JP2004001320A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the printing efficiency at an error occurrence time by stopping printing of a job being printed and shifting to printing of a succeeding job if the error occurs in the job being printed while a plurality of jobs are printed continuously. <P>SOLUTION: A CPU 22 is provided, which repeatedly carries out for all jobs to be processed, a first operation of stopping the job under the control by the job management function when the error occurs to hinder the continuation of printing during the execution of the job, and shifting the control to the succeeding job, and a second operation of stopping the succeeding job under the control by the job management function being stopped when the error occurs to hinder the continuation of printing during the execution of the succeeding job, and further shifting the control to a succeeding job. When the error is cleared, the CPU 22 updates an error state of the job held under the control of the job management function being stopped and resumes printing of the job. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, when an error occurs in a job being printed when printing a plurality of print jobs in a laser printer, a digital copying machine, or the like, the operation of stopping the printing and shifting to printing of a subsequent print job is repeated. The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that executes control such as restarting printing after removing the cause of an error of a stopped job.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a so-called shared type printer that prints a plurality of jobs to be printed sent from a host computer by one printing apparatus has been increasing. The jobs are various, such as one set of document information for each user and one set of information taken from a network or the like. By the way, when an error occurs when printing a plurality of jobs continuously, normally, the printing of the subsequent jobs is stopped, and all the jobs are in a standby state until the cause of the error is removed.
[0003]
Therefore, a printing apparatus that interrupts a stopped job and performs printing if a subsequent job can be printed is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2000-343793. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-343793 discloses that if a stopped job and the succeeding job have the same discharge destination, if the succeeding job can acquire resources (recording paper, toner, etc.), The printing is started by interrupting the stopped job, and a separator (data delimiter) is inserted before and after the interrupt printing.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional printing apparatus as described above, especially when interrupted printing is performed and the cause of the error of the stopped job is removed and printing is restarted, a different job is sent to the same discharge destination. Since the print jobs are mixed, the user often mistakes an undesired print job. That is, the convenience of the user may be impaired by performing the interrupt printing.
[0005]
Further, there are many cases in which there are restrictions on resources, such as checking resources to be used in advance before performing interrupt printing and permitting interrupts only when acquisition is possible. In particular, in the case of a printer or the like, the printing cannot be started until all the transmission data from the host computer has been analyzed, so that the efficiency is reduced. That is, the effect of quickly obtaining the print result of the succeeding job in which no error has occurred cannot be obtained.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and when an error occurs in a job being printed when printing a plurality of jobs in succession, the printing is stopped and the process is shifted to printing of a subsequent job. Accordingly, it is an object to improve the printing efficiency when an error occurs.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a printing apparatus according to claim 1 receives a plurality of job data to be printed, prints the job data on a recording sheet for each job, and designates a designated one of a plurality of discharge destinations. When an error occurs during the processing of the job and printing cannot be continued in the printing apparatus that discharges to the discharge destination, the job is stopped under the management of the job management function, and the subsequent job The first operation is to shift control to the next job, and when an error occurs during execution of the processing of the subsequent job and printing cannot be continued, the subsequent job is managed by the stopped job management function. And the second operation of shifting control to a subsequent job is repeatedly executed for all the jobs to be processed, and when the error is released, the stopped job The management function is Update the error status of the job is, those having a resume job control means the printing of the job.
[0008]
According to the present invention, when printing a plurality of jobs in succession, if an error occurs in the job being processed and printing cannot be continued, the job is stopped under the management of the job management function. After stopping, the control is passed to the succeeding job to start the processing.If there is a subsequent job, the stopped job is similarly overtaken and printed one after another, and an error occurs during the processing of the succeeding job. If a print job cannot be continued due to the occurrence of a job, the following job is stopped under the control of the stopped job management function, and control is passed to the subsequent job to start processing. By performing the control, it is possible to perform printing without stopping printing of a job that is not in an error state among jobs that have been input for a job that is stopped due to an error.
[0009]
Further, in the printing apparatus according to the second aspect, the job control means manages each of the jobs at least based on paper discharge destination information, an error cause, and management information before and after the start of printing. When the control is transferred to the job, a job which is stopped due to the occurrence of an error includes a job after the start of printing and whose output destination included in the management information matches the output destination of the subsequent job. If there is, the discharge destination of the subsequent job is changed to a discharge destination different from the stopped job.
[0010]
According to the present invention, when managing a stopped job according to the first aspect, a print condition of the job, an error cause, one of before and after the start of printing is provided as management information, and a subsequent job is provided. When control is passed, if a job that has been stopped due to an error includes a job whose printing destination that is included in the printing conditions of the management information after the start of printing matches the succeeding discharging destination By changing the discharge destination of the succeeding job to a discharge destination different from the discharge destinations of all the jobs that satisfy the above-described conditions, control is performed so that the discharge destinations do not match. It is possible to prevent different jobs from being mixed and discharged at the paper destination.
[0011]
Further, in the printing apparatus according to the third aspect, the job control unit arranges a plurality of stopped jobs due to an error in order of priority and sequentially resumes printing.
[0012]
According to the present invention, in one or more embodiments of the present invention, one or more jobs that have been stopped due to an error are managed in a queue that can be managed in descending order of priority, so that the jobs are stopped due to the error. It is possible to easily manage a plurality of jobs, and to perform printing in an optimal order when a job stopped due to an error is restarted.
[0013]
Further, in the printing apparatus according to the fourth aspect, when the plurality of jobs stopped by the occurrence of an error are arranged in order of priority and sequentially printed, the job control unit determines the priority in the order in which the jobs are received. Things.
[0014]
According to the third aspect of the present invention, when an error occurs, the priority of the queue is determined according to the order of inputting jobs, so that the normal procedure of obtaining print results in the order of input is maintained as much as possible. In this case, efficient overtaking printing can be performed.
[0015]
Further, in the printing apparatus according to the fifth aspect, the job control means starts printing by overtaking a job that has been stopped due to the occurrence of an error, and stops during the printing due to the occurrence of the error. When the discharge destination of the overtaken job is the same as the discharge destination of the overtaken stopped job, the following job is set to have a higher priority than the stopped job.
[0016]
According to the present invention, when a subsequent job starts printing by overtaking a stopped job in which printing cannot be started due to an error, and the succeeding job is stopped due to an error during printing, If the output destination of the succeeding job is the same as the output destination of the overtaken stopped job, the priority of the succeeding job should be higher than that of the stopped job when managing in a queue. Thus, when the cause of the error is removed and printing is restarted, there is no case where a stopped job interrupts during printing of a subsequent job.
[0017]
The printing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a job storage unit for storing a job, wherein the job control unit does not release the error in order to restart the stopped job due to the occurrence of the error. Is stored in the job storage unit, the error status is temporarily released, and after the error status is released, before the error cause of the job stored in the job storage unit is removed. When a new job is submitted, the new job is overtaken and printing is started.
[0018]
According to the present invention, in any one of the first to fifth aspects, in order to restart a stopped job due to occurrence of an error, the cause of the error is not removed, and when the error state continues for a long time, The system considers it to be a low priority job, saves the unprinted part of the job that has stopped due to an error in the job storage unit, and releases the error status once, so that jobs cannot be submitted in an error state. Even if there is, a job can be submitted.
[0019]
Further, in the printing apparatus according to the seventh aspect, the job control unit may determine that a new job input after releasing the error status has the same error as the job stored in the job storage unit. When the cause of the error is eliminated without being left for a long time, the printing of the overtaken new job is resumed first, and the printing of the saved job is resumed after the printing of the new job. Things.
[0020]
According to the present invention, when a newly input job is stopped due to the same error as the job stored in the job storage unit after the error status is released, a long time has passed since the error occurrence. If the cause of the error was eliminated without being abandoned, the new job that was overtaken was printed first, and the saved job was submitted after the error status was released by restarting printing after printing the new job. Even if the error of the job is canceled, it is possible to avoid the case where the stored job is printed first.
[0021]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention is not limited to this embodiment. In addition, although a composite digital copying machine is taken as an example of the printing apparatus, a laser printer alone or a facsimile machine may be used.
[0022]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printer control device and its system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention. This system mainly includes a plurality of host computers 11a and 11b such as personal computers and workstations on a network 10, and a printer device 12 for printing out data output from the host computers 11a and 11b. Is done.
[0023]
The printer device 12 receives a printer engine 13 for forming an image on a recording sheet according to a predetermined image forming process (in this example, an electrophotographic process) and a print request output from the host computers 11a and 11b. 11b, a panel controller having a printer control device 14 for converting the data into video data according to the control code and outputting the video data to the printer engine 13, a display function for displaying the status of the printer, and various input functions for switching the printer mode and fonts. A part 15.
[0024]
The printer control device 14 includes, on an I / O bus 16, a network I / F 17 for controlling an interface with the network 10, and a job storage unit for storing a printer job to be held even when the power is turned off and an output control command. A secondary storage device (NV-RAM) 18 and a panel I / F 19 for performing interface control (exchange of signals for switching printer status, mode, font, etc.) with the panel operation unit 15 are connected. ing.
[0025]
The printer controller 14 includes, on a system bus 20, a printer I / F 21 for controlling the interface with the printer engine 13, a CPU 22 for controlling the entire printer controller 14 in accordance with a control program, and a DMA transfer. , A RAM 24 used as a working memory, a ROM 25 storing a control program executed by the CPU 22, and a font ROM 26 storing various types of fonts used for printing. And are connected. Note that the CPU 22 has a function as a job control unit that controls printing of the job based on management information (print conditions, error information, print status, and the like) accompanying the job.
[0026]
In addition to the function of the working memory, the RAM 24 has a buffer function of managing data from the host computers 11a and 11b in page units and temporarily storing the data, and converts the data stored in the buffer into an actual print pattern. It is also used as a bitmap memory for storing video data. The ROM 25 stores programs for managing data in the printer control device 14 and controlling peripheral modules (such as a sorter and a stapler).
[0027]
The data sent from the host computers 11a and 11b is divided by the CPU 22 into print data and print control data (SP, CR, LF, HT, VT, etc.) and others. The print data and print control data are converted into control codes and stored in the buffer (RAM 24). When the print command from the host computers 11a and 11b or the data received from the host computers 11a and 11b exceeds one page, the printer control device 14 first converts the intermediate code into video data, A print start command is output to the printer engine 13 via / F21. The print data from the host computers 11a and 11b is printed on the recording paper by the printer engine 13 in such a series of flows.
[0028]
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of the printer device 12 in FIG. Here, a description will be given by taking an example of a multifunction peripheral that is a digital copying machine having a printer function. However, the present invention is not limited to this, provided that it has a function of sorting and stacking print jobs.
[0029]
This apparatus mainly includes a copier main body 100 including a scanner, a laser optical system, an image forming unit, a sheet feeding device, and the like, and an automatic document feeder (ADF) 150 for automatically transmitting a document of a sheet bundle to be read. And a 3-bin sorter 160 on which print jobs after recording are stacked, and a paper feed unit (bank unit) 170 that stores recording paper and feeds out one by one.
[0030]
The scanner includes a contact glass 101 on which a document is placed and a scanning optical system. The scanning optical system includes a first carriage 102 on which an exposure lamp 103 and a first mirror 104 are mounted, a second carriage 105 holding a second mirror 106 and a third mirror 107, an imaging lens 108, and a CCD 109. Have. That is, it includes a first carriage 102 driven by a stepping motor to move at a constant speed when reading an original, and a second carriage 105 driven at half the speed of the first carriage 102.
[0031]
An original (not shown) on the contact glass 101 is optically scanned by the first carriage 102 and the second carriage 105, and reflected light obtained therefrom is reflected by a light source 103, a first mirror 104, a second mirror 106, and a third mirror. An image is formed on the CCD 109 via the mirror 107 and the image forming lens 108 and photoelectrically converted. The image signals separated into red (R), green (G), and blue (B) colors by the CCD 109 are converted into digital image signals by an AD converter and output to an image processing unit (not shown) for performing image processing. Is done. The image processing unit performs predetermined image processing (binarization, multilevel conversion, scaling, editing, etc.) on the image signal from the AD converter, and converts the image signal into a digital signal.
[0032]
The laser optical system includes a laser output unit 110, an fθ lens 111, a mirror 112, and the like. Inside the laser output unit 110, a laser diode or a polygon mirror as a laser light source is provided.
[0033]
The black image signal output from the image processing unit is converted into a laser beam having an intensity corresponding to the image signal. The laser light is shaped into a light beam having a predetermined shape by a collimating lens, an aperture, and a cylinder lens, is irradiated on a polygon mirror, and is output from a laser output unit 110. The laser light output from the laser output unit 110 is applied to the photosensitive drum 115 via the fθ lens 111 and the mirror 112. Further, the laser light that has passed through the fθ lens 111 is applied to a beam sensor that generates a main scanning synchronization detection signal that is arranged outside the image area. The red image signal output from the image processing unit is buffered in order to match the write position with the black image signal, sent to the LED writing unit 118, and irradiated on the photosensitive drum 115.
[0034]
The ADF 150 conveys documents one by one to the contact glass 101 of the copying machine main body 100, and discharges the documents after reading. The document is set on the document feeder table 151, and the width direction is aligned by a side guide. Documents on the document feeder table 151 are fed one by one from the lowest document by a feed roller 152, and are sent onto a contact glass 101 by a conveyance belt 153. After the reading of the original on the contact glass 101 is completed, the original is discharged onto the discharge tray 155 by the transport belt 153 and the discharge roller 154.
[0035]
When reading a two-sided document, the two-sided document on the document feeder table 151 is separated and fed one by one from the lowest document by the feed roller 152, and is fed onto the contact glass 101 by the transport belt 153. After being inverted by the inversion claw 156, it is set on the contact glass 101. After the reading of the front side of the document, the document is discharged to a discharge tray 155 by a conveyance belt 153 and a discharge roller 154.
[0036]
The recording sheets stacked on the first tray 120, the second tray 171, and the third tray 173 are supplied to the first sheet feeding device 121, the second sheet feeding device 175, the third sheet feeding device 176, and the fourth sheet feeding device, respectively. The paper is fed by 177 and transported by the bank vertical transport unit 174 and the main body vertical transport unit 122. When the leading end of the recording paper is detected by the registration sensor 123, the recording paper is conveyed for a predetermined time, and then temporarily stopped at a nip portion of the registration roller 124 and waits.
[0037]
The recording paper on standby is sent to the photosensitive drum 115 side in accordance with the leading end of the image valid signal, and the image is transferred by the transfer charger. Further, the recording paper is separated from the photosensitive drum 115. The recording paper on which the toner image is formed is conveyed by the conveyance device 127, is fixed by the fixing roller 125 and the pressure roller 126, and is discharged to the three-bin sorter 160 by the discharge roller 129.
[0038]
The image formation on the photosensitive drum 115 is performed by irradiating a laser beam with the electric charge charged on the photosensitive drum 115 by the first charging device 116 to form an electrostatic latent image. An image is formed on the image 115. Thereafter, charging is performed again by the second charging device, an electrostatic latent image of a second color is formed by the LED writing unit 118, and an image is formed on the photosensitive drum 115 by the second developing device 119.
[0039]
When performing duplex printing using the duplex unit 130, the recording paper after fixing is guided to the duplex transport path 131 by the switching claw 128, passes through the feed roller 132 and the separation roller 133, and is accumulated on the duplex tray. The recording paper accumulated on the tray comes into contact with the feed roller 132 when the tray is raised, is sent to the main body vertical conveyance unit 122 when the feed roller 132 rotates, and is re-fed to the registration roller 124 before the back surface. Is printed.
[0040]
The three-bin sorter 160 includes a first discharge tray 161, a second discharge tray 162, a third discharge tray 163, and a reversing tray 164. The recording paper can be reversed and stacked on each tray (bin). Is configured.
[0041]
In the case of front-side discharge, the recording paper discharged from the copying machine main body 100 is guided in the direction of the discharge tray by the switching claw 167 and discharged to a tray (bin) set in advance. When discharging to the second discharge tray 162, the second tray switching claw 165 is operated, and when discharging to the third discharge tray 163, the third tray switching claw 166 is operated to guide recording paper.
[0042]
When performing the reverse discharge, the recording paper is guided by the switching claw 167 toward the reversal tray 164, and when the trailing end of the recording paper passes the reverse detection sensor 168, the transport roller 169 reverses, and And discharge it to a preset tray. The first paper discharge tray 161 has a function of shifting the tray (bin) back and forth. The shift function is used for sorting recording paper, and the up / down function is used for stacking a large amount of recording paper while ensuring sheet alignment. That is, the three-bin tray 160 is provided with a mechanism that sorts each tray (bin) for each print job and a sorting mechanism that shifts the first discharge tray 161.
[0043]
Next, an example of a printing operation for a plurality of jobs, which is a feature of the present invention, in the printer apparatus 12 configured as described above will be described.
[0044]
According to the present invention, the CPU 22 causes an error in a printer engine (including a peripheral device) during execution of printing of a plurality of jobs, and the subsequent job is stopped because of the job stopped by the error. In order to avoid the decrease, the control is performed so that the succeeding jobs successively overtake the job in which the error has occurred. In this example, the CPU 22 has a function of managing a plurality of stopped jobs due to an error.
[0045]
First, when an error occurs in a job being processed and printing cannot be continued, the job is stopped under the management of the stopped job management function, and control is transferred to a subsequent job to perform the processing. Is started, the job that is stopped due to the error is overtaken and printed. Further, if there is a succeeding job, similarly, the stopped jobs are overtaken one after another to execute printing.
[0046]
By the way, if an error occurs during the processing of a subsequent job and printing cannot be continued, the subsequent job is stopped under the control of the stopped job management function, and then the subsequent job is stopped. By transferring control to the job and starting the process, even if a plurality of jobs are stopped due to an error, the succeeding job will overtake and print.
[0047]
Therefore, by the above-described operation, for a job stopped due to an error, printing can be performed without stopping printing of a job that is not in an error state among jobs that have been input.
[0048]
Eventually, the cause of the error will be removed by the user's action, but if any of the cause of the error is removed, the stopped job management function will change the error status of the job under management. The printing of the job that has been updated and the error cause has disappeared and is no longer in the error state is resumed. Similarly, at this time, the printing is performed while passing the stopped job, and if an error occurs again during the printing, if there is a next printable job under the management of the stopped job management function again, The processing shifts to processing of the job.
[0049]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example when an error occurs in a plurality of job processes according to the embodiment of the present invention. Here, for simplicity of explanation, data is sent so that three jobs of job 1, job 2, and job 3 are processed in order, and the job 1 and job 2 run out of paper during printing. The case of stopping will be described as an example.
[0050]
First, the processing of job 1, which is the first job, is started and printing is started. However, an out-of-paper error occurs during printing and printing cannot be continued. At this time, it is determined whether there is a next job (job 2 in this case) (step S11). If it is determined that there is the next job, the job 1 is put under the control of the stopped job management function, and the control is transferred to the next job, job 2 (step S12). The printing of 2) is started (step S13). Further, it is determined whether or not the printing of the job 2 has been performed normally (step S14). If the printing has not been performed normally (if an error has occurred halfway), the stopped job management function is performed. Stops the job under management (step S15), and proceeds to step S16.
[0051]
On the other hand, if the printing has been completed normally, it is determined whether or not there is a stopped job due to an error (step S16). It is determined whether or not there is (step S17). If it is determined that there is a job in which the cause of the error has disappeared, the control is transferred to the job in which the cause of the error has disappeared, and printing is performed (step S18).
[0052]
As described above, by successively succeeding jobs overtaking a stopped job due to an error and performing printing, a job in which no error has occurred and a job in which the error has been cleared can be printed quickly. Note that errors in this embodiment include no recording paper in the paper supply unit (paper empty), a paper discharge destination full, staples running out, punch scrap full, toner empty, and the like.
[0053]
By the way, when a succeeding job overtakes a job stopped due to the occurrence of an error during printing, a plurality of jobs are mixed in the print bundle if the discharge destination (bin) is the same. In this case, if the user is different for each job, the user may erroneously bring the printed matter, and the overtaking printing may impair the user's convenience.
[0054]
Therefore, when the discharge destination of the succeeding job to be overtaken is the same as the discharge destination of the overtaken job, the above problem is solved by changing the discharge destination of the subsequent job and performing the overtake.
[0055]
That is, the stopped job management function is managed in accordance with management information such as the printing conditions (paper size, discharge destination (bin)) of the job, the cause of the error, and either before or after the start of printing. Then, the control is shifted to the succeeding job, and among the stopped jobs due to the occurrence of the error, the discharge destination (bin) included in the print condition of the management information after the start of printing is set to the discharge position of the succeeding job. If a job that matches the destination (bin) is included, the paper output destination (bin) of the succeeding job is changed to a paper output destination (bin) that is different from the paper output destination (bin) of all the jobs that meet the above conditions, Control so that they do not match.
[0056]
This specific example is shown in FIG. Reference numeral 200 denotes a stopped job, which corresponds to job 1 (reference numeral 201) and job 2 (reference numeral 202), and the discharge destination of the succeeding job 3 (reference numeral 203a) and job 1 is bin 1 and the same condition. Become. Therefore, printing is performed by changing the discharge destination of the succeeding job 3 (reference numeral 203b). That is, when there are stopped jobs (job 1 and job 2), and when job 3 exists as a succeeding job, the discharge destinations of job 3 and job 1 are the same, and the discharge destination of job 2 is Since the bin 2 is used, the discharge destination is changed to a discharge destination bin 3 different from these bins, and jobs 1 and 2 are passed and printing is performed. This makes it possible to solve the above-described problems and quickly obtain a print result of a job in which no error has occurred.
[0057]
In the above-described job control, the stopped job management function manages one or more stopped jobs in which an error has occurred in a queue that can be managed in descending order of priority. By managing the jobs to be printed in the queue according to the priority in this way, it is possible to easily manage a plurality of jobs stopped due to an error, and to determine which job to execute when the cause of the error is removed. It is possible to easily manage the determination of the order of restart. That is, when a job stopped due to an error is restarted, printing can be restarted in an optimal order.
[0058]
Further, the priority of the above-described queue may be determined according to the order of inputting the jobs. By managing the jobs in the order in which they are input, it is possible to obtain print results in an order close to a normal print state in which no overtaking is performed. In other words, by performing printing in accordance with the normal principle of printing in the order of submission, efficient overtaking printing of the job is realized.
[0059]
Furthermore, when the cause of the error is removed and printing is resumed, the priority of the queue may be set so that a stopped job is not interrupted during printing of a subsequent job. For example, if a succeeding job starts overtaking a stopped job that cannot start printing due to an error, and the succeeding job stops due to an error during printing, the next job If the overtaken stopped job has the same paper discharge destination, control is performed such that the succeeding job has a higher priority than the stopped job when managing in a queue. This example is shown in FIG.
[0060]
FIG. 5 illustrates a case where a stopped job 300a (job 1 (reference numeral 301), job 2 (reference numeral 302)) exists, and a job 3 (reference numeral 310a) exists as a succeeding job. After the start of printing of the job 3 (310a), if an error occurs due to the absence of the B5 sheet, the job 3 (310a) is changed to the discharge destination (bin 1 to bin 2) of 310b. Since the discharge destinations (bins) of job 3 (reference numeral 310b) and job 2 (reference numeral 302) are the same, such as bin 2, and job 2 has not yet started printing, the priority of job 2 is high. When set, when A4 paper is printed, job 2 interrupts between the print results of job 3. Therefore, the priority of the job 3 is set higher than the priority of the job 2, so that the mixture of the jobs is avoided.
[0061]
Thus, when the cause of the error is removed and printing is restarted, it is possible to prevent a stopped job from being interrupted during printing of a subsequent job. Further, the user does not accidentally bring the print result, and efficient overtaking printing is realized when an error occurs.
[0062]
Further, in the above-described operation, when the job stopped due to the error is left for a long time without removing the cause of the error, the error status is released. In other words, in order to restart a stopped job due to an error, the cause of the error is not removed, and if the error state continues for a long time, it is regarded as a low priority job, and the stopped job After the unprinted portion is stored in the secondary storage device 18, the error status is canceled once. When a new job is input after the error status is released and before the cause of the error of the job stored in the secondary storage device 18 is removed, the new job overtakes the stored job. Perform printing. As a result, in the error state, even in a system in which a job cannot be input, it is possible to input the job, and it is possible to perform print output efficiently.
[0063]
Also, in the above-described operation, when a new job submitted after the error status is released is stopped due to the same error as the stored job, the error cause is not left for a long time after the error occurrence. If is deleted, printing of the overtaken new job is restarted first, and printing of the saved job is restarted after printing of the new job. As a result, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the saved job is printed first even if the error of the job submitted after releasing the error status is released, and the user may mistake the print result. It can be prevented from being brought.
[0064]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention (claim 1), when printing a plurality of jobs continuously, an error occurs in the job being processed, and printing cannot be continued. Then, after stopping the job under the control of the stopped job management function, control is passed to the subsequent job to start processing, and if there is a subsequent job, the stopped jobs are similarly successively stopped. In addition to performing overtaking printing, if an error occurs during the processing of the subsequent job and printing cannot be continued, the subsequent job is stopped under the control of the stopped job management function, Further, by transferring control to the succeeding job to start processing, printing of a job that has not been in an error state among the submitted jobs is stopped for a job that is stopped due to an error. It becomes possible to perform Rukoto no print job of the print result error has not occurred at the time of the failure is quickly obtained, thereby improving the printing efficiency.
[0065]
Further, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention (claim 2), when managing a stopped job according to claim 1, the printing condition of the job, the cause of the error, any one of before and after printing, When control is passed to the succeeding job, the output destination after the start of printing and included in the printing conditions of the management information is included in the job that has been stopped due to the occurrence of an error. If a job that matches the paper destination is included, the discharge destination of the succeeding job is changed to a discharge destination different from the discharge destinations of all the jobs that meet the above-described conditions, and the discharge destination may match. Control so that different jobs are output to the same output destination without being mixed, so that it is possible to avoid a situation where the user loses the convenience of bringing printed materials by mistake Printing jobs that have no problems It is possible to get faster results.
[0066]
Further, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention (claim 3), in the claim 1 or 2, one or more stopped jobs in which an error has occurred are managed in a queue that can be managed in the order of higher priority. Since management is performed, a plurality of jobs stopped due to an error can be easily managed, and printing can be performed in an optimal order when a job stopped due to an error is restarted.
[0067]
According to the printing apparatus of the present invention, the priority of the queue is determined by the order of inputting the jobs. , And efficient overtaking printing when an error occurs can be performed.
[0068]
Further, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, in the third aspect, the succeeding job starts printing by overtaking the stopped job in which printing cannot be started due to an error, and the subsequent job Is stopped in the middle of printing due to an error, if the output destination of the succeeding job is the same as the output destination of the overtaken stopped job, the succeeding job is By setting the priority higher than that of the stopped job, when the cause of the error is removed and printing is resumed, there is no case where the stopped job is interrupted during the printing of the subsequent job. It is possible to prevent a printed matter from being accidentally taken, and to perform efficient overtaking printing.
[0069]
Further, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention (claim 6), in any one of claims 1 to 5, in order to restart a job that has been stopped due to occurrence of an error, the cause of the error is not removed. If the error state continues for a long time, it is regarded as a low-priority job, the unprinted part of the stopped job due to the error is stored in the job storage unit, and the error status is released once. Even in a system in which a job cannot be input in an error state, a job can be input, so that efficient printing can be performed.
[0070]
Further, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, after the error status is canceled, the newly input job is the same error as the job stored in the job storage unit. If the cause of the error is eliminated without being left for a long time after the occurrence of the error, the new job that has passed is printed first, and the saved job restarts printing after printing the new job Therefore, even if the error of the job submitted after the error status is released, the saved job can be prevented from being printed first, and the user can make a mistake in the printed matter. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of a situation in which the user brings the item.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printer control device and a system configuration thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printer device in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a job control operation of the printer control device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a discharge destination changing operation in the case of the same discharge destination job according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation example of a waiting job according to a priority setting according to the embodiment of the present invention;
[Explanation of symbols]
11a, 11b Host computer
12 Printer device
13 Printer Engine
14 Printer control device
18 Secondary storage device
22 CPU
160 3-bin sorter

Claims (7)

A printing apparatus which receives a plurality of job data to be printed, prints the job data on a recording sheet for each job, and discharges the print data to a designated discharge destination among the plurality of discharge destinations.
A first operation of stopping the job under the control of the job management function and transferring control to a subsequent job when an error occurs during the execution of the job and printing cannot be continued;
If an error occurs during the execution of the processing of the subsequent job and printing cannot be continued, the subsequent job is stopped under the control of the stopped job management function, and the subsequent job is controlled. A second operation to migrate
Is repeatedly executed for all the jobs to be processed,
A printing apparatus comprising: a job control unit that updates an error state of the stopped job under the management of the job management function and resumes printing of the job when the error is released. . The job control unit manages each of the jobs with at least the discharge destination information, the cause of the error, and the management information before and after the start of printing. If the job includes a job after printing is started and the discharge destination included in the management information matches the discharge destination of the subsequent job, the discharge destination of the subsequent job is stopped. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the destination is changed to a different discharge destination from the job. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the job control unit arranges a plurality of jobs stopped due to an error in order of priority and sequentially restarts printing. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when the plurality of jobs stopped due to the occurrence of an error are arranged in order of priority and sequentially printed, the job control unit determines the priority in the order in which the jobs are received. The job control unit starts printing by overtaking a job that is stopped due to the occurrence of an error, and stops printing due to the occurrence of an error during printing. 4. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when the paper discharge destinations are the same, the subsequent job is set to have a higher priority than the stopped job. Furthermore, a job storage unit for storing a job is provided,
The job control means, if the error is not canceled to resume the stopped job due to the occurrence of an error, if the state continues for a long time, saves the job in the job storage means, temporarily cancel the error status, After the error status is released, if a new job is input before the cause of the error of the job stored in the job storage unit is removed, printing is started overtaking the new job. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein The job control means may stop a new job input after releasing the error status for the same error cause as the job stored in the job storage means, and leave the error cause without being left for a long time. 7. The printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, when is deleted, printing of the overtaken new job is resumed first, and printing of the saved job is resumed after printing of the new job. .

Images