JP2001281961A - Image controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image controller capable of enhancing the productivity of a printing processing by deciding an optimum image forming mode at the time of reopening the device after the interruption in accordance with the cause of the paper feeding interruption. SOLUTION: The image controller is provided with a transfer body 126 capable of attracting and holding plural sheets, and the controller is provided with a 1st image forming mode of forming an image and transferring the image to the sheet in accordance with plural rotations of the transfer body, and a 2nd image forming mode of forming the image and transferring the image to the sheet in accordance with the single rotation of the transfer body, In the case it is necessary to form the image and transfer the image to at least one of attracted sheets in the 1st image forming mode, the transfer body is rotated as many as the number of rotating times corresponding to the 1st image forming mode, then, the image is formed and transferred. And, in the case an operation of feeding the sheets to the transfer body is interrupted in the mode where plural sheets are attracted, the first image forming mode after reopening the device is decided so that it may become the most efficient one according to the cause of the paper feeding interruption.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image control apparatus applied to, for example, an electrophotographic digital color copying machine or a color printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as a digital color copying machine or a color printer, a sheet fed by a sheet feeding means is sucked and held on a transfer member such as a transfer drum, and a toner image formed on a photosensitive member is transferred onto the sheet. Things are known. In this case, for example, in a monochrome image such as black, image transfer to paper is performed in one rotation of the transfer body, that is, in one cycle (monochrome image formation mode).
Magenta, yellow, and black toners are transferred and superimposed for each rotation of the transfer body, and four rotations of the transfer body,
An image is formed in a cycle (color imaging mode).

In order to form a plurality of images efficiently, a two-sheet suction mode is used in which a plurality of sheets, for example, two sheets, are attracted and held on a transfer member, and two images are formed by one rotation of the transfer member. Set to.

[0004] Recently, a printer mode has become widespread in which the user can designate color printing or monochrome printing for each page of a document group as a printer mode. However, when this is applied to the two-sheet suction mode, the image forming mode differs between the first sheet and the second sheet of the two sheets when the sheet is adsorbed on the transfer body.

Therefore, in such a case, the image forming mode of the odd page, which is the first sheet, of the two attracted sheets is compared with the image forming mode of the even page, which is the second sheet. If one is in the color image formation mode,
The rotation may be performed to transfer the image, and one of the four rotations may form the other monochrome image.

[0006] Regarding the print processing in the two-sheet suction mode, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-243133, when image formation of a document group in which a monochrome image and a color image are mixed is executed in the two-sheet suction mode. A technique is disclosed in which the transfer order is controlled so that monochrome images or color images are combined, and the transfer image forming time is not lengthened by rotating the transfer body four times.

[0007]

However, in the related art including the above-mentioned prior art, after the first sheet of the two sheets to be sucked is fed, the sheet feeding is interrupted by a paper empty or the like. In this case, no consideration has been given to measures for the print resuming process according to the cause of the paper feed interruption. That is, for the purpose of preparing the image by the printer controller, the first image formation is performed by suctioning one sheet without changing the image formation mode at the time of resuming after the paper supply is interrupted, or by changing the image formation mode to two sheets. If it is not properly selected whether or not to perform the suction, the productivity may decrease.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image control apparatus capable of determining an optimum image forming mode at the time of resumption after interruption according to the cause of interruption of sheet feeding and improving the productivity of print processing. And

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The first object of the present invention is to provide a first image forming mode which comprises a transfer member capable of holding a plurality of sheets by suction and performs image transfer onto the sheet by a plurality of rotations of the transfer member. And a second image forming mode in which image transfer is performed on the sheet by one rotation of the transfer body, and a plurality of sheets for performing image transfer while the transfer body holds a plurality of sheets by suction. In the suction mode, N × L + 1 (where N is the number of suctions, L =
0, 1, 2,...) Page to the N × (L + 1) page, when there is at least one page to be subjected to image transfer in the first image forming mode. In the image control apparatus configured to perform image transfer by rotating the transfer body by the number of rotations corresponding to the first image forming mode, the feeding to the transfer body is interrupted in the multiple-sheet suction mode. In some cases, this problem is solved by an image control device including a post-restart image forming mode determination unit that determines an initial image forming mode after resumption according to the cause of paper feed interruption.

According to this image control apparatus, the means for determining the image forming mode after resuming the paper supply according to the cause of the paper supply interruption is provided. The most efficient image formation mode can be set.

More specifically, the post-resume image forming mode determining means resets the image forming mode with the page at the time of resumption as an initial page, or sets the image forming mode to a sheet which has already been adsorbed, in accordance with the cause of the paper supply interruption. It is preferable to determine whether to perform image transfer without resetting the image forming mode for the corresponding page.
For example, if irregularities such as paper empty occur after feeding the first sheet of the two sheets to be sucked, and the second sheet of paper cannot be sucked to the originally expected position. Indicates the initial transfer image after resumption,
The user selects whether the image forming mode is to be reset with the page as the initial page, or whether the image forming mode is to be reset with the page at the time of resumption set to one sheet suction. Thus, the most preferable image forming mode is determined according to whether the printer controller or the like can switch the order in which images are prepared or cannot.

In the above description, the image forming mode determining means after restarting, when the paper supply is interrupted after the paper supply other than the N × L page, in other words, N sheets can be sucked but N sheets are not sucked. The image forming mode corresponding to the interrupted sheet is the first
In the case where the image forming mode of the transfer member is the second image forming mode and the image forming mode corresponding to all the sheets adsorbed on the transfer member is the second image forming mode, the image forming mode of the transfer member is changed to the first image forming mode. May be changed to the second image forming mode.

According to this image control apparatus, for example, even if the image data is in the order of monochrome and color, and the first image forming mode is originally set corresponding to the color image,
When the second sheet is interrupted, the mode is changed to the second image forming mode corresponding to the first monochrome image, so that only one rotation of the transfer body is required, and the productivity due to unnecessary rotation of the transfer body is sufficient. Is not reduced.

[0014]

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

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing a digital full-color copying machine to which an image control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

A digital full-color copying machine generally includes an image reader unit 101 for reading a document image and a printer unit 102 for printing the read image on paper.

In the image reader unit 101, an image of a document placed on a platen
The light from the exposure lamp 100 provided in 4 is irradiated. Light reflected from the original image surface is reflected by mirrors 105 to 10.
8. Full-color CCD sensor 11 via condensing lens
Form an image on 0.

The full-color CCD sensor 110 converts the reflected light from the original into red (R), green (G), and blue (B) electric signals (analog signals), and outputs the electric signals to the image signal processing unit 111. The scanner 104 is moved in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of the arrow) by the scanner motor 112 to scan the entire document.

The image signal processing section 111 converts an input analog signal into a predetermined digital signal (laser driving signal) and outputs the digital signal to a laser device 113. Laser device 113
Emits a laser beam based on an input digital signal.

In the printer unit 102, the laser device 1
The laser beam emitted by 13 scans and exposes a photosensitive drum 115 serving as an image carrier charged by a charging charger 114 to form an electrostatic latent image. The toner developing units 116 to 119 of four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are selected in this order, and the photosensitive drum 1
Develop the electrostatic latent image on 15.

Appropriate paper is conveyed from the paper feed cassettes 120 to 122, and the electrostatic attraction charger 1 provided opposite to the attraction roller 124 via the timing roller 123.
25 attracts the transfer drum 126. The toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 115 is transferred to the transfer charger 1.
The image is transferred to the paper wound on the transfer drum 126 by the reference numeral 27.

The rotation of the transfer drum 126 is controlled by a drum motor 128. When performing a full color copy,
The image forming mode of the transfer drum 126 is a color image forming mode (first image forming mode) in which the transfer drum rotates four times, and transfer is repeatedly performed for four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. On the other hand, in the case of monochrome copying, the image forming mode of the transfer drum 126 is a monochrome image forming mode (second image forming mode) in which the transfer drum makes one rotation, and printing is completed by one rotation of the transfer drum 126.

Thereafter, the sheet is separated from the transfer drum 126 by the action of the separation charger 129 and the separation claw 131, is fixed through the fixing device 132, and is then discharged to the discharge tray 133.

The transfer drum 126 from which the paper has been separated is electrically neutralized by the neutralization charger 130 after the oil attached to the outer peripheral surface is removed by the cleaner 137.

The fixing device 132 includes upper and lower rollers 134,
135, each roller 134, 135
Is adjusted to a predetermined temperature by a heater.

At the time of duplex copying, the sheet reversing unit 136
The paper discharged by the transfer drum 12
6, the image is formed by suction.

A plurality of sorter bins 150 are provided below the discharge tray 133.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system in the digital full-color copying machine.

In FIG. 2, a storage medium 202 such as a memory is provided.
Stores image data of each document read by the image reader unit 101 or image data subjected to image processing for each page.

The paper feed interruption detecting section 203 is provided for the transfer drum 12
6, in a plurality of sheets (N sheets) suction mode (N = 2 in this embodiment), after the first sheet of the two sheets adsorbed on the transfer drum 126 is fed, the paper empty When the second sheet is not properly fed and the paper feed is interrupted due to the occurrence of irregularities such as the change of the sheet feeder or the sorter bin, the interruption of the paper feed is detected.

The paper feed interruption cause judging section 204 judges from the detection output of the paper feed interruption detecting section 203 whether the paper feed interruption cause is a paper empty state in which the paper cassette has run out of paper or a sorter bin switching. I do.

The controller 201 determines an image forming mode by the transfer drum 126 based on the image data stored in the storage medium 202, controls the printer unit 102, and operates the entire copying machine including the image processing unit 111. Is to be supervised and controlled. Further, the controller 201
In the sheet suction mode, it also functions as means for determining the first image forming mode after resumption according to the cause of the interruption of the sheet feeding operation, as described later.

Next, the printing operation in the two-sheet suction mode in the copying machine according to the illustrated embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the following description and drawings, steps are abbreviated as S.

In the two-sheet suction mode, the order of preparing images by the controller 201 is different from the order in the normal mode. For example, as shown in FIG.
Page 1 is color, page 2 is third, page 3 is black, page 4 and page 5 are color 1 page (P
In the case of pages 1) to 5 (P5), two sheets of paper corresponding to the color of the first page and the black of the second page are
The color image and the black image are formed and transferred by four rotations of the transfer drum 126. When the transfer of the first page and the second page is completed, two sheets corresponding to the black of the third page and the color of the fourth page are attracted to the transfer drum 126,
A color image and a black image are formed and transferred by four rotations of the transfer drum 126.

Accordingly, the order of image output by the controller 201 is as follows. That is, as shown in FIG.
(1) first page cyan, (2) blank, (3) first page magenta, (4) blank, (5) first page yellow,
(6) Blank, (7) Black on Page 1, (8) Black on Page 2, (9) Blank, (10) Cyan on Page 4, (11) Blank, (12) Magenta on Page 4 , (13) blank, (14) fourth page yellow, (15) third page black, and (16) fourth page black.

In the flowchart of FIG.
Then, the controller 3 determines the image forming mode of each page. Next, in S2, the page number N for image formation is set to N = 1, and then in S3, it is determined whether or not the page N can be fed. In this case, the conditions under which paper cannot be fed include irregularities such as paper empty and sorter bin switching.

If the sheet can be fed (YES in S3),
In S4, a sheet for forming the page N is supplied.

Next, since the two-sheet suction method is used, in S5, it is determined whether or not a sheet for forming the page N + 1 (even numbered sheet) can be fed. If the sheet can be fed (YES in S5), in S6, a sheet for forming the page N + 1 is supplied. Next, in S7, the paper for forming the page N and the paper for forming the page N + 1 are suctioned to the transfer drum 126 in the two-sheet suction mode to perform printing.

In S8, it is determined whether or not printing of page N and page N + 1 has been completed. When the printing is completed (YES in S8), the operation of the copying machine is stopped in S9. If the printing is not completed (the judgment in S8 is N
O), in S10, the page N is set to N + 2, and the process returns to S3.

If it is determined in step S5 that the paper for forming the page N + 1 (even numbered sheet) cannot be fed due to, for example, paper empty or sorter bin switching (NO in step S5), in step S11, the page N Print out.

That is, 2
If the paper becomes empty after the first of the sheets is fed, the second sheet cannot be fed, so that the controller 201, as shown in FIG.
(1) first page cyan, (2) blank, (3) first page magenta, (4) blank, (5) first page yellow,
Images are output in the order of (6) blank, (7) black on the first page, and (8) blank. Controller 201
When the paper supply is interrupted by paper empty, the information is received, and the operation of the machine (copier) is temporarily stopped. Therefore, the controller 201 can reset the image forming mode from the first page after the interruption and restart.

Thus, in S12, it is determined whether or not the operation of the machine stops. If the paper is empty (the determination in S12 is YES), the operation of the machine is stopped in S13. On the other hand, if the sorter bin is to be switched (the determination in S12 is NO), the paper is fed immediately regardless of the controller 201, and the operation of the machine is not stopped.

When the operation of the machine is stopped, the controller 201 is notified of the stop of the operation of the machine by a communication means or the like. Therefore, in S14, the page N is set to 1 and in S15,
Reset the imaging mode. In this case, the controller 2
01, the order of the images is changed from the initial order after the restart, and as shown in FIG. 8, (9) black on page 2, (10) black on page 3, (11) cyan on page 4, and (12) 5 Images are output in the order of cyan,.

Thereafter, in S16, the user waits until the user replenishes the paper and restarts (the determination in S16 is NO).
O) When the restart is performed (the determination in S16 is YE
S), returning to S3 to resume printing. At the time of printing, two pages and three pages are sucked, and
Two pages and five pages are sucked.

In the judgment of S12, if the operation of the machine is not stopped because the sorter bin is being switched instead of the paper empty (NO in S12),
In S17, it is determined whether or not the sorter bin switching has been completed. If not finished (NO in S17),
Wait for it to finish. When the sorter bin switching is completed (the determination in S17 is YES), in S18, paper feeding for printing page N + 1 is started, and in S19, page N is fed.
+1 is printed with one chuck.

That is, when an irregularity such as a change in sorter bin occurs instead of paper empty, paper is fed immediately regardless of the controller 201, and there is no time to change the order of images. For this reason, when the controller 3 resumes after the interruption of the sheet feeding, first, the controller 3 shown in FIG.
As shown in (1), only the black of page 2 is printed by suction.

Thereafter, in S20, page N = 2,
Returning to S3, printing is continued. For this reason, if printing is performed in the order shown in FIG. 9 ((10) to (17)), the third and fourth pages are sucked, and the order of the images does not need to be changed from the original. That is, the image forming mode can be continued with the mode determined at the start of printing.

As described above, by judging whether or not the machine operation is stopped after the interruption of the sheet feeding, by switching the image forming mode, when the order in which the controller 201 prepares the images can be switched, the order is not changed. Even when it is not possible to change the order, the printing can be continued without stopping the operation of the machine, and the productivity can be secured.

On the other hand, in S3, if the sheet cannot be fed for the page N (NO in S3), the process proceeds to S21.
It is determined whether or not the operation of the machine is stopped. If the operation of the machine is stopped (the determination in S21 is YES), the cause of the paper feeding failure is found, and if the measure is taken, S2
It is determined whether or not to restart in step 2, and when restarting (YES in step S22), the process returns to step S3. If not restarted (NO in S22), the process waits in S22 until restarted.

If the operation of the machine does not stop in S21 (NO in S21), it is determined in S23 whether or not the sorter bin switching has been completed. When the sorter bin switching is completed (YES in S23), the process returns to S3,
If the sorter bin switching has not been completed (NO in S23), the process stands by in S23 until the end.

In the two-sheet suction mode, a black page N = 1 (one page) is followed by a color page N = 2 (2 pages).
When the (page) is continuous, the image is formed by rotating the transfer drum 126 four times.

However, if paper empty occurs at the time when paper is fed for image formation of black page N = 1,
The transfer drum 126 attracts only one sheet of paper for the black page N = 1. If the image is formed by rotating the transfer drum 126 four times in this state, the printing efficiency is poor.

The operation in such a situation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in S31, the image forming mode of each page N is determined, and then in S32, the page number N for image formation is set to 1. Then, in S33, it is determined whether or not paper for image formation of the page N can be fed. If the sheet can be fed (YES in S33), the sheet for image formation of page N is fed in S34.

Next, since it is the two-sheet suction mode, S3
At 5, it is determined whether or not a sheet for forming the page N + 1 can be fed. If the paper can be fed (S3
In S36, the sheet for forming the image of page N + 1 is fed, and then in step S37, page N and page N + 1 are printed in the two-sheet suction mode.

Next, in S38, it is determined whether or not the printing is completed. When the printing is completed (YES in S38), the operation of the machine (copier) is stopped in S39.
If the printing is not completed (the judgment in S38 is N
O) After setting page N = N + 2 in S40, the process returns to S33.

When a paper empty occurs, page N +
If the sheet for forming the image 1 cannot be fed (NO in S35), the controller 201 determines whether the transfer drum 126 is in the four rotation mode for page N in S41. If the mode is the four-rotation mode (the determination in S41 is YES), it is determined in S42 whether the page N is designated as monochrome (black mode) or non-printing.

If monochrome or non-printing is designated (YES in S42), page N + 1 should be designated as color and the transfer drum 126 should be in the four-rotation image forming mode.

Therefore, in S43, for page N,
The mode is changed to the one-rotation image forming mode of the transfer drum 126. This is because the printing for page N is in the monochrome mode in which one sheet is picked up. At the time when the paper empty occurs, since the image forming operation has not been started yet, it is possible to change to the one-rotation image forming mode. Then, after printing the page N in the one-rotation image formation mode, the process proceeds to S39. By changing the image forming mode in this way, unnecessary rotation of the transfer drum 126 can be avoided, and processing can be performed efficiently.

For page N, the transfer drum 126
When the rotation mode is not set (the determination in S41 is N
O) Further, if there is no designation of monochrome (black mode) or no printing for the page N (NO in S42), the process proceeds to S44 without changing the image forming mode. After printing in the one-rotation image formation mode, the flow advances to S39 to stop the operation of the machine.

In the above embodiment, the two-sheet suction mode has been described as an example. However, even in the two or more-sheet suction mode, the same effect can be obtained by adopting the above configuration.

Although the transfer drum 126 is used as the transfer member, another transfer member such as a transfer belt may be used.

Further, the digital color copying machine has been described as an example, but the present invention may be applied to other devices such as a color printer and a facsimile.

[0064]

According to the present invention, it is possible to set the image forming mode for the transfer body after resumption to the most efficient image forming mode from the viewpoint of productivity according to the cause of the paper supply interruption. An image control device with high processing productivity can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing a digital color copying machine to which an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the digital color copying machine.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in a two-sheet suction mode.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another operation in the two-sheet suction mode.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a document page printed in a two-sheet suction mode.

6 is a diagram showing the order of image output corresponding to the document of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the order of image output when paper feeding is interrupted.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the order of image output at the time of resumption after interruption of sheet feeding.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the order of image output when a sorter bin is replaced.

[Explanation of symbols]

102 printer unit 126 transfer drum (transfer body) 201 controller (image formation mode determination unit after restart) N ... number of sheets fed

Claims (3)

[Claims] A first image forming mode in which a transfer member capable of holding a plurality of sheets by suction is provided, and image transfer is performed on the sheet by a plurality of rotations of the transfer member; And a second image forming mode for performing image transfer on the sheet. In the multiple sheet attracting mode in which image transfer is performed with the transfer body holding a plurality of sheets by suction, N × L + 1 ( Here, N is the number of pages to be attracted, and pages from the L = 0, 1, 2,...) Page to the N × (L + 1) page on which image transfer is to be performed in the first image forming mode. When there is at least one page or more, in the image control device configured to perform image transfer by rotating the transfer body by the number of rotations corresponding to the first image forming mode, When paper feeding to the transfer body is interrupted, Image control apparatus characterized by first and a resume succeeding image mode determining means for determining an image forming mode after. 2. The image forming mode determining means after restarting sets the image forming mode again with a page at the time of restart as an initial page, or sets a page corresponding to a sheet that has already been sucked, according to the cause of paper feed interruption. 2. The image control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether image transfer is performed without resetting the image forming mode. 3. The image forming mode determining means after restarting, when the sheet feeding is interrupted after the sheet feeding other than the N × L page, the image forming mode corresponding to the interrupted sheet is the first image forming mode. If the image forming mode corresponding to all the sheets adsorbed on the transfer member is the second image forming mode, the image forming mode of the transfer member is changed from the first image forming mode to the second image forming mode. The image control device according to claim 1, wherein the mode is changed to an image mode.