JP2001125442A - Maintenance system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to apply renewal parts at an appropriate replacement cycle by automatically discriminating and judging a proper unit to be replaced. SOLUTION: The unit to be regularly replaced for maintenance 700 is provided with a 1st storage means (EEPROM 701), and the main body of the system is provided with a 2nd storage means (EEPROM 304) for storing a count value for measuring a life of a machine, and it is thereby made possible to read and write the contents of the 1st storage means 701 of the unit to be replaced 700 from a controller CPU 210 on the main body when the unit to be replaced 700 is installed on the main body. In such a manner, it becomes possible to automatically discriminate and judge the proper unit to be replaced, and use the renewal parts at the appropriate replacement cycle. Moreover, it is possible to recognize whether or not the replacement unit replaced on the main body is a proper one, by arranging the 1st storage means 701 to turn on prescribed bits for recognizing the replacement unit as the proper one.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance system applied to an apparatus having maintenance parts that need to be periodically replaced, such as an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
The techniques described in JP-A-16047 and JP-A-9-185288 are known. In the former case, an index corresponding to the length of each sheet to be conveyed is given, and an index for the sheet actually conveyed for each conveying roller is accumulated and stored, and the replacement time is determined based on the stored contents. There is disclosed a technique relating to the exchange of an image. In the latter case, when a new fixing device is set in the image forming apparatus, the CPU
The circuit detects that the new fuse is not blown, and initializes the maintenance counter of the EEPROM circuit. After that, when the heater of the heating roller is energized, the temperature of the new roller is detected by the heat of the heating roller. The fuse is blown to detect the start of use of the fixing device,
The maintenance counter is incremented according to the use time or the number of times of use of the fixing device from the start of use, and when the counter value reaches a first predetermined value, a replacement request is output and the maintenance request reaches the second predetermined value. A technique is disclosed in which the image forming operation is stopped when the image forming operation is performed.

[0003]

As described above, in a conventional image forming apparatus, an apparatus provided with a maintenance component,
For example, in an electrophotographic copying machine or a printer, the replacement time (maintenance cycle) of parts and consumables is determined based on the number of sheets discharged from the apparatus body, the motor rotation time, and the like. Consumables were replaced without checking whether they were appropriate.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a maintenance system capable of automatically identifying and determining an appropriate replacement unit and using replacement parts in an appropriate replacement cycle. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a maintenance replacement unit having first storage means for storing information indicating that the unit is a replacement unit, and performing a periodic replacement. A maintenance system, comprising: a second storage unit for storing information for measuring a machine life; and an access unit capable of accessing the contents of the first storage unit when the replacement unit is mounted. Was configured.

[0006] In this case, the access means may include the first
A predetermined bit for causing the storage means to be recognized in advance as an appropriate replacement unit is turned on.

The access means, when the apparatus main body recognizes that the unit is an appropriate replacement unit, transmits information for measuring a mechanical life of the apparatus main body at the time of replacement to the second unit.
From the storage means, and write the data to the first storage means.

The access means does not perform the second and subsequent writings once the information for measuring the life is written from the main body of the apparatus to the first storage means.

Further, the access means may be configured to update the first time every time information for measuring the mechanical life of the main body is updated.
The information written in the storage means is compared with the updated information, and a difference between the respective information is obtained. If the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, it is recognized that the replacement time of the replacement unit has been reached. I do.

As information for measuring the mechanical life, for example, a count value is used.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus 100 includes an image forming unit 110, a paper discharging unit 120,
And a double-sided reversing unit 130. The image forming unit 110 includes an optical scanning device 1, a photoconductor 2, a developing unit 3, a cleaning unit 4, a fixing unit 5, a registration sensor 6, and a transfer unit 21. The image forming unit 110 including these components forms a latent image on the surface of the photoconductor (drum) 2 by a light beam light-modulated from the optical scanning device 1, and the latent image formed on the photoconductor 2 by the developing device 3. Is visualized with toner via a developing roller 20, and the transfer unit 21 transfers the toner image on the photoconductor 2 onto paper. The transferred paper is fixed in the fixing unit 5
Is heated and pressurized, and the paper discharge unit 120 or the both-side reversing unit 1
Sent to 30. Which is to be sent is set by switching the paper feed path switching branch claw 11.

The paper discharge section 120 includes a paper discharge tray formed in two stages, that is, a paper discharge tray 10 serving as an upper paper discharge tray 9, and an upper paper discharge tray for discharging paper to each of them. A roller 13 and a lower discharge roller 15 are provided. An upper job separation motor 14 and a lower job separation motor 16 are provided on the transport paths to the upper and lower paper discharge trays 9 and 10, respectively, so that the paper discharge position can be shifted for each job. The path for guiding the paper from the upper discharge roller 13 to the upper discharge tray 9 and the path for guiding the paper from the lower discharge roller 14 to the lower discharge tray 10 are switched by the paper passing path switching claw 12. Done.

The double-side reversing unit 130 is a double-side reversing unit 22
And a large-volume paper feed unit 8. Although not shown in detail, the paper feed path switching branch pawl 11 guides the paper feed unit 8 downward, inverts it in the duplex reversing unit 22, and sends it to the image forming unit 110 again. It has. As a result, an image can be formed on the back surface of the sheet having the image formed on the front surface. The paper picked up from the paper feed tray 7 provided in the image forming unit 110 is fed through a paper feed roller 19 to a so-called vertical conveyance path for feeding the paper from the duplex unit 22 to the image forming unit 110.

In the image forming apparatus constructed generally as described above, the sheet fed by the sheet feed rollers 19 from the sheet feed trays 7 and 8 temporarily stops at the position of the registration sensor 6. On the other hand, the laser beam modulated from the optical scanning device 1 is irradiated onto the * position of the photoreceptor 2, causing a potential difference between the irradiated portion and the non-irradiated portion, thereby forming a so-called latent image. In the developing device 3, the toner uniformly attached to the developing roller 20 is transferred to the latent image formed on the surface of the photoreceptor 2, and development is performed. The paper stopped at the position of the registration sensor 6 is
The toner image formed on the photoreceptor 2 is restarted at the same timing as the movement of the toner image. After the toner image is transferred to the sheet by the transfer charger 21, the fixing is performed by the fixing device 5 by heat and pressure, and The paper is discharged to 9,10. At this time, the sheet separation position is shifted from the normal sheet discharge position by driving the job separation motors 14 and 15 while passing through the sheet discharge rollers 13 and 15, and the sheet bundle is sorted for each job. Can be. Further, it is also possible to send the fixed sheet to the double-side reversing unit 22, turn the sheet over, and send it again to the image forming unit 110 to form an image on the non-image forming surface. Note that the so-called residual toner remaining on the photoconductor 2 after the transfer by the transfer charger 21 is removed by the cleaning unit 4.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus (printer) 100. In FIG. 1, the printer 100 includes a controller 200 and an engine 300. The controller 200 performs interface control with the host machine 400 and control relating to image signals including editing of image data. The engine 300 performs mechanical control, writing control, and paper passing control of the printer 100, and also monitors the status of the printer 100.

The controller 200 includes a controller CP
A host interface 201 for communicating with the host machine 400 centering on the U 201, a program ROM 202 in which programs reside, a font ROM 203 in which fonts are stored, a panel interface 204 for communicating with an operation panel (operation panel) 250, A RAM 205 that functions as a work area for the controller CPU 201 and stores data to be processed by the CPU 201, an optional RAM 206 that stores other necessary data, and an engine interface 207 for communicating with the engine 300 are connected via a bus. Configuration. A font cartridge 500 is connected to this bus.
Font data can also be obtained from 00.

The engine 300 includes an engine CPU 302 and an engine ROM 302 in which a program resides, a RAM 303 having a buffer register function, and a readable and writable EEPROM for storing a maintenance cycle.
304, an interrupt circuit 30 for controlling each interrupt state
5, 306, a flash ROM 307, a dip switch 308, various sensors 309, and other input units 310 are connected, and an input port 311 for capturing these states; a clutch 312 provided in the printer 100;
3, an output port 31 for outputting an instruction signal to a charger (high pressure process) 314 and other output units 315
6, a controller interface 317 for communicating with the controller 200 and an option interface 318 for communicating with the optional device 600 are connected via a bus.
The operation panel 250 also has an input port 311.
And direct access to the engine 300 can be performed.

In this embodiment, the place where the numerical value such as the serial number is recorded and stored is stored in the EEP which is a nonvolatile memory.
It is set in the ROM 304. Therefore, this EE
The PROM 304 corresponds to the second storage unit (M2).
As a control configuration, a method of controlling the state of the operation panel 250 via the controller 200 and the engine 3
00, there is a method of directly checking and controlling the state of the operation panel 250. In this embodiment, a method of directly controlling the state of the operation panel 250 by the engine 300 will be described. Therefore, here, the engine CPU 301 performs the following control according to the program stored in the engine ROM 302.

The replacement part here is a replacement unit 700
And the readable / writable EEPROM 401 provided in the replacement part 700 corresponds to the first storage means (M1). The access means includes the controller CPU 210
Corresponds. These exchange units 700 include, for example, the photoconductor 2, the developing device 3, the fixing device 5, the paper feed roller 19, and the like.
and so on.

The exchange unit 700 is mounted on an apparatus main body, here the printer main body 100 as shown by a dotted line in FIG.
The CPU 210 can access (read, write).

FIG. 3 shows a printer 100 according to this embodiment.
Is a so-called main routine, which is a flowchart showing the overall control procedure. In this main routine, first,
After the power is turned on (power-on), initialization of each state (system initialization) is performed (step S3-1), and a subroutine for checking the state of the engine 300, for example, an internal state of the engine itself such as a maintenance occurrence request or an error occurrence. (Engine status check task) is executed (step S3-2). Next, interface control between the engine 300 and the controller 200 and interface control between devices connected as options, that is, reception of a paper feed command, reception of a resolution setting request, switching of a paper feed port and a paper discharge port, and the like. Subroutine (engine-controller interface task ... step S3) for checking reception status
-3, engine-option interface task ... Step S3-4) is executed, and further, a Q task for managing information of paper to be printed is executed (step S3-5). After executing a print control task (step S3-6) for performing sequence control such as ON / OFF of the high-pressure process, the process returns to step S3-2, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

On the other hand, an interrupt module as shown in FIG. 4 is set for time monitoring and control for performing each processing independently of the main routine. In this interrupt module, an interrupt is checked every time set by the engine CPU 301 (step S4-
1), necessary processing (interrupt processing) is performed (step S4-2).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the count-up (increment) control of the life counter, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are flowcharts showing the counter control at the time of unit replacement and the control for checking the replacement timing. Note that FIG.
The routine shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 is a part of the status check routine (S3-2) called at predetermined intervals.

Although the life counter varies depending on the apparatus, in the case of an image forming apparatus, the number of prints, the rotation time of the drive motor, and the like often trigger the counter increment. Here, the rotation time of the drive motor is taken as an example.

The flowchart of FIG. 5 shows that the driving motor is 1
A processing procedure for incrementing the life counter every time the switch is turned on for 0 second will be described. In this process, when the drive motor is turned on (step S5-1), the counter C @ SUB is incremented (step S5-2). Counter C @ SU
When B reaches 10 seconds (step S5-3), the counter C @ SUB is cleared, and the counter C @ MOTOR is incremented (step S5-4). C @ SUB is
An internal counter that checks the time that the drive motor is on for 10 seconds.
It becomes the life counter of the main body to count.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure for checking the replacement time. In this process, first, a flag indicating that the replacement time has been reached, that is, a replacement request flag F_
The REQ is checked (step S6-1). If the flag F_REQ is not turned on, it is determined that the maintenance component replacement time has not yet been reached, and the life count value of the main body nonvolatile memory (EEPROM 304) M2 and the replacement unit The value of the nonvolatile memory (EEPROM 701) M1 is compared (step S6-2). If the difference is equal to or larger than the predetermined value Cm (Y in step S6-3), it is determined that the unit replacement time has come, and the replacement request flag F_REQ Is written into the main body nonvolatile memory (EEPROM 304) M2 (step S6-5).

For example, if the replacement cycle Cm is 5000 counts, and if the value of the nonvolatile memory (EEPROM 701) M1 on the replacement unit 700 side is 10010 counts and the life count on the main body side is 15008 counts, the image forming apparatus may be used for printing. When the drive motor is turned on for 12 seconds by performing the above operation, the life counter is incremented by one count and increased to 15009 counts. At this time, 15009-10010 = 499
9 [count], and no unit replacement request is issued yet. Subsequently, printing is performed, and when the drive motor is turned on for further 12 seconds, the life counter becomes 15010 counts, and the difference becomes 15010-10010 = 5000 [counts]. At this point, the state of the unit exchange request is reached for the first time, F_REQ indicating the exchange request is turned on, and the data is written into the nonvolatile memory (EEPROM 304) M2.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for checking a new replacement unit. When the replacement unit is installed, if the device has a replacement unit presence sensor,
The signal of the exchange unit changes from nothing to a state of existence. Therefore, when the replacement unit presence / absence sensor changes from absent state to presence state (Y in step S7-1), first, the state of the nonvolatile memory (EEPROM 701) M1 of the replacement unit is checked (step S7-2). Confirmation of whether the replaced unit is appropriate for replacement by checking a predetermined flag in M1.
Here, if a flag indicating that the unit is an appropriate unit (here, F_UNIT) is turned on, it is regarded as an appropriate unit.

If it is determined that the unit is more appropriate (step S7-2a), a predetermined flag in M1 (here, F_VER) is used to determine whether replacement is the first time.
Is checked (step S7-3). If F_VER is on in this check, the current value of the life counter of the main body is read from M2 and written in a predetermined area of M1 (step S7-4). After writing, F_VER is turned off (step S7-5). By turning off the F_VER, the count value is not counted up even if the replaced unit is put in and out any number of times. That is, this prevents illegal writing of the count value. And after turning off F_VER in this way,
Turn off the exchange request flag F_REQ (step S7-
6). If it is determined that the unit is inappropriate (step S7-2b), the process exits this routine.

In this embodiment, the image forming apparatus has been described as an example. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to all maintenance systems in which the replacement unit is replaced with time.

[0032]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention has the following effects.

That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
A first storage unit is provided in a maintenance replacement unit that periodically performs replacement, and a second storage unit that stores information for measuring a machine life is provided in the main body. When the replacement unit is mounted on the main body, the replacement unit is provided. Is configured to access the contents of the first storage means, it is possible to automatically identify and determine an appropriate replacement unit and use the replacement part in an appropriate replacement cycle. The quality of the main body can be improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the access unit turns on the predetermined bit for causing the first storage unit to recognize the appropriate exchange unit in advance, so that the exchange unit exchanged on the main unit side can be used. We can recognize whether it is appropriate.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the main unit recognizes that the main unit is an appropriate replacement unit, the access unit transmits the information for measuring the mechanical life of the main unit at the time of replacement to the second unit.
Is read from the storage means and written to the first storage means on the replacement unit side, so that the progress from the replacement time can be known based on the information in the first storage means on the replacement unit side.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, once the information for measuring the life of the main body is written in the first storage means, the access means does not perform the second and subsequent writings. The information for measuring the life of the first storage means does not change, and the comparison with the information on the main body is performed with high accuracy.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, each time the information for measuring the life of the main body is updated, the access means stores the information written in the first storage means and the updated information. Are compared, and if the difference between the pieces of information is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, it is recognized that the replacement time of the replacement unit has been reached. Therefore, the replacement time can be reliably recognized only with the information.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the information for measuring the machine life is a count value, the measuring means can be constituted by a counter and can be provided at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an overall control procedure of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an interrupt routine of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing count-up (increment) control of a life counter.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a replacement time check for replacing a replacement unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for checking a new replacement unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 image forming apparatus (printer) 110 image forming unit 120 paper discharge unit 130 double-sided reversing unit 200 controller 250 operation panel (operation panel) 300 engine 301 engine CPU 302 engine ROM 303 engine RAM 304 EEPROM (second storage unit) 700 replacement Unit 701 EEPROM (first storage means)

Continued on front page F-term (reference) 2H027 DA27 DA39 DA41 EC06 EE08 HB13 HB14 HB16 ZA07 2H071 BA33 DA08 DA12 DA15 DA22 DA32 5C062 AA02 AA05 AB17 AB21 AB29 AB42 AC22 AC55 AC58 AD05 AF00 BA00

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A maintenance replacement unit for storing information indicating that the unit is a replacement unit, the maintenance replacement unit performing replacement periodically, and a second storage unit for storing information for measuring a machine life. A maintenance system comprising: a main unit having storage means and an access means capable of accessing the contents of the first storage means when the replacement unit is mounted. 2. The maintenance system according to claim 1, wherein the access unit turns on a predetermined bit for causing the first storage unit to recognize an appropriate replacement unit in advance. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the access unit reads information for measuring a mechanical life of the apparatus main body at the time of replacement from the second storage unit when the apparatus main body recognizes that the unit is an appropriate replacement unit. 3. The maintenance system according to claim 2, wherein the data is written in the first storage unit. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the access unit does not perform the second and subsequent writings once the information for measuring the lifetime is written from the apparatus main body side to the first storage unit. The described maintenance system. 5. The access unit compares the information written in the first storage unit with the updated information each time information for measuring the mechanical life of the main body is updated, and 4. The maintenance system according to claim 3, wherein a difference between the pieces of information is obtained, and when the difference becomes equal to or more than a predetermined value, it is recognized that it is time to replace the replacement unit. 6. The maintenance system according to claim 1, wherein the information for measuring the mechanical life is a count value.