JP2002218129A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in a conventional image forming device that it has inconvenience in immediately grasping how much image information can be stored in an idle capacity because the conventional device displays the consumed quantity of a storage device in the ratio of the consumed quantity to the entire storage capacity. SOLUTION: The image forming device of this invention displays the occupied capacity or the idle capacity of the storage device by the number of images.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a storage device for storing image information and reading out the image information from the storage device to form an image. Related to the display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a digital image forming apparatus reads an original of a plurality of jobs, stores image information obtained by the reading in a storage device (memory), reads out the stored image information, and forms an image (copy). I have.

In such an image forming apparatus, when a document is read and stored in a storage device, it is determined before the reading operation that the remaining amount of the storage device is. If the remaining amount of the original to be read is predicted to be insufficient, it is necessary to determine whether to perform the operation or stop the partial reading operation.

[0004] As a source of such a determination made at the start of the image forming operation, the basic screen of the image forming apparatus displays the amount of use (memory occupancy) in the storage device or the remaining memory capacity indicating the remaining memory capacity. Is displayed. This display is performed by, for example, a percentage (%) display as a ratio of a used amount or a ratio of a free space to the total storage capacity of the storage device.

[0005]

However, in the conventional display, it is difficult to intuitively grasp how much image information can be stored in the storage device. There is a problem that it is not possible to make a determination when performing an image forming operation. That is, it is not possible to immediately determine how many originals can be read just by knowing what percentage of the total storage capacity of the storage device remains. Further, there is an inconvenience that it is not possible to determine whether or not a reading operation to be performed is possible without taking time such as calculating a memory usage amount for one image from past data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned inconvenience in a conventional digital image forming apparatus.

[0007]

The object of the present invention is achieved by the following invention.

[0008] 1. An image forming apparatus having a storage device for storing image information and page information of a stored image, an image forming unit for forming an image on a recording material based on the image information, and a display operation unit for setting display and image forming conditions 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display operation unit displays the amount of storage area of the storage device occupied by image information or the free space of the storage device in the number of pages on a basic screen.

[0009] 2. An image reading unit that reads an original to generate image information; and a detecting unit that detects a page of the read original to generate page information, wherein the storage device stores the image information generated by the image reading unit and the detecting unit. 2. The image forming apparatus according to 1, wherein the generated page information is stored.

[0010] 3. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display operation unit displays a ratio of an occupied storage area to a total storage capacity of the storage device on the basic screen. 4.

4. The storage device stores image information of a plurality of jobs together with job information and information on the number of pages of images included in each job, and the display operation unit displays a list of the number of pages for each job. Any one of ~ 3
Item 10. The image forming apparatus according to item 1.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display operation unit displays a list of occupation ratios of image information included in each job with respect to a total storage capacity of the storage device.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, the configuration of an image forming apparatus will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the image forming apparatus.

The image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises an automatic document feeder 1, an image reading unit 2, and an image forming unit 3.

Documents are fed to the document feeder 11 of the automatic document feeder 1.
Is placed on the feed roller 12 with the image surface facing upward.
The sheet is fed out one by one by the operation of
The document is then stopped once and its leading edge is trimmed, and then conveyed to the conveying drum 14, where the document is rotated counterclockwise along the surface of the conveying drum 14 as a means for detecting the number of pages (number of pages) of the document. The number of documents is detected by the detection sensor S, and is counted by a control unit described later. Subsequently, the image of the document is read by the image reading section 2, and thereafter, the document is separated from the drum surface at a position substantially halfway around and discharged to the sheet discharge table 15. Also, in order to read a two-sided original, the original whose front (front) surface has been read is once conveyed to the stationary original table 27 by the roller 16, and then the roller 16 is rotated in the reverse direction so that the original again follows the surface of the conveying drum 14. Rotate
The 2 (back) surface is read through the above process. in this case,
Both sides are detected by the detection sensor S and counted as the number of original pages (two pages).

In the image reading section 2, a first mirror unit 23 having a light source 23a and a mirror 23b is stationary at a position immediately below the transport drum 14, sequentially illuminates and reads the passing documents, and moves the documents. The light is reflected by a second mirror unit 24 having a mirror 24a and a mirror 24b arranged orthogonally to the direction, forms an image on a linear imaging element 26 via an imaging lens 25, and is converted into an image signal. The image reading unit 2 has an image processing device (not shown),
The image signal from the image sensor 26 is processed to generate image information. If the automatic document feeder 1 is not used and the document is raised and the original screen is placed on the transparent stationary document table 27 and the originals are read one by one, the first mirror unit 23 and the The two-mirror unit 24 moves rightward from the home position at the left end in the figure and performs sub-scanning to read. In this case, the copy start button 104 on the display operation unit 100 shown in FIGS.
When the operation of the copy start button 104 is detected by the control means CR (shown in FIG. 5) as the detection means, the number of original pages is counted. The image information of the document image read by the image reading unit 2 is temporarily stored in the storage device M of FIG. A RAM having a capacity of about 64 MB (megabyte) is used for the storage device M, but a large-capacity hard disk of about 8 GB (gigabyte), an electrically rewritable nonvolatile ferroelectric memory or a flash memory is used. By using a removable storage medium, that is, a removable medium, the application range of use can be expanded. The storage device M also stores information on the number of images detected by the detection means such as the detection sensor S and counted by the control means CR.

The image forming section 3 forms an image by an electrophotographic process. That is, the image information is read from the storage device M and input to the image writing unit 33, and a laser beam modulated according to the image information from a laser emitter (not shown) performs main scanning exposure by rotating the polygon mirror. .
A main scanning exposure of the photosensitive drum 31 in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 31 and a rotation of the photosensitive drum 31 are performed on a photosensitive drum 31 (hereinafter referred to as a photosensitive drum) to which a charging potential has been previously given by the charging device 32. Sub-scanning is performed to form an electrostatic latent image based on image information on the photosensitive layer. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 40
Is reversal-developed by a developer to form a toner image. At the same time, the recording paper is fed from the manual paper feed unit 19 or the paper feed tray 7 containing the recording paper. The paper feed tray 7 has, for example, three stages of 7a, 7b, and 7c, and each paper feed roller 51
A, 51B, or 51C operates to convey the recording paper, and feed the recording paper to the conveyance rollers 55 and 56 and the timing roller 39 to synchronize the toner image on the photoconductor drum 31 with the photoconductor drum 31. Feed paper.

The toner image on the photosensitive drum 31 is transferred to the transfer device 3
5, the recording paper on which the toner image is transferred is transferred and transferred to the recording paper side, and the recording paper on which the toner image has been transferred is discharged by the static eliminator 36, separated from the photosensitive drum 31 and fixed as a fixing means via the transport belt. The fixing roller 38 is conveyed to the fixing device 38, and the toner is fused and fixed by the pressure heating of the heat roller pair. The toner is discharged from the fixing discharge roller 61 of the discharge section 6 and discharged to the discharge tray 64.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 31 from which the recording paper is separated
After the residual potential is removed, the image forming apparatus is configured so that the residual toner is removed and cleaned by the cleaning device 37 and the cleaning operation is performed in the next image forming process. All control and counting are performed by the control means CR (see FIG. 5). Shown).

Next, display of the number of pages of a read original in the embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the basic screen, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the display operation unit 100 of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

As a display screen displayed on the display operation unit 100, a basic screen, an application screen, a plurality of maintenance-related screens, and the like are prepared. Each of these screens is displayed on the display unit 101 by operating the operation buttons on the display operation unit 100 shown in FIG. Further, more detailed items are displayed on each screen.

Normally, when the power of the image forming apparatus is turned on,
When the warm-up time has elapsed and an image can be formed (copied), a basic screen 101A is displayed on the display unit 101, and the basic screen 101A is always displayed when the image forming apparatus is used.

FIG. 2B shows a basic screen 101A of the conventional image forming apparatus. On the conventional basic screen 101A, for example, only the percentage display DPB of the current remaining memory capacity (free capacity) with respect to the total storage capacity is displayed, such as 56%. 100% of the remaining memory display DPB indicates that the memory is unused, and 0% indicates that the remaining memory is exhausted.

On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention, the number of pages of the read original is displayed on the basic screen. That is, FIG.
(A) As in the case of DPA, the ratio of the used storage capacity to the total storage capacity of the storage device M is displayed in% (23% in the figure), and the number of images of the image information stored in the storage device M is displayed For example, 17 page is displayed. In addition, a display DPC is displayed on the upper right of the basic screen 101A as shown in FIG. The display DPC indicates the set number of images formed and the number of images already formed.
This indicates that the number of copies has been set, and that five copies have been completed.

By the display shown in FIG. 2A described above, how many pieces of image information are stored in the storage device M and what percentage of the total storage capacity of the storage device M are occupied by the image information. It is possible to intuitively predict from this information how much image information the storage device M can store. In addition, as the display DPA, the free space of the storage device M, that is, the capacity of the unused storage area (remaining memory capacity) is calculated as the average image data amount per sheet calculated from the capacity of the occupation area and the number of images. It can also be displayed as the number of images calculated based on it.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which the number of pages of a document is displayed in a list. Display operation unit 100 shown in FIG.
A switch button for switching to each screen, a key 103 for setting the number of copies, a copy start button 104, and the like are provided above. The list display button 10 on the display operation unit 100
When the user selects 2, a JOB list screen 101 </ b> B as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display unit 101. That is, the date and time when the document of each job is read, the number of pages of the document, the occupancy of each job document with respect to the total storage capacity in parentheses is indicated by%, and the name or symbol of the user is displayed in a list. As a result, the current usage status of the memory can be immediately grasped, and the management of copy usage can be efficiently performed.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The image information generated by the image reading section 2 is temporarily stored in the storage device M. On the other hand, information on the number of document pages detected from the detection sensor S of the automatic document feeder 1 or the copy start button 104 on the display operation unit 100 is counted by the control means CR and counted as information on the number of images for each job. It is stored in the storage device M. The control means CR calculates the occupancy of the storage device M for each job from the read image information of each job. And the normal control means CR is the basic screen 1
The display operation unit 100 is controlled so that the number of pages of the document and the memory occupancy are displayed on the display unit 01A. When the list display button 102 of the display operation unit 100 is selected and operated, the control unit CR displays the job on the display unit 101. Execution date and time, the number of originals for each job,
The display operation unit 100 is controlled so that the image amount (% display) and the user of each job are displayed in a list. Further, the image information corresponding to the document of each job stored in the storage device M is controlled so that a predetermined number of images are formed (copied) by the image forming unit 3 according to the number of copies set by the setting key 103. To perform a series of image forming operations.

[0029]

According to the first, second, or third aspect of the present invention, the free space of the storage device can be grasped as the number of images. It is possible to accurately determine whether or not it can be performed.

According to the fourth or fifth aspect of the present invention, management of an image forming operation such as efficiency of copying and printing is facilitated, and
It can be done properly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a basic screen.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display operation unit of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of displaying a list on a display screen according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Automatic original conveyance part 2 Image reading part 3 Image formation part 100 Display operation part CR control means M Storage device S Detection sensor

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G03G 21/00376 G03G 21/00376 5C073 H04N1 / 21 H04N 1/21 (72) Inventor Yoshiteru Katayama Hachioji, Tokyo 2970, Ishikawacho Konica Corporation (72) Inventor Norifumi Sasamoto 2970, Ishikawacho, Hachioji-shi Tokyo 2C061 AP04 AQ06 AS02 CQ34 CQ36 CQ38 HK15 HK23 2C087 AB01 AC08 BA03 BB10 BC06 CB16 CB17 2C187 AC07 AE01 CD15 2H027 DA42 DB08 EE08 FB05 FD08 GA49 GB11 5C062 AB17 AB23 AB42 AC05 AC22 AC60 AF07

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A storage device for storing image information and page information of a stored image, an image forming unit for forming an image on a recording material based on the image information, and a display operation unit for setting display and image forming conditions. Wherein the display operation unit displays the amount of storage area of the storage device occupied by image information or the free space of the storage device in the number of pages on a basic screen. Forming equipment. 2. An image reading unit for reading a document to generate image information, and a detecting unit for detecting a page of the read document and generating page information, wherein the storage device stores the image information generated by the image reading unit. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the page information generated by the detection unit is stored. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display operation unit displays a ratio of an occupied storage area to a total storage capacity of the storage device on the basic screen. 4. The storage device stores image information of a plurality of jobs together with job information and information on the number of pages of an image included in each job, and the display operation unit displays a list of the number of pages for each job. Any one of claims 1 to 3,
Item 10. The image forming apparatus according to item 1. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the display operation unit displays a list of occupation ratios of image information included in each job to a total storage capacity of the storage device.