JP2006155143A - Management image forming device, image forming device, and processing information collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a processing information collection system, reduced in load of processing information collection without using any other device, and to provide a management image forming device and an image forming device used therefor. <P>SOLUTION: A main printer 100a stores IP addresses of other printers 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e over a network N. The main printer 100a transmits an address string, comprising a plurality of IP addresses of the printers 100b, 100c, 100d, 100d and 100e to the printer 100b which corresponds to one of the plurality of IP addresses to request to collect charging information. The main printer 100a receives total charged data for the total of charging data of the printers 100b, 100c, 100d and 100e from the printer 100e. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a management image forming apparatus having a processing information collection function, an image forming apparatus, and a processing information collection system.

In general, when an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, a FAX, or a multifunction machine is used in a company or the like, a budget for purchasing toner and paper is determined for each department in advance. In the case of a copier, the copy card of each department is inserted into the apparatus and used, and in the case of a printer, FAX, or multi-function machine, the supply of toner and paper itself is limited to manage the budget and performance.
In recent years, when using a copier, a password assigned to each department is requested from a touch panel display or the like, or a password is input to a PC that issues a print request via a LAN. A method of counting the number of printing processes for each department is known. However, in this case, in order to collect the data of the number of printing processes stored in a plurality of apparatuses, the administrator approaches each image forming apparatus and operates to acquire data by operating from the touch panel, or LAN There is a method in which a host computer is installed on the computer, and data on the number of printing processes is once collected by the host computer. However, the former method is inconvenient for the administrator when the image forming apparatuses are scattered in different locations on the network, and the latter method requires a place and cost because a host computer is installed. was there.
In order to solve this problem, Patent Document 1 is disclosed as a technique for consolidating data of other image forming apparatuses into the main image forming apparatus while one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses on the LAN is used as the main image forming apparatus. Yes.
JP 2003-66785 A

  However, this technique is expected to increase the frequency of data reception of the main image forming apparatus when there are a large number of other apparatuses. There is a problem that the printing process cannot be performed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a processing information collection system, a management image forming apparatus, and an image forming apparatus used therefor, in which the load of processing information collection is reduced without using other devices. The purpose is to do.

  In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is a management image forming apparatus connected to a network including one or more image forming apparatuses and storing identification information of the one or more image forming apparatuses. Request transmission means for transmitting the one or more pieces of identification information to the image forming apparatus corresponding to one of the pieces of identification information and requesting processing state information of the one or more image forming apparatuses; And a response receiving unit that receives the processing status information of a plurality of image forming apparatuses from one of the image forming apparatuses via each of the image forming apparatuses connected to the network. Forming device.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the request transmission unit further transmits the processing status information of the management image forming apparatus.

  According to a third aspect of the invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the processing status information is billing information based on the number of times of image forming processing.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus connected to a network including a management image forming apparatus and storing identification information of the management image forming apparatus, the processing state is transmitted from the management image forming apparatus or another image forming apparatus. A request receiving means for receiving a request for information; an update data creating means for reading the received request and creating update data to which the processing state information is added and written; and one or a plurality of the identifications in the received request When it is determined whether or not information is included, and if it is included, the update data is transmitted to another image form apparatus corresponding to one of the identification information included, and if it is not included Comprises an update data transmission means for transmitting the update data to the management image formality device using the identification information of the management image formation device. .

  According to a fifth aspect of the invention, in the fourth aspect of the invention, the processing status information is billing information based on the number of times of image forming processing, and the update data creating means responds to the received request with the other image forming apparatus. Alternatively, when the accounting information of the management image forming apparatus is included, the update data is created by adding the accounting information of its own.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, one or a plurality of image forming apparatuses connected to a network and storing identification information of a management image forming apparatus, and the identification information of the one or more image forming apparatuses are stored and connected to the network. A management image forming apparatus, wherein the management image forming apparatus transmits the one or more pieces of identification information to the image forming apparatus corresponding to one of the identification information. While sending the request transmission means for requesting the processing status information of the one or more image forming apparatuses and the processing status information of the one or more image forming apparatuses via each image forming apparatus connected to the network, Response receiving means for receiving from one image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus receives the processing from the management image forming apparatus or another image forming apparatus. A request receiving means for receiving a request for status information, an update data creating means for reading the received request and creating update data in which the processing status information is written, and one or a plurality of the identification information in the received request. It is determined whether or not it is included, and if it is included, the update data is transmitted to another image type device corresponding to one of the identification information included, and if it is not included, A processing information collecting system comprising: update data transmitting means for transmitting the update data to the management image form apparatus using identification information of the management image forming apparatus.

  According to the first, fourth, and sixth aspects of the present invention, even if the management image forming apparatus requests processing information from a plurality of other image forming apparatuses, the management image forming apparatus can receive from one other image forming apparatus. Since the processing information of a plurality of other image forming apparatuses can be acquired simply by performing the receiving process, it is possible to lighten the processing information collection process of the management image forming apparatus.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the processing information of the management image forming apparatus can be performed simultaneously with the collection of the processing information of other image forming apparatuses.

  According to the third and fifth aspects of the present invention, the accounting information based on the image forming process stored in each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses and the management image forming apparatus can be collected and acquired in the management image forming apparatus. Therefore, the accounting information collection process of the administrator can be reduced.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention stores processing state data (for example, charging information added in proportion to the number of printing processes) indicating the processing state of the apparatus, and the processing state data is stored in other image forming apparatuses. The image forming apparatus has a function to request or a function to receive the request and send back its processing state data. For example, there are a printer, a copier, a FAX, and a multifunction machine.
In the following, a first embodiment of a system that applies the image forming apparatus of the present invention to a printer and collects charging information of a printer in a network such as a LAN will be described.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the printer 100 used in the present embodiment. The printer 100 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 180 and includes a storage unit 130 including an HD (Hard Disk) 131, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 132, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 133. Here, the format of forms (receipt, invoice) is stored in the HD 131, and a print request including image data and the like is stored during operation. The RAM 133 includes both volatile and non-volatile memories, and the non-volatile memory stores the number of executions of the printing process and conversion data for converting it into a monetary amount. A print processing unit 140 receives image data for printing, performs overall processing related to printing, feeds paper, prints image data, and discharges printed paper. A communication unit 150 is connected to a network N such as a LAN (Local Area Network) and receives a print request and image data. Reference numeral 160 denotes a display unit having a touch panel function. Note that the touch panel display unit 160 may include an input unit including a numeric keypad and a function key, and a display unit such as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or a liquid crystal display.

  The CPU 180 is realized by loading a program (not shown) for realizing the functions described below into the RAM 133 and executing it.

  Each function described above may be realized using dedicated hardware.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a partial configuration of a billing information collection system according to this embodiment. Two printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e having the same configuration as the printer 100 shown in FIG. 2 are connected to a network N such as a LAN. Connected to the network N are a plurality of PCs (not shown) through which a user arbitrarily selects any of the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e and transmits a print request.

First, a method in which the administrator constructs a billing information collection system including five printers 100 on the network N will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
The administrator connects the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e to a network to which a plurality of PCs are connected (step S310). Next, the administrator turns on the power to the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e. After each printer is started, whether the CPU 180 provided in each of the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e waits for reception of a print request from the communication unit 150 and starts charging information collection processing Displayed on the touch panel display unit 160 and waits for input from the user. Thereafter, when the user transmits a print request from the PC via the network N to any of the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e, the CPU 180 of any printer detects this and print request Print processing of the image data specified in. At this time, each time the printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e execute a print request from the PC, the number of executions is counted and stored in the RAM 133. Thereafter, the print request is received and executed. Add the execution count to.

  Next, a description will be given of an operation when the administrator periodically collects billing data based on the number of printing processes executed by the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e. The administrator requests to start the accounting information collection process from the touch panel display unit 160 of any one of the five printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e (for example, the printer 100a). The CPU 180 of the printer 100a searches for the printer 100 connected to the network N using the communication unit 150, and receives the identification information and IP address of the printers 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e. At this time, the printers 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e determine that the printer 100a has become the main printer, obtain the IP address of the printer 100a from the requested IP packet, and store it in the respective RAMs 133 ( Step S320). Thereafter, the CPU 180 of the main printer 100a displays a list of received identification information on the touch panel display unit 160 (step S320). The administrator selects the printer 100 from which the accounting data is to be acquired from the displayed identification information (step S330). Here, for example, the user selects identification information corresponding to the main printer 100a and the printers 100b, 100d, and 100e. In response to this, the main printer 100a requests charging information from the printers 100b, 100d, and 100e, and then acquires the total charging information. Next, the CPU 180 of the printer 100a reads the data in the form format from the HD 131, edits the document using the acquired total billing information, and causes the print processing unit 140 to print it. Details will be described later.

  In the following, when the user selects identification information corresponding to the main printer 100a and the printers 100b, 100d, and 100e, the main printer 100a requests billing data from the printers 100b, 100d, and 100e selected by the user, The operation of acquiring total billing data combined with its own billing data will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the CPU 180 of the main printer 100a determines whether the identification information selected from the touch panel display unit 160 includes its own identification information (step S331). If the identification information of itself is included, the execution frequency data and the above-mentioned conversion data are read from its own RAM 133, the printing process is converted into a charging amount, and additional charging data is created (step S332). .
On the other hand, when the selected identification information does not include the identification information of the main printer 100a, the charge amount is set to 0 to obtain additional charge data.

  Next, according to the identification information selected from the touch panel display unit 160 in step S330 described above, the CPU 180 reads the IP addresses of the other printers 100b, 100d, and 100e from the RAM 133, and creates an address data string in which they are arranged. For example, an IP address of the printer 100d is connected after the IP address of the printer 100b, and then an address data string is generated by connecting the IP address of the printer 100e (step S333). Then, a charging information collection command composed of data obtained by concatenating the aforementioned address data string and the additional charging data is transmitted to the printer 100b and a response is waited (step S334).

Next, an operation in which the printer 100b outputs billing information by its own print processing in response to the billing information collection command will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
In step S320 described above, the CPU 180 of the printer 100b sends a response to the main printer 100a, and then inquires of the communication unit 150 whether or not a charging information collection command has been received, and waits for command reception (step S336). When the command is received, the execution count data and the conversion data are read from the RAM 133, and the printing process is converted into a charge amount. Then, this is added to the charging data for addition included in the received command, and the charging data for addition is updated (step S337).

Next, the CPU 180 of the printer 100b reads the address data string included in the received command, determines whether the IP address of another printer is stored next to its own IP address (step S338), and receives the address data string. A new IP address data string is created by deleting its own IP address from.
If the IP address of another printer is stored in the received address data string, the above-mentioned new address data string and the updated billing data are linked to the corresponding other printer (in this case, the printer 100d). A new billing information collection command is transmitted (step S339). On the other hand, if the IP address of another printer is not stored, the IP address of the printer 100a is read from the RAM 133, and the updated charging data for addition is transmitted to the printer 100a (step S340).

  When the CPU 180 receives the accounting information collection command transmitted by the printer 100b in step S339 described above via the communication unit 150 of the other printer 100d, the printer 100d performs the processing in steps S336 to S340 described above in the same manner. A new billing information collection command is sent to the printer 100e consisting of an address data string from which the IP address of the printer 100d has been deleted and billing data for addition obtained by adding billing data held by the printer 100d. After that, when receiving the charging information collection command, the printer 100e performs the processing in the above-described steps S336 to S340 in the same manner, deletes the address data string, and adds the charging data for adding the charging data held by the printer 100e as the main Transmit to the printer 100a.

The CPU 180 of the main printer 100a receives final billing data obtained by adding the billing data of the main printer 100a and the printers 100b, 100d, and 100e from the printer 100e (step S336), and receives form format data from the HD 131. The invoice and receipt are printed from the print processing unit 140 based on the read billing data (step S350 in FIG. 3).
Instead of printing the invoice and receipt, the final billing data value may be displayed on the touch panel display unit 160 to notify the administrator.

  In this way, when the administrator obtains the billing information, each printer calculates a total of billing information of a desired printer connected to the network from any one printer connected to the network, and each printer performs a pair of transmission / reception processes. Since it can be acquired simply by performing the process, the load on the printer can be reduced.

  In the first embodiment described above, a network using five printers has been described. However, a network using two or more printers may be used.

A second embodiment in which a status page is printed and the status of each printer is grasped will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The difference from the first embodiment is that the data to be collected is status, not billing data.
In step S2 of the first embodiment, in addition to waiting for a request to start collecting charging information from the touch panel display unit 160, collection of statuses of the main printer 100a and the printers 100b, 100c, 100d, and 100e on the network N is started. The CPU 180 of the main printer 100a waits for a request to be made. The status here refers to data indicating the execution status of the printer 100 in the printing process or in the energy saving mode, the remaining amount of toner, the number of printed sheets, and the like. When the administrator requests status collection from the touch panel 160, status data is collected in a manner similar to the above-described waiting for collecting accounting information. The difference from the processing for collecting the billing information is that after the administrator selects a printer whose status is to be known from the touch panel display unit 160 (step S3a), the printers on the network connect the individual statuses one after another. The main printer 100a finally receives a response in which the statuses of a plurality of printers are connected. When receiving the response to the status request command, the main printer 100a creates a status page image for each printer from the received data, and causes the print processing unit 140 to print the status page (step S3b). This allows the administrator to output individual status pages for any of a plurality of printers connected to the network from a single printer, so that the administrator can inspect a plurality of printers on the network. In addition, maintenance of an arbitrary plurality of printers on the network is facilitated.

  In the second embodiment described above, the inspection table format may be stored in the HD 131 and the inspection table may be printed based on the status data.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes a design and the like within the scope not departing from the gist of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows the outline | summary of the accounting information collection system by 1st embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer according to the embodiment. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a printer when an administrator constructs a billing information collection system in the embodiment. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of a main printer for acquiring total billing data in the embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in which another printer outputs billing information in the embodiment. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a printer when an administrator constructs a status information collection system in the second embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Printer 100a ... Main printer 100b ... Printer 100c ... Printer 100d ... Printer 100e ... Printer 130 ... Memory | storage part 131 ... HD
132 ... ROM
133 ... RAM
140: Print processing unit 150 ... Communication unit 160 ... Touch panel display unit 180 ... CPU
N ... Network

Claims (6)

In a management image forming apparatus connected to a network including one or more image forming apparatuses and storing identification information of the one or more image forming apparatuses,
Request transmitting means for transmitting the one or more pieces of identification information to the image forming apparatus corresponding to one of the pieces of identification information and requesting processing state information of the one or more image forming apparatuses;
Response receiving means for receiving the processing status information of the one or more image forming apparatuses from one of the image forming apparatuses through each of the image forming apparatuses connected to the network. Management image forming apparatus.   The management image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the request transmission unit further transmits the processing status information of the management image forming apparatus.   The management image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing state information is billing information based on a number of image forming processes. In an image forming apparatus connected to a network including a management image forming apparatus and storing identification information of the management image forming apparatus,
Request receiving means for receiving a request for the processing status information from the management image forming apparatus or another image forming apparatus;
Read the received request, update data creation means for creating update data written by adding the processing state information,
It is determined whether or not one or a plurality of the identification information is included in the received request, and if it is included, the other request is made to another image formability device corresponding to one of the identification information included. Update data transmitting means for transmitting update data, and when not included, update data transmission means for transmitting the update data to the management image formality apparatus using identification information of the management image forming apparatus. Forming equipment.   The processing status information is billing information based on the number of times of image forming processing, and the update data creating means includes the billing information of the other image forming apparatus or the management image forming apparatus in the received request. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the update data is created by adding the charging information of itself. One or more image forming apparatuses connected to a network and storing identification information of the management image forming apparatus, and a management image forming apparatus storing identification information of the one or more image forming apparatuses and connected to the network A processing state collection system comprising:
The management image forming apparatus includes:
Request transmitting means for transmitting the one or more pieces of identification information to the image forming apparatus corresponding to one of the pieces of identification information and requesting processing state information of the one or more image forming apparatuses;
Response receiving means for receiving the processing status information of the one or more image forming apparatuses from one of the image forming apparatuses via each image forming apparatus connected to the network;
The image forming apparatus includes:
Request receiving means for receiving a request for the processing status information from the management image forming apparatus or another image forming apparatus;
Update data creating means for reading the received request and creating update data in which the processing state information is written;
It is determined whether or not one or a plurality of the identification information is included in the received request. Update data transmitting means for transmitting update data, and when not included, update data transmission means for transmitting the update data to the management image formality apparatus using identification information of the management image forming apparatus. Information collection system.

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