to the main controller 33 and subjected to the image processing, it is passed to the writing control and the printing is performed. Main power switch 43
Is operated by the main controller 33 or a user. When the main power switch 43 is off, the apparatus is in the FAX standby mode, in which a part of power supply to a part not required for FAX standby is cut to reduce power consumption.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of image data at the time of facsimile transmission / reception. At the time of facsimile image accumulation and transmission, image data read by a scanner is subjected to various image processing by an image processing controller 34. Are stored in the image memory 51 of the main controller 33 from the selector 50 in the image processing controller 34. Thereafter, the compression code (M
H, MR, MMR)
9 from the volatile RAM provided in the SAF memory 54.
Is accumulated in At this time, if it is more efficient to transmit the image data stored in the image memory 51 by rotating the image data in A4 landscape or B5 landscape, for example, the rotator 52 transmits the image data from the image memory 51 to the compression / decompression unit 53. And compress the image data by rotating the image data.

The data stored in the SAF memory 54 is
The data is transferred to a line buffer 55 in the G3 controller 40, recompressed by a compression / expansion device 58 in accordance with the mode of the receiver, and transmitted from a network control unit (NCU) 57 via a modem 56 to a communication line. Similarly, in the case of the G4 protocol, the data is transferred to the line buffer 59 provided in the G4 controller 41, compressed by the compression / expansion unit 62 in accordance with the mode of the receiver, and transmitted via the ISDN control unit 60 and the transformer 61. .

At the time of facsimile reception / printing, the data sent from the communication line is transmitted via the NCU 57 and the modem 56 to the SA.
It is stored in the F memory 54. The data stored in the SAF memory 54 is expanded by the compression / expansion device 53 on the main controller 33 and expanded on the image memory 51. If it is more efficient to rotate and print such as A4 landscape or B5 landscape at the time of decompression, the image is rotated by using the rotator 52 when the data is transferred from the compression / decompression device 53 to the image memory 51 and decompression is performed. . Image memory 51
The data developed above is sent to the image processing controller 34, and is sent from the selector 50 to the write control unit (not shown).
The printing is performed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the state transition of the multifunction peripheral according to the present invention. First, in the standby state, the state of the main power switch is confirmed. When the main power switch is off, it is determined that the apparatus is in the FAX standby state, and the flow shifts to the control flow of FIG. When the main power switch is turned on, it is determined that the apparatus is in a normal standby state, and the state is maintained until there is an input of an operation unit key or FAX reception data. When there is a key input, a copy operation or the like is performed according to the instruction. When a state in which no key operation or the like is instructed in the standby state has elapsed for a predetermined time or more (T: transition time to the FAX standby state, t: elapsed time in the standby state), the main power switch is automatically turned off, and the FAX standby state is set. Transition.
In the FAX standby state, the power supply to the fixing device 23 and the ADF controller 35 is cut off to reduce the power consumption compared to the normal standby state.

FIG. 5 shows a control flow in the FAX standby state. If there is an input to the main power switch or a specific sensor or the like in the FAX standby state, this flow is skipped and the operation returns to the normal standby state. When data is received in the FAX standby state, the fixing device and the like are turned on, and the device is shifted to a printable state. At the same time, the received data is stored in a memory device 42 such as a hard disk. When the device is ready for printing, print the received data. Even when dew condensation occurs on the drum due to fluctuations in the ambient temperature or the like during standby for facsimile, the printed image data has an abnormality, and even if reading is impossible, the data in the memory can be output again. When the remaining amount of the memory device becomes equal to or less than a predetermined value, processing such as deleting oldest data from the data whose printing has been completed is performed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, only the first page of the received data is stored in the memory, and the data after the second page is deleted after printing, so that the number of received data can be increased. It is also possible to control so that the data of the second and subsequent pages is deleted only when the remaining amount of the memory device becomes equal to or less than a certain value.

Generally, dew condensation on the drum is likely to occur when the temperature inside the apparatus is low. Therefore, in the third aspect of the present invention, the temperature inside the device is confirmed by a temperature detecting means such as a thermistor at the time of data reception, and the received data is stored only when the temperature inside the device is equal to or lower than the set value. By using a temperature detecting element of the fixing device or a temperature detecting element for charging control as the temperature detecting means, the control can be performed without increasing the cost. Also,
Occurrence of drum condensation is often limited to winter,
The number of useless operations can be reduced by making it possible to easily change whether or not to perform the dew condensation operation using the operation unit or the like.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a dedicated key is provided on the operation panel, and the user can easily delete the data held in the memory in the mode by the user after confirming the printed FAX reception data. Operability in this mode is improved.

[0021]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the copy mode in which the user can confirm the image quality defect due to dew condensation, the dew condensation removal operation is not performed, and the FA is used during the night standby when dew condensation is likely to occur.
When the X reception is performed, if there is a remaining memory, the received data is retained in the memory even after the data is output, so that the user can re-output the received data even when an abnormal image occurs due to dew condensation. Further, since the dew condensation prevention heater of the drum can be eliminated, energy can be saved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the received data can be reduced by holding, in the memory, only the first data of the facsimile reception data, which generally describes the destination and the business, The number of receivable cases can be increased.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, only when the temperature inside the apparatus is low and dew condensation easily occurs, the first or second aspect of the present invention is provided.
By effectively holding the memory, the memory can be used effectively. Further, by using a thermistor installed for controlling the fixing device as the temperature detecting means in the apparatus, no cost increase occurs.

According to the invention of claim 4, claims 1 to 3 are provided.
In the present invention, the facsimile reception data after the data output stored in the memory can be easily erased by a dedicated key provided in the operation panel, so that the operability in this mode is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a copying / fax multifunction peripheral to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a digital multifunction peripheral.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of image data at the time of facsimile transmission / reception.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a state transition of the multifunction peripheral of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a control flow in a FAX standby state.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Contact glass, 2 ... Original, 3 ... Original size sensor, 4 ... Exposure lamp, 5 ... First mirror, 6 ... Second mirror, 7 ... Third mirror, 8 ... Lens, 9 ... CCD image sensor, 10 ... Laser diode, 11 cylinder lens, 12 polygon mirror, 13 lens, 14 writing mirror, 15 photoconductor, 16 charging device, 17 developing device, 18 transfer belt, 19 cleaning device,
Reference Signs List 20: paper feed tray, 21: transfer paper, 22: registration roller, 23: fixing device, 24: discharge sensor, 30: operation controller, 31: liquid crystal / LED display, 32: various key input control, 33: main controller , 34: Image processing controller, 35: ADF controller, 36: Sorter controller, 37: Paper feed tray controller, 3
8 Various loads, 39 FAX controller, 40 G3
Controller 41 G4 controller 42 Memory device 43 Main power switch 44 Power device 45
AC switch, 50 selector, 51 image memory, 52 rotator, 53, 58, 62 compression / expansion device, 5
4 SAF memory, 55 line buffer, 56 modem, 57 network control unit (NCU), 59 line buffer, 60 ISDN control, 61 transformer.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile machine for a heat roll fixing type plain paper facsimile machine, wherein when data is received in a night standby mode, the received data is held in a memory after outputting the data. 2. In a heat-fixing plain paper facsimile apparatus, when data is received in a night standby mode, the first received data or the destination data is held in the memory even after the data is output. Facsimile machine characterized. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reception data is held only when the temperature in the facsimile apparatus is equal to or lower than a predetermined value. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a dedicated key is provided on the operation panel, and the received data held even after the data is output can be deleted by the dedicated key. A facsimile machine as described.