JP2006197326A - Multi-function printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multi-function printer (MFP) which is inexpensive and is convenient for use since simultaneous operations are made available without performing memory extension at the time of extending an SFP (single function printer) to the MFP. <P>SOLUTION: The multi-function printer has a step of changing paper feed and scan timing when receiving an expansion request from others during output of data stored in an image processing means/an image operation means/an image forming means/an image storage means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a multifunction printer.

  Conventionally, an SFP (single function printer) having only a single function for printing image data has been expanded, and an MFP (multifunction printer) having an image reading device for reading a document as image data has been configured. These functions (printing function and reading function) can be operated independently, but in order to operate them simultaneously, an image storage memory has been added. This is because the memory for SFP is limited.

A system in which a device is configured with a small capacity memory by sharing a memory used for each function has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).
JP-A-11-331530

  However, the expansion of the memory results in an increase in cost.

Accordingly, in order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus of an MFP according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a means for scanning image data, and an image process for performing image processing on the image data scanned by the image scanning means. Means for storing image data processed by the image processing means, image transfer means for receiving or transmitting data from a host computer, and image for expanding the data transferred by the transfer means into image data Expansion means, storage means for storing the image data developed by the image development means, image formation means for forming the image data stored by the storage means on an output medium, and between the storage means and the image formation means First communication means for performing communication, second communication means for performing communication between the storage means and the image operation means, And,
The storage means can simultaneously receive requests from the scanning means and the transfer means, and when image data accumulated in the storage means is being output to the image forming means, image development from others When receiving the request, the image forming unit has a determination step of determining whether to simultaneously receive the request according to the capacity of the storage unit, and according to the determination step, a paper feed request of the image forming unit through the first communication unit And a pause step capable of temporarily waiting for a scanning request of the image operation means through the second communication means.

  Preferably, the data transferred by the data transfer means of claim 1 is raster image data or a vector code, and is preferably a multi-function printer.

  Preferably, the storage means of claim 1 is a multi-function printer characterized in that the image data scanned by the scanning means and the location where the image data transferred by the transfer means are stored are the same.

  The transfer means of claim 1 is preferably a multifunction printer characterized by LAN, 1394, parallel I / F or the like.

  The image scanning means and the image forming means of claim 1 are preferably a multi-function printer characterized by no limitation in black and white and color.

  As described above, simultaneous operation is possible without expanding the memory when the MFP of the SFP is expanded. It is possible to provide a multifunction printer that is inexpensive and easy to use.

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

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the configuration of an image forming apparatus 800 showing an embodiment of the present invention.

  The image forming apparatus 800 includes a scanner 10, a printer 11, and a controller 12.

  First, the configuration of the scanner 10 will be described. On the platen glass 101, the originals fed from the automatic document feeder 142 are sequentially placed at predetermined positions.

  The document placed on the document table glass 101 is exposed by a document illumination lamp 102 composed of, for example, a halogen lamp.

  Reference numerals 103, 104, and 105 denote scanning mirrors that are accommodated in the optical scanning unit 147 and guide reflected light from the document to the CCD unit 106 while reciprocating.

  The CCD unit 106 includes an imaging lens 107 that forms an image of reflected light from an original on the CCD, an image sensor 108 formed of, for example, a CCD, a drive CCD driver 109, and the like. The CCD unit 106 is controlled by a reader controller 147. As a result, the image signal output from the image sensor 108 is converted into, for example, 8-bit digital data, subjected to shading correction, and then input to the controller 12 for various image processing.

  Although details of the controller 12 will be described later, an operation unit 140, a reader control unit 147, and a printer control unit 146 are connected to perform image forming operation by controlling the scanner 10 and the printer 11 in accordance with instructions from the operation unit. In addition, communication with an external I / F is performed.

  Next, the configuration of the printer 11 will be described.

  Reference numeral 110 denotes a photosensitive drum, which is discharged by a pre-exposure lamp 112 in preparation for image formation. A cleaner 111 cleans the surface of the photosensitive drum 110. A primary charger 113 uniformly charges the photosensitive drum 110.

  Reference numeral 117 denotes a laser unit as exposure means. The laser unit 117 is composed of, for example, a semiconductor laser or the like, and exposes the photosensitive drum 110 based on image data processed by the controller unit 12 that performs image processing and overall control of the apparatus, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image. . Reference numeral 118 denotes a developing device that contains a black developer (toner). Reference numeral 119 denotes a pre-transfer charger. A high voltage is applied before the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 is transferred to a sheet.

  Also, 120, 122, and 124 in the figure are paper feed units, and the transfer paper is fed into the apparatus by driving of the paper feed rollers 121, 123, 125, and is temporarily stopped at the position where the registration rollers 126 are disposed. The timing of writing out the image formed on the photosensitive drum 110 is taken and the paper is fed again.

  Reference numeral 127 denotes a transfer charger, which transfers the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 onto a transfer sheet to be fed. Reference numeral 128 denotes a separation charger, which separates the transfer sheet on which the transfer operation has been completed by the photosensitive drum 110. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 110 without being transferred is collected by the cleaner 111.

  A conveyance belt 129 conveys the transfer sheet after the transfer process to the fixing device 130 and is fixed by heat, for example. 131 is a flapper that controls the transfer path of the transfer sheet after the fixing process to one of the arrangement directions of the staple sorter 132 and the intermediate tray 137.

  The sheets discharged to the staple sorter 132 are sorted into bins, and the staple unit 141 performs stapling according to instructions from the controller unit 139. Reference numerals 133 to 136 denote feeding rollers which feed the transfer paper once the fixing process is completed to the intermediate tray 137 by being reversed (multiple) or non-reversed (both sides). Reference numeral 138 denotes a re-feed roller that transports the transfer paper placed on the intermediate tray 137 to the position where the registration roller 126 is disposed again.

  FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the reader 10.

  Reference numeral 24 denotes a CPU that controls the entire reader unit, which sequentially reads and executes programs from a read-only memory 26 (ROM) that stores control programs. The address bus and data bus of the CPU 24 are connected to each load via a circuit 25 including a bus driver and an address decoder. Further, it communicates with the CPU 53 of the controller 12 to share device control.

  Reference numeral 27 denotes a random access memory (RAM) as a main storage device used as storage of input data, a working storage area, or the like. Reference numeral 28 denotes an I / O interface, which includes devices such as a motor 29 for driving a paper feed system, a transport system, and an optical system, a clutch 30, and a paper detection sensor 31 for detecting the transported paper. Connected to each load.

  An image control unit 32 composed of 108, 21, 22, and 23 performs correction, control, and transfer of image signals. The video signal control 23 controls the timing of each function and controls image transfer to the controller unit.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the controller 12.

  A core IC 53 with a built-in CPU generally controls the controller 12 and the entire apparatus. It has various external I / Fs and also has an image compression / decompression unit. First, the program is sequentially read from the read-only memory (ROM-DIMM) 51 storing the control procedure (control program) and executed. In addition, an I / O controller 60 is connected to the CPU 53 via a PCI bus. A program executed between each load connected to the I / O controller and the CPU 53 and the PCI bus are changed to an I / F corresponding to each load. An HD 307, EEPROM 65, operation unit 140, and RTC (real time clock) 59 are directly connected to the I / O controller 60. An image processing unit 55, a mask ROM 56, an SRAM 57, and an LCD controller 58 are connected via a data bus and an address bus.

  The HD 307 is a hard disk having a memory capacity of about 10 GB, and is divided into an area where a control program is stored and an area used for storing images. Although the control program is also stored in the ROM-DIMM 51, it has a small capacity and is used only at startup. After being started by the program of the ROM-DIMM 51, the program built in the HD 307 is transferred to the SDRAM-DIMM 52 via the PCI bus, and the device is controlled according to the program.

  When updating the device control program, the PC is connected via the IEEE 1284 (54), or the program is downloaded to the HD 307 from the PC connected via the 10 / 100BASE-T connector 62.

  The EEPROM 65 is an EEPROM connected to the I / O controller, and information such as specifications of the image forming apparatus, such as reading speed, printing speed, and language used, is written in advance.

  The RTC 59 is a real time clock and indicates time. It is always backed up by a battery (not shown).

  The operation unit 140 performs serial communication with the I / O controller 60 and detects that a key of the operation unit is pressed. Display data for the operation unit is written to the LCD controller 58 via the external bus, and the data is transferred to the operation unit 140.

  The mask ROM 56 is a mask chrome in which font data is stored, and is used for displaying an operation unit, outputting characters on paper, and the like.

  The SRAM 57 is backed up by a battery (not shown) and stores various data.

  The image processing unit 55 performs image processing on the image signal. It consists of reader image processing for images input from the reader I / F 63 and printer image processing prior to image transfer to the printer I / F 64, and includes scaling processing, density conversion, binarization processing, etc. Do.

  Further, the CPU 53 is connected to the LAN via the 10 / 100BASE-T connector 62 via the ETHERNET (registered trademark) I / F 61, and can send and receive data to and from an external PC, etc. You can send or print.

  IEEE 1284 (54) is a so-called Centronics I / F, which is connected in parallel with a PC and can transmit and receive data to and from the PC.

  The flow of the image will be briefly described. The image input via the reader I / F 63 is subjected to various image processing by the image processing unit 55 and input to the SDRAM-DIMM 52 via the CPU 53. The image once stored in the SDRAM-DIMM 52 is read again by the CPU 53, subjected to image processing in the image processing unit 55 via the CPU 53, output to the printer unit via the printer I / F 64, and formed on a sheet. Is done.

  When a plurality of copies are created, the input image is stored in the HD 307 and read out from the HD 307 every time one copy is created. More specifically, the image once stored in the SDRAM-DIMM 52 is read by the CPU 53, compressed by the image compression unit inside the CPU 53, and written in another area of the SDRAM-DIMM 53. Next, the compressed image is stored in the HD 307 via the CPU 53, PCI bus, and I / O controller 60.

  At the time of image formation, the compressed image read from the HD 307 is written to the SDRAM-DIMM 52 via the I / O controller 60, PCI bus, and CPU 53. The image read from the SDRAM-DIMM 52 is decompressed by the image decompression unit inside the CPU 53 and is written again in another area of the SDRAM-DIMM 52. As described above, the decompressed image is transferred to the image processing unit 55 via the CPU 53 and then transferred to the printer unit.

  FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the printer 11.

  Reference numeral 70 denotes a CPU that controls the printer 11, and sequentially reads and executes the program from the ROM 72 that stores the control procedure (control program) of the printer 11. The address bus and data bus of the CPU 70 are connected to each load via a circuit 71 including a bus driver and an address decoder. In addition, it is connected to the CPU 53 of the controller 12 via the printer I / F to perform communication.

  Reference numeral 73 denotes a random access memory (RAM) as a main storage device used as a storage area for input data or a working storage area. Further, all or a part of the RAM 73 is backed up by a battery or the like, and the contents of the memory are retained even when the main body is turned off. Reference numeral 74 denotes an I / O interface. Motors 76, clutches 77, solenoids 78 for driving the paper feed system, transport system, and optical system, and paper detection sensors 80 for detecting the transported paper. The high-voltage control 81 for image formation is connected to each load.

  Further, the laser beam oscillated from the laser unit 117 is irradiated to the photosensitive drum 110 and exposed to light, and the light detection state and beam position of the laser beam are detected by the beam detection sensor 82 (light receiving sensor) in the non-image area. Is detected. The detection signal is input to the video signal controller / timing generator 75 to form a timing synchronization signal. The generated timing synchronization signal is output to the controller unit, and in response to this signal, the controller transfers the image data to the printer unit. The image data transferred from the controller is input to the laser unit 117 via the video signal controller / timing generator 75, and image formation is performed.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the flow of image data.

  The 8-bit image signal converted into the electrical signal by the CCD 108 in the reader 10 is converted from analog data to digital data by the A / D converter 21.

  Next, after the shading correction unit 301 corrects the variation between pixels, it is input to the image processing unit 55 of the controller. The image processing unit 55 includes reader-type image processing and printer-type image processing.

  Image data from the reader 10 is input to the reduction / enlargement unit 90. Image data is thinned out during reduced copy, and image data interpolation is performed during enlarged copy. Next, in the edge enhancement unit 91, for example, secondary differentiation is performed in a window of 5 × 5 (5 lines × 5 pixels), thereby enhancing the edge of the image. The LUT 92 is a luminance density conversion unit that converts the luminance signal read by the CCD 108 into density data to be output to the printer by table search. The density is also adjusted using this conversion table.

  Reference numeral 93 denotes a binarization processing unit that binarizes input multi-bit (for example, 8 bits) image data. This is to reduce the image size and reduce the memory capacity when storing in the subsequent memory.

  The binarized image data is temporarily stored in the image memory 52 (SDRAM-DIMM) via the CPU 53. The CPU 53 controls the image memory 52, receives image data from the scanner, stores it in the image memory 52, reads out the image stored in the image memory 52, and performs printer-type image processing as necessary. In 94, binary data enlargement / reduction processing is performed, and in 95, binary data density conversion is performed. These processes are mainly used as image processing for print processing from a PC. After that, it is sent to the laser unit 117 via the printer controller unit 146. An image is formed on a sheet.

  The image stored in the image memory 52 is compressed by an image data compression unit in the CPU 53.

  The compressed image is stored in the HD 307 via the I / O controller 60. The HD 307 has a capacity of about 10 GB and can store thousands of pages of image data. When printing the image stored in the HD 307, the image data decompressing unit in the CPU 53 restores the original data and outputs it to the printing unit. Details regarding image transfer between the image memory 52 and the HD 307 will be described later.

  The image data once stored in the image memory (SDRAM-DIMM 52) is output to the LAN 310 via the Ethernet (registered trademark) I / F 61. Data is transmitted and received by connecting to an external personal computer or printer via the LAN 310 via a network.

  In this configuration, parallel operation is not possible when image input from the reader unit, image output to the printer unit, image compression / decompression, image transfer with the HD 307, and image transfer to an external network overlap.

  Next, a description will be given of the task sequence of the simultaneous processing in FIG.

In this embodiment, an example is given in the case where a print interrupt request is received during continuous copying from the scanner. However, as a condition for simultaneous operation, operations such as scan interrupt during printing are not limited. There are all possible combinations.
First, if a print interrupt request 602 is received during continuous copy 601, it is determined whether or not the availability of the memory 603 affects the performance of continuous print from the scanner. The memory here is the SDRAM 52 in FIG.

  If the CPU of 53 in FIG. 1 determines that the required data is small and does not affect the performance, the printer does not notify the printer of changing the paper feed and scanning timing in 606.

  If it is determined that there is an effect, the timing is changed to the printer unit of FIG. 3 and the scanner unit of FIG. 4 so that the feeding and scanning timing is changed at 604 in order to change the performance according to the remaining amount of memory. Make a notification. When the interruption at 605 is completed, the data is temporarily stored in the HD 307 in FIG. 1, the memory is released, and then the normal paper feeding and normal scanning at 606 are resumed. Then, at the end of 607, the printing operation requested to be interrupted is started.

  In the case of a configuration without the above-described HD, the memory cannot be released, so the copying is finished with the timing changed, and then the printing operation is started.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the controller 12 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the image forming system comprised by the form of the present Example. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a scanner 10. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer 11. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the flow of image data. It is a sequence diagram showing the characteristic of a present Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Scanner 11 Printer 12 Controller 101 Original platen glass 142 Automatic document feeder 800 Image forming apparatus

Claims (5)

Means for scanning image data; image processing means for performing image processing on image data scanned by the image scanning means; means for storing image data processed by the image processing means; receiving data from a host computer; Image transfer means for transmitting, image transfer means for expanding data transferred by the transfer means into image data, storage means for storing image data expanded by the image expansion means, storage by storage means Forming image data on an output medium, first communication means for performing communication between the storage means and the image forming means, and performing communication between the storage means and the image operation means A second communication means for
The storage means can simultaneously receive requests from the scanning means and the transfer means, and when image data stored in the storage means is being output to the image forming means, image development from other When receiving the request, the image forming unit has a determination step of determining whether to simultaneously receive the request according to the capacity of the storage unit, and according to the determination step, a paper feed request of the image forming unit through the first communication unit A multi-function printer comprising: a temporary suspension step capable of temporarily waiting for an image operation; and a temporary suspension step capable of temporarily waiting for a scanning request of the image operation means through the second communication means.   2. A multifunction printer according to claim 1, wherein the data transferred by the data transfer means is raster image data or a vector code.   The multi-function printer according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores the image data scanned by the scanning unit and the image data transferred by the transfer unit in the same place.   2. The multifunction printer according to claim 1, wherein the transfer means is a LAN, 1394, parallel I / F or the like.   2. The multifunction printer according to claim 1, wherein the image scanning unit and the image forming unit are not limited to monochrome and color.

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