JP2005235109A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming system which enables a user to become aware of page omission resulting from the occurrence of a print processing failure, a jam, or the like when printing on transfer paper of which a plurality of sheets of paper are one set. <P>SOLUTION: In an image forming system 300 comprising an image forming device wherein paper can be arbitrarily set to a plurality of paper feed trays 20a and 20b and a terminal device 200 which is connected to the image forming device 100 and acquires a state of the image forming device and instructs the image forming device to print data, the image forming device 100 is provided with paper feed trays 20a and 20b on which transfer paper of which a plurality of sheets of paper are one set are placed, and the terminal device 200 has a keyboard for setting the number of sheets in one set of transfer paper which are placed on paper feed trays 20a and 20b and of which a plurality of sheets of paper are one set, and a monitor 220 for displaying the set number of transfer paper in one set. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming system that prints a transfer sheet in which a plurality of sheets are combined, such as a form sheet.

Conventionally, in this type of image forming system, there is known an apparatus that performs printing on a set of transfer sheets, such as a form, in which a specific format is printed in advance on a plurality of transfer sheets (for example, Patent Documents). 1).
JP-A-10-124277

  However, in the conventional image forming system, the forms are handled as a set of a plurality of sheets. Therefore, if it is not always known how many transfer sheets each set form forms, a printing process or a jam occurs. There was a problem that I couldn't notice missing pages.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and when printing on a set of transfer sheets of a plurality of sheets, an image can be noticed that a page is missing due to occurrence of a printing process or a jam. An object is to provide a forming system.

  The image forming system according to the present invention includes an image forming apparatus capable of arbitrarily setting a sheet in each of a plurality of paper feed trays, and is connected to the image forming apparatus to acquire a state of the image forming apparatus and the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a paper feed tray on which a plurality of sheets of transfer paper are placed, and the terminal device is attached to the paper feed tray. A set number setting means for setting the number of sheets of transfer paper that forms a set of a plurality of sheets placed thereon, and a display means for displaying the number of sets of transfer paper set by the setting means. It is characterized by that.

  With this configuration, when printing on a set of transfer sheets, a set of transfer sheets, which is a set of a plurality of sheets, is displayed, and page missing due to the occurrence of printing processing or jamming is noticed. be able to.

  Further, in the image forming system of the present invention, the terminal device includes a paper feed tray setting unit that sets which paper feed tray of the image forming apparatus performs printing, and the paper feed tray setting unit includes: Only when a paper feed tray on which a plurality of sheets of transfer paper is placed is selected, the set number setting unit is allowed to set the number of sets of the transfer paper, and the display unit One feature is that the number of sheets of transfer paper set by the setting means is displayed.

  With this configuration, only when printing on a set of transfer sheets of a plurality of sheets such as a form sheet, the number of sets (number of sets) of the transfer sheets is displayed, so only necessary items are displayed. Therefore, legibility and operability are improved, and page missing can be noticed further.

  According to the present invention, when printing on a set of transfer sheets with a plurality of sheets, it is possible to notice missing pages due to the occurrence of print processing, jamming, or the like.

  Hereinafter, an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment. In the present embodiment, the image forming system 300 includes an image forming apparatus 100 and a terminal device 200. The image forming apparatus 100 is referred to as a so-called multifunction machine having a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a FAX function. The network connection means 43 receives and prints image information transmitted from the terminal device 200 such as a personal computer.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming system 300 includes an image forming apparatus 100 and a terminal device 200 connected to the image forming apparatus 100 via a network.

  The image forming apparatus 100 includes a CPU 31, a ROM 32, a RAM 33, a writing control unit 34, a writing unit 35, an operation display unit 36, a conveyance control unit 37, a document reading unit 38, an image processing unit 39, The image editing unit 40, the image memory 41, the NVRAM 42, and the network connection means 43 are included. These are connected by a system bus 30.

  The CPU 31 controls the entire image forming apparatus 100. Specifically, the image forming apparatus 100 is caused to perform a printing operation based on print data and control information received from the terminal apparatus 200 via the network connection unit 43. In addition, when the image forming apparatus 100 performs a copy operation, the CPU 31 performs various settings (also referred to as “copy mode” in the present embodiment) input from the operation display unit 36, that is, the document size, transfer paper size, editing Based on settings such as aggregation, double-sided / single-sided, copy density, sorting, etc., it detects that a start button (not shown) has been pressed, and reads a document, image processing, image storage, image editing, writing control, Controls transfer of transfer paper.

  The ROM 32 stores a program and fixed data for the CPU 31 to control the image forming apparatus 100.

  The RAM 33 is a work area when the CPU 31 executes a program stored in the ROM 32.

  The writing controller 34 controls the output of the laser diode and the like when writing an image under the control of the CPU 31.

  The writing unit 35 controls driving of the polygon mirror 12, a polygon motor (not shown), and the photoconductor 15 when writing an image.

  The operation display unit 36 includes a numeric keypad (not shown) for inputting numerical values, various keys such as a start key for starting a copy operation, and the like, and a touch panel type liquid crystal display device for displaying the status and operation settings of the image forming apparatus 100. The image forming apparatus 100 inputs and displays instructions and settings (copy mode) when the image forming apparatus 100 performs various operations such as a copy operation.

  The conveyance control unit 37 controls various motors and various mechanisms (not shown) for feeding or conveying the transfer paper 21.

  The document reading unit 38 reads the document 2 and includes a contact glass 1, a document size sensor 3, an exposure lamp 4, a first mirror 5, a second mirror 6, a third mirror 7, a lens 8, and a CCD image sensor 9. Consists of.

  The image processing unit 39 performs image processing such as image quality improvement on the image data read by the document reading unit 38 and converted into digital data.

  When the image forming apparatus 100 performs a copying operation, the image editing unit 40 performs image editing such as scaling, aggregation, and repeat on the image data.

  The image memory 41 is for temporarily storing image data read by the document reading unit 38.

  The NVRAM 42 is a nonvolatile memory, and stores process condition data unique to the image forming apparatus 100.

  The terminal device 200 is composed of a personal computer or the like having a function of connecting to a network, and includes a keyboard 210 as input means and a monitor 220 as display means. The terminal device 200 is installed with a printer driver for causing the image forming apparatus 100 to perform a printing operation. When the terminal device 200 performs a printing operation, the monitor 220 displays a printer driver screen 250 as shown in FIG. 3 so that the setting value can be confirmed and changed. The printer driver screen 250 includes items of a printing method 251, color / monochrome 252, document size 253, document direction 254, tray 255, type 256, and number of printed sheets 257. Here, the printing method 251 displays or sets whether normal printing or draft printing. The color / black and white 252 displays or sets whether printing is performed in color or black and white. The document size 253 displays or sets the size of the document. The document direction 254 displays or sets whether the document method is portrait or landscape. The tray 255 displays or sets which tray of the plurality of trays is to be printed. The type 256 displays or sets the type of transfer paper (for example, form, continuous paper, special paper). In the figure, it is shown that a form is selected as the type and the number of forms is 4, and it can be seen that this form is one set of 4 sheets. The display of the type 256 and the tray 255 are linked to each other, and the display of the type 256 column is determined according to the tray number selected in the tray 255 column, or conversely, the transfer selected in the type 256 column. The display of the column of the tray 255 is determined according to the type of paper. In addition to displaying or setting the number of printed sheets (number of copies), the number of printed sheets 257 is used to display or set the number of transfer sheets in one set (number of sets) in the case of a form or the like. In the figure, like the type 256, the number of sets is four.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a contact glass 1, a document size sensor 3, an exposure lamp 4, a first mirror 5, a second mirror 6, a third mirror 7, a lens 8, and a CCD image sensor 9. The document 2 is read by these.

  Further, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a laser diode 10, a cylinder lens 11, a polygon mirror 12, a lens 13, a writing mirror 14, and a photoconductor 15, and the read image data of the document 2 is electrostatically placed on the photoconductor 15. It is formed as a latent image.

  The image forming apparatus 100 also includes a charging device 16, a developing device 17, a transfer belt 18, a cleaning device 19, paper feed trays 20 a and 20 b, transfer paper 21, registration rollers 22, a fixing device 23, and a paper discharge sensor 24. Yes.

  In the image forming apparatus 100, the document size sensor 3 detects the presence and size of the document 2 placed on the contact glass 1. When a copy start key (not shown) is pressed, the exposure lamp 4 exposes the document 2, and the reflected light from the document 2 is reflected by the first mirror 5, the second mirror 6, and the third mirror 7, and the lens 8. 2 is read by the CCD image sensor 9 and then converted into an electrical signal, which is subjected to image processing by the image processing unit 39 shown in FIG. An automatic document feeder is provided above the image forming apparatus 100, that is, above the contact glass 1. A plurality of documents 2 are stacked on the automatic document feeder and fed one by one on the contact glass 1. It goes without saying that it may be done.

  Next, the laser diode 10 is controlled based on the image processed data, and the laser light emitted from the laser diode 10 passes through the cylinder lens 11, the polygon mirror 12 rotating at a constant speed at a high speed, the lens 13, the writing mirror 14, and the like. Then, the photoconductor 15 is irradiated and an image (electrostatic latent image) is written on the photoconductor 15.

  Around the photoreceptor 15, a charging device 16, a developing device 17, a transfer belt 18 and a cleaning device 19 are provided. After the photoconductor 15 is cleaned by the cleaning device 19, it is uniformly charged to a predetermined high potential by the charging device 16. When the charged laser beam 15 is irradiated with the laser beam, the surface potential on the photoconductor 15 changes according to the intensity of the irradiated light, and an electrostatic latent image is formed. The electrostatic latent image becomes a visualized toner image by adsorbing toner by the developing device 17.

  On the other hand, the transfer sheets 21 stacked on the sheet feed tray 20a or the sheet feed tray 20b are fed one by one, and the registration roller 22 feeds the transfer sheet 21 so as to overlap the toner image on the photoconductor 15. Further, the transfer paper 21 is conveyed by the transfer belt 18 to which a high potential is applied, and the toner image is transferred to the transfer paper 21 at the contact portion between the transfer belt 18 and the photoconductor 15.

  The same transfer paper or transfer papers of different sizes and types can be placed on the paper feed trays 20a and 20b, and ordinary transfer paper is placed on the paper feed tray 20b to feed paper. Form paper is placed on the tray 20b, and it is possible to select on the printer driver screen shown in FIG. 3 whether to use the paper feed tray 20a or the paper feed tray 20b for printing. Yes. The size and type of the transfer paper placed on the paper feed trays 20a and 20b are set in advance by an input operation from the operation display unit 36, and this information is acquired by a print driver installed in the terminal device 200. Be able to. In addition, the size and type of transfer paper placed on the paper feed trays 20a and 20b can be set or changed on the print driver side of the terminal device 200, not on the image forming apparatus 100 side. .

  The transfer paper 21 onto which the toner image has been transferred is further conveyed by the transfer belt 18 and sent to the fixing device 23 warmed by the halogen heater to fix the toner image. The transfer paper 21 that has been fixed is detected by the paper discharge sensor 24 to be discharged outside the image forming apparatus 100.

  Next, the operation of the image forming system 300 will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, in the terminal device 200, when a printing instruction is input through the keyboard 210, the printer driver screen shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the monitor 220, and the user confirms the printing setting value and sets the setting value as necessary. Make changes. When the tray 3 is selected in the column of the tray 255, “form” as the type of transfer paper corresponding to the tray 3 and “number of sets” of the form are displayed in the column of the type 256. The number of sets is also displayed in the column for the number of printed sheets 257. When, for example, tray 2 is selected in the item of tray 255, and the type of transfer paper corresponding to tray 2 is set to be normal transfer paper that is not form paper, “normal transfer” is displayed in the type 256 column. “Paper” or the like is displayed, but the number of sets is not displayed, and the number of sets cannot be set.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the number of sets of transfer sheets is displayed on the printer driver screen 250. For this reason, when printing the form data on a set of transfer sheets such as a form sheet, the number of sets confirmed on the printer driver screen 250 before printing, the number of printed matter actually printed, By comparing these, it is possible to notice missing pages due to a print processing error, jam, or the like.

  Further, when one column of the tray 255 and the type 256 is selected, the other column is automatically selected, so that the setting can be easily performed and a setting error can be prevented. .

  In addition, since the number of sets is displayed and can be set only when a form is selected in the type 256 column, the printer driver screen 250 is easy to see and the legibility is improved. Since more attention can be paid to these items, it is possible to notice missing pages due to print processing errors or jams.

  As described above, the image forming system according to the present invention has an effect that, when printing on a set of transfer sheets of a plurality of sheets, it is possible to notice page missing due to a print processing error or a jam. It is useful as an image forming system for printing a transfer sheet in which a plurality of sheets are made into a set such as a form sheet.

1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment. Printer driver screen of monitor in terminal device of one embodiment

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Contact glass 2 Original 3 Original size sensor 4 Exposure lamp 5 1st mirror 6 2nd mirror 7 3rd mirror 8 Lens 9 CCD image sensor 10 Laser diode 11 Cylinder lens 12 Polygon mirror 13 Lens 14 Writing mirror 15 Photoconductor 16 Charging device 17 Developing Device 18 Transfer Belt 19 Cleaning Device 20a, 20b Paper Tray 21 Transfer Paper 22 Registration Roller 23 Fixing Device 24 Paper Discharge Sensor 31 CPU
32 ROM
33 RAM
34 writing control unit 35 writing unit 36 operation display unit 37 transport control unit 38 document reading unit 39 image processing unit 40 image editing unit 41 image memory 42 NVRAM
43 Network connection means 100 Image forming apparatus 200 Terminal device 210 Keyboard (set number setting means, paper feed tray setting means)
220 Monitor (display means)
300 Image forming system

Claims (2)

An image forming apparatus capable of arbitrarily setting paper in each of a plurality of paper feed trays, and a terminal connected to the image forming apparatus for acquiring the state of the image forming apparatus and instructing the image forming apparatus to print data In a printing system consisting of devices,
The image forming apparatus includes:
Provided with a paper feed tray on which multiple sheets of transfer paper are placed,
The terminal device includes a set number setting unit that sets the number of sheets of transfer paper that is a set of a plurality of sheets placed on the paper feed tray.
An image forming system comprising: display means for displaying a set number of transfer sheets set by the setting means. The terminal device
A paper feed tray setting means for setting which paper feed tray of the image forming apparatus is used for printing;
The set number of transfer sheets is set in the set number setting means only when the feed tray setting means selects a feed tray on which a plurality of sets of transfer sheets are placed. An image forming system characterized by allowing and displaying a set number of transfer sheets set by the setting means on the display means.

Images