JP2006301294A - Image forming apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To feed paper sheets in such a manner that a stapling position comes to an upper left with respect to images even if the paper sheets are fed toward the specific image or in a feed direction. <P>SOLUTION: In the case of cross paper feeding and 5-page binding in one-side printing, printing is performed in order of the fifth to first pages and both-side printing is performed while dummy blank data is inserted between the respective pages. The printed paper sheet is reversed in a switchback section 9 and is then reverse fed and is again passed through an image forming section 3 and is printed with the blank data on the rear surface. The printed paper sheet is fed in face up with the printed surface turned up to an intermediate tray 4. When the printed paper sheets on the intermediate tray 4 accumulate to five sheets, the paper sheets are stapled by a stapler 5. A paper sheet bundle 6 is ejected in the face up to an ejection tray 7. As a result, the five-sheet binding paper sheet bundle 6 bound on the upper left in order of the first to fifth pages with the printed surfaces turned up is obtained. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus configured to perform stapling processing and a program used in the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a paper feed path and a bound paper bundle of an image forming apparatus incorporating a conventional stapling device. In FIG. 6, during single-sided printing,
As shown in (1), the sheets 1 in the sheet feeding tray 2 are fed one by one,
As shown in (2), images are printed on the paper 1 by the image forming unit 3 composed of a photosensitive drum or the like, and then sequentially stored in the intermediate tray 4, and when the predetermined number of sheets is reached, the image is moved toward the front of the drawing and the edge portion. Are aligned and then stapled by the stapler 5.
The sheet bundle 6 bound as shown in (3) is discharged to the discharge tray 7.

  In this case, printing is performed sequentially from the first page, and face-down processing is performed in which printed sheets are sequentially stacked on the intermediate tray 4 with the printing surface facing down. In this way, the sheet bundle 6 bound by a predetermined number of sheets is discharged to the discharge tray 7. When viewed from the lower side, the discharged sheet bundle 6 has a staple position 8 at the upper left with respect to the image on the printing surface as shown in the figure.

  During duplex printing, after printing odd pages on the front side of the paper, switch back to reverse the paper (turn over), then print the even page on the back side and send it to the intermediate tray 4, Double-sided printed paper is stacked face down.

Conventionally, an image forming apparatus that performs a stapling process using a post-processing apparatus (for example, see Patent Document 1) has been proposed. In addition, an image forming apparatus has been proposed in which the stapling position can be changed by performing stapling processing after reversing the paper whose printing direction is the horizontal direction during single-sided printing (see, for example, Patent Document 2). ). In addition, an image forming apparatus has been proposed in which a first unit including an intermediate tray and a second unit having a transfer branch function are provided so that assembly and jam processing can be easily performed (see, for example, Patent Document 3). ).
JP 2000-44109 A JP 2003-337508 A JP 2001-235916 A

  In the low-cost image forming apparatus that performs the conventional stapling process of FIG. 6, only one stapler 5 is provided and fixed at a predetermined position. When the stapler 5 is fixed, the staple position 8 of the sheet bundle 6 is always at the upper left of the sheet surface as shown. For this reason, depending on the orientation of the image (Portrait, Landscape) and the paper feeding direction (Short edge feed, Long edge feed), the image may be bound at a position not desired by the user.

  For example, in FIG. 7, when the sheet 1 is fed in the longitudinal direction (vertical direction) with respect to the image (portrait-long edge feed) as shown in FIG. 7A, the staple position 8 is at the upper left, but the image is When paper is fed upside down, the staple position 8 is in the lower right in the drawing. Also, as shown in (B) (Portrait-Short edge feed) or (C) (Landscape-Long edge feed), the paper 1 rotates the image 90 degrees and feeds it in the short direction (lateral direction). When paper is bound, the staple position 8 is in the upper right or lower left with respect to the image after binding. In the case of (Landscape-Short edge feed) in (d), the staple position 8 is at the upper left or the lower right.

That is, in the example of FIG. 7, the staple position 8 is necessarily fixed on the diagonal line of the paper, and when the paper is fed in the direction of the image characters as shown in (b) and (c), the staple position 8 is upper right or lower left with respect to the image. In general, many users desire the staple position 8 to be at the upper left with respect to the bound sheet bundle 6 image. Therefore, there has been a problem that the image cannot be bound at a desired position in the image orientation and paper feed direction as shown in (b) and (c). As a countermeasure, it is conceivable to rotate the paper to be conveyed by 90 degrees. However, the above problem arises because a paper of a large size such as A3 cannot be rotated.
It is an object of the present invention to make the stapling position be on the upper left side with respect to an image even when the sheet is fed in the image orientation and feed direction as shown in (b) and (c).

  An image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus in which printed sheets printed by a printing unit are face-down processed or face-up processed and stored in an intermediate tray, and when a predetermined number of sheets are stored, staple processing is performed by a stapler fixed at a predetermined position. When the paper to be fed to the printing unit is fed in a predetermined direction with respect to a predetermined direction of the image, the printing unit performs double-sided printing and performs face-up processing or face-down processing on the printed paper. It is stored in the intermediate tray.

  The program according to the present invention is used in an image forming apparatus in which printed sheets printed by a printing unit are face-down processed or face-up processed and stored in an intermediate tray, and when a predetermined number of sheets are stored, staple processing is performed by a stapler fixed at a predetermined position. A program that feeds a sheet fed to a printing unit in a predetermined direction with respect to a predetermined direction of an image, a process that causes the printing unit to perform double-sided printing, and face-up the printed sheet The computer is caused to execute processing or face-down processing and processing stored in the intermediate tray.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a sheet bundle in which the stapling position is in a desired position even when the sheet is fed in a specific image orientation and sheet feeding direction. In that case, it is only necessary to replace the page at the beginning and end of the printing order with the conventional printing order, and always perform double-sided printing. There is no need.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a sheet feeding path and a bound sheet bundle 6 of an image forming apparatus incorporating a stapling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Parts corresponding to those in FIG. Thus, duplicate description is omitted. The illustrated example shows a case where the image orientation and the paper feeding direction are the lateral paper feeding shown in FIG.

  In the present embodiment, face-up processing is performed in which printing is performed from the last page so that the stapling position 8 is located at the upper left of the bundle of sheets 6 and printed sheets are sequentially stacked on the intermediate tray 4 with the printing surface facing up. In order to perform the face-up process, the paper printed by the image forming unit 3 is reversed (turned over) by the switchback unit 9 conventionally used when performing double-sided printing, and then sent to the intermediate tray 4. When the number of sheets on the intermediate tray 4 reaches a predetermined number, staple processing is performed by the stapler 5 and the sheet is discharged to the discharge tray 7. By doing so, the sheet bundle 6 bound by a predetermined number of sheets is sequentially discharged face up on the discharge tray 7. As shown in the figure, the sheet bundle 6 always has a staple position 8 at the upper left with respect to the image.

FIG. 2 shows each page according to a printing procedure in the case of single-sided printing in the case of landscape feeding and five-page binding, and FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of the printing procedure.
In FIG. 3, first, a face-up stapling mode is set to operate so that the lateral feeding shown in FIG. 7C and the stapling position 8 is at the upper left of the sheet bundle 6 during single-sided printing (S1). At this time, if the paper size, type, and paper feed tray to be prohibited from copying are selected (S2, YES), the face-up stapling mode cannot be set, a message to that effect is displayed (S3), and the process ends. .

  If the copy is not prohibited, the page rearrangement process of the image data to be printed is performed as shown in FIG. 2 (S4). In FIG. 2, the printing order is arranged in order of pages 4, 3, 2, and 1 starting from page 5, and blank blank data for dummy is inserted between each page. Next, duplex printing is set (S5).

  Next, as shown in (1) of FIG. 1, the paper 1 in the paper feed tray 2 is fed, and printing is started from the last page (here, 5 pages) (S6). The five-page paper printed by the image forming unit 3 is reversed by the switchback unit 9 as shown in (2) (S7), and then reversely fed through another conveyance path as shown in (3) to form an image again. Blank data is printed on the back side through the section 3 (S8). In other words, the sheet substantially passes through the image forming unit 3.

  Next, the printed paper is sent to the intermediate tray 4. In this case, the paper is discharged to the intermediate tray 4 face up with the printing surface (5 pages) facing up (S9). Next, it is determined whether or not the printed sheets on the intermediate tray 4 have reached the set number of bindings (here, 5 sheets) (S10). If the number of bindings has not been reached, printing is performed on the next page. Is performed (S11). The operations of (S7) to (S11) are repeated until the number of bindings is reached, and when the last page (one page) of the binding number is discharged to the intermediate tray 4, the stapler 5 performs the stapling process (S12). The sheet bundle 6 is discharged face up on the discharge tray 7 (S13). According to the above, it is possible to obtain a predetermined number of sheet bundles 6 in which the print surface is faced up and the staple position 8 is bound at the upper left in the order of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 pages.

FIG. 4 shows each page according to the printing procedure in the case of double-sided printing and horizontal paper feeding and five-page binding.
In FIG. 4, first, after printing the last page (5 pages), the sheet is switched back and discharged to the intermediate tray 4 face up. Next, after printing 3 pages, switch back to print 4 pages on the back side, and eject the paper onto the intermediate tray 4 face up. Next, after printing one page, it is switched back, two pages are printed on the back side, and the sheet is discharged face up on the intermediate tray 4. According to the above, a sheet bundle 6 is obtained in which the printed surface is up, and the page is bound in the order of 1 page (2 pages on the back), 3 pages (4 pages on the back), 5 pages, and the staple position 8 on the upper left. Can do.

  2 and 4, there are 5 pages or more, for example, 20 pages to be printed. When binding these 5 pages at a time, if the printing is started with the last page as 20 pages, The sheet bundle 6 bound by 5 pages is sequentially discharged face up.

  As described above, in the face-up stapling mode according to the present embodiment, face-up stapling is realized by always performing double-sided printing regardless of single-sided printing or double-sided printing and starting printing from the last page. . On the other hand, in the conventional image forming apparatus of FIG. 6, printing is started from one page and the face-down stapling process is performed. Therefore, this embodiment can be realized by always performing double-sided printing and starting printing from the last page while performing face-down stapling processing in the conventional image forming apparatus as in the conventional case. That is, this is substantially the same as the case of performing double-sided printing with a conventional image forming apparatus.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a conventional image forming apparatus that normally performs face-down processing as shown in FIG. 6 has been described. However, the present invention normally performs image formation that performs face-up processing. It can also be applied to devices. In that case, printing is started from one page while always performing double-sided printing.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming system using an image forming apparatus for executing the printing method described above.
The PC 10 that is a host computer includes a CPU 11, an operation / display unit 12 that performs operations such as selecting and setting a face-up stapling mode, and a display, a printer driver 13, and an information processing unit 14. The image forming apparatus 20 includes a CPU 21 that performs overall control, an image processing unit 22, a printer unit 23, and a post-processing device 24 having a stapler 5. The printer unit 23 includes a printer controller 25, an engine controller 26, and a printer engine 27. The post-processing device 24 may be separate from the main body of the image forming apparatus 20.

  In the above configuration, the rearrangement processing of FIGS. 2 and 4 may be performed by the printer driver 13 of the PC 10 and data may be sent from the last page to the printer unit 23. In this case, when the face-up stapling mode is set in the PC 10 and the CPU 21 of the image processing unit 20 receives the control command, if the physical conditions capable of stapling are complete, the printer engine 27 is the same as in the conventional case. Face-up stapling can be realized by instructing face-down stapling and changing the printing order of the front and back surfaces while always operating in double-sided printing.

  The rearrangement process may be performed by the printer controller 25. In that case, the data for all pages to be printed is taken into the storage device and rearranged. Further, after performing the rearrangement process, the actual face-up stapling operation may be performed by the engine controller 26. In this way, the engine controller 26 can process all staples face down. The blank data insertion and rearrangement processing may be performed by any one of the printer driver 13 + printer controller 25, printer controller 25, and engine controller 26.

Next, a program according to the present embodiment and a recording medium for recording the program will be described.
The program for the CPU 21 of the computer system in the apparatus to execute the process based on the above-described operation of the image forming apparatus 20 according to the embodiment of the present invention and the process shown in the flowchart constitutes a program according to the present invention.

  As a recording medium for recording this program, a magneto-optical disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic recording medium or the like can be used, and these are configured in a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a flexible disk, a memory card, or the like. May be used. Some of these recording media hold a program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory such as a RAM in a computer system serving as a server or a client when a program is transmitted via a communication line such as a network or a telephone line. included.

  The program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by a transmission wave in the transmission medium. The transmission medium is a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line.

  The program may be for realizing part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can implement | achieve the function mentioned above in combination with the program already recorded on the computer system, what is called a difference file (difference program) may be sufficient.

  Therefore, the function and the recording medium described in the embodiment can be obtained by using the program and the recording medium in a system or apparatus different from the system or apparatus in FIGS. 1 and 5 and executing the program by the computer of the system or apparatus. Functions and effects equivalent to the effects can be obtained, and the problems of the present invention can be solved.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram schematically illustrating a sheet feeding path and a bound sheet bundle of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows rearrangement of the image data at the time of single-sided printing. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of single-sided printing. It is a block diagram which shows rearrangement of the image data at the time of duplex printing. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram schematically showing a paper feed path and a bound paper bundle of a conventional image forming apparatus. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram illustrating a staple position according to an image orientation and a paper feeding direction.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper 3 Image forming part 4 Intermediate tray 5 Stapler 6 Paper bundle 7 Discharge tray 8 Staple position 9 Switchback part 10 PC
11 CPU
12 Operation / Display Unit 13 Printer Driver 20 Image Forming Device 21 CPU
22 Image processing unit 23 Printer unit 24 Post-processing device 25 Printer controller 26 Engine controller 27 Printer engine

Claims (4)

In an image forming apparatus in which printed paper printed by a printing unit is face-down processed or face-up processed and stored in an intermediate tray, and when a predetermined number of sheets are stored, staple processing is performed by a stapler fixed at a predetermined position.
When the paper to be fed to the printing unit is fed in a predetermined direction with respect to a predetermined direction of the image, the printing unit performs double-sided printing, and the printed paper is face-up processed or face-down processed to perform the intermediate An image forming apparatus that stores in a tray.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein single-sided printing is performed by performing the double-sided printing while printing blank paper data on a front surface or a back surface of the paper. A program used in an image forming apparatus for storing printed sheets printed by a printing unit in a face-down process or face-up process in an intermediate tray, and stapling with a stapler fixed at a predetermined position when a predetermined number of sheets are stored.
A process of feeding paper to be fed to the printing unit in a predetermined direction with respect to a predetermined direction of the image;
A process for causing the printing unit to perform a double-sided printing operation;
A program for causing a computer to execute a process for storing the printed paper in a face-up process or a face-down process in the intermediate tray. The program according to claim 3, wherein the computer executes a process of performing single-sided printing by performing double-sided printing while printing blank paper data on the front or back surface of the paper.

Images