JP2006193206A - Packing member and packing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a packing member and a packing method which facilitate transmitting and receiving data under its packing. <P>SOLUTION: The packing member for an article equipped with a non-contact communication member for transmitting and receiving the data, has a marking part on the surface of the packing member so as to correspond to the existing position of the non-contact communication member when the article is packed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a packing member and a packing method for replacement parts of an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a packing member and a packing method for packing replacement parts such as a process cartridge and a toner cartridge mounted with a non-contact type memory tag.

Conventionally, as a replacement part of an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic system, a cartridge system has been widely used so that a user or a service person can easily replace a consumable part or a service life part. In recent years, replacement parts equipped with an information recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a memory) for managing cartridge information, recycling, and the remaining amount of consumables have come to be used.
As such a prior art example, a toner cartridge and a toner container having a non-contact type memory tag using an antenna have been proposed (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-221938 JP-A-10-161411

However, as in the above prior art example, the invention in which a non-contact type memory tag equipped with an antenna is attached to a replacement part (unit) such as a toner cartridge is not suitable for data in a state where the memory tag is separated from the reader / writer. However, since the size of the antenna is limited because the memory tag is attached to the cartridge, the communicable distance is shortened. When the antenna is small, it is difficult to transmit and receive data, particularly when a handy type reader / writer is used.
In addition, when a replacement part is packed in a packing member such as a packing box in the physical distribution process, it is impossible to recognize the position of the antenna of the memory tag from the outside of the packing member, and data transmission / reception cannot be performed. Have difficulty.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a packing member and a packing method that facilitate data transmission and reception in a packing state by displaying the position of a non-contact type memory tag on the packing member. For the purpose.

  In order to achieve such an object, the invention described in claim 1 is a packaging member of an article provided with a non-contact communication member for transmitting and receiving data, and the non-contact communication member when the article is packed is provided. It has a marking part on the surface of a packing member so as to correspond to a location.

  The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 1, the marking portion is located on the surface of the packaging member so as to correspond to the position of the antenna portion of the non-contact communication member.

  The invention described in claim 3 is the invention described in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the marking portion has the same shape as the reading portion of the reader / writer means.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the article is a replacement part used in the image forming apparatus.

  The invention according to claim 5 is a packing method for packing an article provided with a non-contact communication member for transmitting and receiving data in a packing member, and the non-contact communication member when the article is packed in the packing member. Marking is performed on the surface of the packaging member so as to correspond to the location.

  The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 5, the marking is marked on the surface of the packaging member so as to correspond to the position of the antenna portion of the non-contact communication member.

  The invention according to claim 7 is the invention according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the shape of the marking is the same as the shape of the reading portion of the reader / writer means.

  The invention according to claim 8 is the invention according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the article is a replacement part used in the image forming apparatus.

  According to the present invention, since the position of the non-contact type memory tag can be easily recognized in a state where replacement parts such as a toner unit are packed, data can be transmitted / received in the packed state, and communication reliability is improved. be able to. Therefore, it becomes easy to manage replacement parts during distribution or in a warehouse.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 to 3 are diagrams showing an example of a toner bottle 13 on which a non-contact type memory tag 14 (RFID) is mounted and a packing box 16 in which the toner bottle 13 is packed. In the embodiment of the present invention, the replacement part (unit) of the image forming apparatus is a toner bottle and the packing member is a packing box. However, the present invention is not limited thereto.

  FIG. 1A shows a side appearance of the toner bottle, and FIG. 1B shows a front appearance of the toner bottle. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, a toner bottle 13 that is a toner unit has an RFID 14 that is a substantially non-contact type memory tag mounted on the surface of the bottle.

  The toner bottle 13 shown in FIG. 1 is fixed in its orientation using a fixing member such as foamed polystyrene in a physical distribution process such as shipping, and is set in a packaging box.

  FIG. 2 shows a state where the toner bottle 13 of FIG. 1 is set in the packing box 16 by the fixing member 15. In the present embodiment, marking printing 17 having the same shape as the RFID 14 is performed on the surface of the packaging box 16 at a position corresponding to the RFID 14 of the set toner bottle 13. Therefore, the non-contact type memory tag mounted on the toner bottle can be clarified even in the packaged state.

  In the present embodiment, marking printing having the same shape as the shape of the memory tag is performed. However, depending on the structure of the non-contact type memory tag, the outer shape of the tag and the antenna position in the tag may be different. In such a case, the marking may be performed so that the antenna position in the tag becomes clear rather than the tag-shaped marking. In addition to printing, markings can also be entered with a magic sticker after attaching a sticker or inserting a unit. Further, not only marks but also characters such as “RFID” may be described.

  The packing member preferably has a structure that limits the setting direction of the toner bottle. The reason is to prevent the setting position of the non-contact type memory tag and the marking printing position from being shifted due to erroneous insertion of the toner bottle.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, marking printing 18 having the same shape as the tag reading unit 21 (antenna unit) of the handy reader / writer 20 may be performed on the surface of the packaging box 16. Although it is possible to increase the communication distance by increasing the size of the fixed antenna, the handy type reader / writer has a strong demand for downsizing and it is difficult to secure the communication distance. If it is clear, the workability is improved by marking the shape of the antenna portion of the reader / writer.

An example of the configuration of a contactless memory tag (RFID) will be described below with reference to FIG. In the following description, a process cartridge will be described as an example of the toner unit.
FIG. 4 shows a non-contact communication circuit 9 (non-contact communication circuit built in the image forming apparatus) on the image forming apparatus main body side and a non-contact communication circuit 10 (non-contact type memory attached to the process cartridge) on the process cartridge side. It shows a communication interface with a non-contact communication circuit built in the tag.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the non-contact communication circuit 9 on the main body side and the CPU 11 are connected by a serial interface, and signals are transmitted and received between the non-contact communication circuit 9 and the main body CPU 11 by this serial interface. The non-contact communication circuit 9 on the main body side has the same circuit configuration as the non-contact communication circuit 10 on the process cartridge side.

  The non-contact communication circuit 9 modulates the signal output from the CPU 11 on the main body side to a predetermined signal for transmission and sends it to the receiving antenna 8 on the process cartridge side. The non-contact communication circuit 10 on the process cartridge side amplifies the reception signal received by the reception antenna 8 by the reception circuit 12 and sends the amplified signal to the demodulation circuit 4. The demodulation circuit 4 demodulates the amplified signal into a predetermined signal for transmission, and then sends the demodulated signal to the control circuit 2. If the received demodulated signal is a signal stored in the nonvolatile memory 1, the control circuit 2 transmits the signal to the nonvolatile memory 1.

  If the signal received from the main body side is a command signal for transmitting the contents of the nonvolatile memory 1, the control circuit 2 transmits the contents of the nonvolatile memory 1 to the modulation circuit 3. The modulation circuit 3 modulates the content of the nonvolatile memory 1 into a predetermined signal for transmission and sends it to the transmission antenna 7 via a transmission driver. Then, the modulated signal is transmitted from the transmitting antenna 7 to the non-contact communication circuit 9 on the main body side.

  The non-contact communication circuit 9 on the main body side receives the modulation signal transmitted from the process cartridge side by the receiving antenna 8, amplifies it by the receiving circuit 12, and sends it to the demodulation circuit 4. The demodulation circuit 4 demodulates the amplified signal into a predetermined signal for transmission, sends the demodulated signal to the control circuit 2, and sends it to the main body CPU 11. The power supply circuit 5 rectifies the electromagnetic waves of the receiving antenna 8 and supplies power.

  The nonvolatile memory 1 includes information necessary for controlling the process cartridge, for example, image forming conditions such as exposure amount, charge amount, developing bias, cartridge lot, date of manufacture, type, lifetime use identification number, and start of use. Date, number of copies, number of recycles, maximum number of recycles, cartridge component replacement time, toner lot, date of manufacture, filling amount, type, storage period, number of recycles, maximum number of recycles, etc. are stored ing.

  The transmitting antenna 7 and the receiving antenna 8 may be combined to be a transmission / reception antenna, and the modulation circuit 3 and the demodulation circuit 4 may be combined to be a modulation / demodulation circuit.

Next, the system configuration of the image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.
The system of the image forming apparatus uses a controller board 501 that performs overall control of the image forming apparatus, an operation unit board 502 of the image forming apparatus that is connected to the control board 501, an HDD 503 that stores image data, and an analog line. Communication controller interface board 504, LAN interface board 505, FAX controller unit 506, IEEE1394 board, wireless LAN board, USB board, and other boards 507 connected to a general-purpose PCI bus, and PCI An engine control board 510 connected to the controller via the bus, an I / O control board 513 for controlling I / O of the image forming apparatus connected to the engine control board 510, and a scanner board for reading a copy original (image) S U board) 511, and writes the image data on a drum LDB512, composed like.

  A reading unit 300 that optically reads a copy document scans the document with a document illumination light source, and forms a document image on the color CCD 520. An original image, that is, reflected light of light irradiation on the original is photoelectrically converted by the color CCD 520 to generate R, G, B image signals.

  The color CCD 520 is a 3-line color CCD that generates EVENch / ODDch R, G, B image signals and inputs them to each analog ASIC on the SBU board 511. The SBU board 511 includes an analog ASIC and a circuit for generating drive timings for the CCD and analog ASIC. The output of the CCD is sampled and held by a sample and hold circuit in the analog ASIC, then A / D converted, converted into R, G, and B image data, corrected for shading, and output I / F (interface) 522. Then, the data is sent to an image data processor IPP (Image Processing Processor; hereinafter simply referred to as IPP) via an image data bus.

  The IPP 518 of the engine control board 510 is a programmable arithmetic processing unit that performs image processing. Separation generation (determination of whether an image is a character area or a photographic area: image area separation), background removal, scanner gamma conversion, filter, color correction , Scaling, image processing, printer gamma conversion and gradation processing. The image data transferred from the SBU board 511 to the IPP 518 is corrected by the IPP 518 for signal deterioration due to quantization of the optical system and the digital signal (signal deterioration of the scanner system), and is written in the frame memory 521 of the controller board 501. .

  The controller board 501 includes a ROM that controls the CPU and the system controller board, a RAM that is a working memory used by the CPU, a lithium battery, an NV-RAM that includes an SRAM backup and a clock, and a system controller. An ASIC for controlling the CPU periphery, such as a system bus control of the board, frame memory control, and FIFO, and its interface circuit are mounted.

  The system controller board 501 has functions of a plurality of applications such as a scanner application, a facsimile application, a printer application, and a copy application, and controls the entire system.

  The input of the operation unit board 502 is decoded, and the setting of the image forming apparatus system and the contents of the state are displayed on the display unit of the operation unit.

  The PCI bus is connected to other units, and image data and control commands are transferred in a time division manner through the image data bus / control command bus.

  The communication controller device interface board 504 is a communication interface board between the communication control device 5224 and the controller board 501. Communication with the controller board 501 is connected by full-duplex asynchronous serial communication, and the communication control device 5224 is multi-drop connected according to the RS-485 interface standard. Communication with the management system is performed via the communication controller device interface board 504.

  The LAN interface board 505 is connected to an in-house LAN. It is a communication interface board between an in-house LAN and a controller, and is equipped with a PHY chip. The LAN interface board 505 and the controller board 501 are connected by standard communication interfaces of a PHY chip I / F and an I2C bus I / F. Communication with an external device is performed via the LAN interface board 505.

  The HDD 503 is used as an application database for storing system application programs and device activation information of printers and image forming process devices, and as an image database for storing image data of read images and written images, that is, image data and document data. .

  Both the physical interface and the electrical interface are connected to the controller through an interface compliant with ATA / ATAPI-4.

  The operation unit board 502 includes a CPU, ROM, RAM, LCD, and ASIC (LCDC) for controlling key input. In this ROM, a control program for the operation unit board 502 for controlling input reading and display output of the operation unit board 502 is written. The RAM is a working memory used by the CPU. Through communication with the system controller 501, the panel is operated to perform input for the user to input system settings, and display and input control for displaying the setting contents and status of the system to the user.

  The black (B), yellow (Y), cyan (C), and magenta (M) write signals output from the work memory of the system controller 501 are B, Y, M, and L of LDB (Laser Diode control Board). Input to C LD writing circuit. The LD write circuit performs LD current control (modulation control) and outputs the result to each LD.

  The engine control board 510 mainly performs image creation control of the image forming apparatus, and includes a CPU, an IPP that performs image processing, a ROM that includes a program necessary for controlling copying and printout, a RAM that is necessary for the control, And NV-RAM. The NV-RAM is equipped with SRAM and a memory that detects power-off and stores it in the EEPROM. It also has a serial interface that transmits and receives signals to and from other CPUs that perform control. The I / OASIC is an ASIC that controls a nearby I / O (counter, fan, solenoid, motor, etc.) on which an engine control board is mounted.

  The I / O control board 513 and the engine control board 510 are connected via a synchronous serial interface.

  The I / O control board 513 is equipped with a sub CPU, and performs I / O control of the image forming apparatus including analog control such as P sensor and T sensor. A new process cartridge is detected when the door is opened or closed. When the door SW connected to the I / O board is opened, there is a possibility that the process cartridge has been replaced. Therefore, confirmation is performed and the result is transmitted to the engine control unit.

  The interface circuit 515 of the I / O control board 513 is an interface circuit with an IC tag (non-contact type memory tag) mounted on the process cartridge. As described above, communication between the non-contact communication unit 516 and the main body control unit is performed by an asynchronous serial interface. The non-contact communication means 516 (non-contact communication circuit) modulates the signal output from the main body side into a predetermined signal for transmission and sends it to the transmitting antenna 7. Further, the non-contact communication means (non-contact communication circuit 10) on the unit side demodulates the received signal received by the receiving antenna 8 into a predetermined signal for transmission, changes it to a parallel signal, and sends it to the CPU. The same operation is performed when transmitting from the CPU of the IC tag on the unit side to the main body side.

  The PSU 514 is a unit that supplies power to control the image forming apparatus, and commercial power is supplied from the main SW. When this main SW is turned on, confirmation of mounting of a unit such as a process cartridge is performed. Alternatively, the interface circuit 515 may be connected to a non-volatile memory mounted on the unit.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the position of the non-contact type memory tag is displayed on the packing member by printing or the like, thereby facilitating transmission / reception of data in the packing state and improving communication reliability. be able to. In particular, it becomes easy to manage the units in the middle of distribution and in the warehouse.

  In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, by displaying the antenna shape of the memory tag on the packing member, data can be transmitted and received in the packing state with high accuracy.

  Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the antenna position of the reader / writer and the antenna position of the unit can be easily brought close by printing the setting position of the handy type reader / writer actually used. Thus, the operability of the reader / writer is greatly improved and the reliability of communication is improved, so that errors in data transmission / reception can be reduced.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, it is not limited to the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation is possible in the range which does not deviate from the summary.

  The present invention can be applied to all articles packed in the distribution process.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a toner container according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the external appearance of the packaging member which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the external appearance of the packaging member which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the non-contact-type memory tag which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Nonvolatile memory 2 Control circuit 3 Modulation circuit 4 Demodulation circuit 5 Power supply circuit 6 Transmission driver 7 Transmission antenna 8 Reception antenna 9 Non-contact communication circuit on the main body side 10 Non-contact communication circuit on the process cartridge side 11 CPU
12 Receiving circuit 13 Toner bottle (unit, article)
14 RFID (non-contact type memory tag, non-contact communication member)
15 Fixing member 16 Packing box (packing member)
17, 18 Marking printing (marking part)
20 Handy Reader / Writer (Reader / Writer Method)
21 Tag Reading Unit 300 Reading Unit 501 Controller Board 502 Operation Unit Board 503 HDD
504 Communication control device I / F board 505 LAN I / F board 506 FCU (FAX controller unit)
507 IEEE1394 board, wireless LAN board, USB board 510 engine control board 511 SBU board (scanner board)
512 LDB
513 I / O control board 514 PSU
515 Interface circuit 516 Non-contact communication means 517 CPU
518 IPP
520 color CCD
521 Frame memory 522 Output I / F
5224 Communication control device

Claims (8)

A packaging member of an article provided with a non-contact communication member for transmitting and receiving data,
A packing member having a marking portion on a surface of the packing member so as to correspond to a location of the non-contact communication member when the article is packed.   The packaging member according to claim 1, wherein the marking portion is located on a surface of the packaging member so as to correspond to the position of the antenna portion of the non-contact communication member.   The packaging member according to claim 1, wherein the marking portion has the same shape as the reading portion of the reader / writer means.   The packaging member according to claim 1, wherein the article is a replacement part used in an image forming apparatus. A packing method for packing an article provided with a non-contact communication member for transmitting and receiving data in a packing member,
Marking on the surface of the said packing member so that it may correspond to the location of the said non-contact communication member when the said article is packed in the said packing member.   The packing method according to claim 5, wherein the marking is marked on the surface of the packing member so as to correspond to the position of the antenna portion of the non-contact communication member.   7. The packing method according to claim 5, wherein the marking has the same shape as the reading portion of the reader / writer means.   The packaging method according to claim 5, wherein the article is a replacement part used in an image forming apparatus.

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