JP2007015128A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which prevents the problem of the loss of printed matter due to mixing when an out-of-paper condition occurs. <P>SOLUTION: Paper feed cassettes C1, C2 and C3 contain papers on a paper size basis. The printer is loaded with ejected paper trays TR1 and TR2. A control section 11 controls to receive printing jobs, to supply papers from the paper feed cassette C1, print and eject the papers to the paper ejection tray TR1. When an out-of-paper condition occurs, the control section 11 changes the destination of subsequent papers other than those which have run out to the other paper ejection tray TR2 different from the previous one. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

 The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that is shared by a plurality of people and used in a situation where print jobs frequently occur.

 A conventional printing apparatus (printer or multifunction machine) as shown in FIG. 3 that has a plurality of paper cassettes and can print on a plurality of paper sizes will be described. The printing apparatus receives the print data sent from the personal computer, processes it in the order received, and prints the processed data sequentially. Here, if the printing paper for that data runs out of paper, the printing operation is interrupted, and the printing operation after running out of paper stops until paper of the out-of-paper size is supplied to the paper cassette. It was.

  4 and 5 are diagrams showing a printing process of the printing apparatus using the first prior art. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a normal printing process that does not cause a paper out, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a printing process when printing is interrupted due to a paper out. In the case of normal printing, as shown in FIG. 4A, when the printing apparatus receives a print job in the order of A4 data DT1, B4 data DT2, A4 data DT3, A3 data DT4, and A4 data DT5, As shown in FIG. 4B, the print data is processed in the order of reception, printed, and discharged. Here, for example, when print jobs are received in order as shown in FIG. 5A and the A4 data DT1 in FIG. 5B is out of paper during printing, B4 paper and A3 paper are in the paper cassette. However, printing of all data after A4 data DT1 is interrupted regardless of the paper size of the data.

  In order to suppress the decrease in operating rate due to the interruption of printing, when the A4 size paper runs out, the A4 size print job processed by the printing device is temporarily stored in a storage device such as a memory or a hard disk in the printing device. However, there is a conventional technique in which a printing operation for a job having a paper size other than A4 is performed first (see Patent Document 1 below). 6 and 7 are diagrams showing a printing process of the printing apparatus using the second prior art. In the case of normal printing, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, A4 data DT1, B4 data DT2, A4 data DT3, A3 data DT4, and A4 data DT5 are processed in the order received, printed, and printed. Is discharged to the paper output tray. In addition, when the A4 data DT1 is out of paper during printing in FIG. 7, the printer job of the A4 data DT1 that has run out of paper is temporarily stored in a storage device such as a memory or a hard disk in the printing apparatus, and the subsequent B4 data DT2 Is printed first and discharged to the paper discharge tray. Since the next A4 data DT3 is the same size as the out-of-paper size, it is temporarily stored in the storage device, and the A3 data DT4 is printed next and discharged to the paper discharge tray. The A4 data DT5 is temporarily stored in the storage device. At this time, the printing of the A4 size data temporarily stored in the storage device is resumed at the timing when the A4 paper is supplied and the print job during the printing operation is completed.

  In the case of the printing apparatus described above, the size of the paper that has run out of paper is discharged to the same tray as the subsequent printing paper, so that the printed material is mixed, and after the paper has run out, the printed material is not printed until the paper is replenished and printing is resumed. The printed material is left in the paper discharge tray together with the printed material, so that there is a problem that the other user who shares the apparatus takes it with the printed material and loses it.

Also, the setting of the restart operation for printing after replenishing out-of-paper in the prior art is fixed so that printing resumes from the page where printing has been interrupted. For this reason, there has been a problem that it is not possible to change the setting of the print resuming operation according to the usage status of the printing apparatus.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-17168

 The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and the purpose of the present invention is to discharge the subsequent printed matter to another tray when out of paper occurs, thereby eliminating problems such as loss due to mixing of printed matter. It is another object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus capable of being covered, and to change the setting of the printing apparatus itself according to the usage status of the printing apparatus for the setting of the print resuming operation after the paper runs out. To provide a printing apparatus.

 The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the invention according to claim 1 includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes in which a plurality of different sizes of paper are stored for each size, and a post-printing cassette. A plurality of paper discharge trays as paper discharge destinations, and storage means for storing print job data and temporarily storing out-of-paper print job data when the paper runs out. A printing apparatus that feeds paper from two paper feed cassettes, prints print job data stored in the storage unit, and discharges the paper to one of the plurality of paper discharge trays; When paper is discharged to the first paper discharge tray in the plurality of paper discharge trays and one of the paper supply cassettes is out of paper, the next print job is printed. Paper output destination The printing apparatus is provided with first control means for controlling to switch to a second discharge tray of the plurality of discharge trays.

 According to a second aspect of the present invention, when printing is interrupted due to running out of paper, paper is replenished to a paper feeding cassette out of the plurality of paper feeding cassettes, and printing of a print job is resumed. Among the three operation modes, a mode in which printing is resumed from a page interrupted due to running out of paper, a mode in which printing is resumed from the beginning of a print job, and a mode in which printing is canceled without restarting printing, the user of the apparatus The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second control unit configured to control the printing operation in the designated operation mode.

 According to a third aspect of the present invention, there are provided a plurality of paper feed cassettes in which a plurality of different sizes of paper are stored for each size, a plurality of paper discharge trays to which printed paper is discharged, Storage means for storing job data and temporarily storing out-of-paper print job data when out of paper, and feeding paper from one of the plurality of paper supply cassettes to the storage means In the printing apparatus that prints the stored print job data and discharges paper to one of the plurality of paper discharge trays, the print job data is discharged to one paper discharge tray of the plurality of paper discharge trays. If paper runs out in one of the plurality of paper feed cassettes while paper is being fed, the paper discharge destination of the print job of the next print job is the one of the paper discharge trays. Remove the upper paper output position. A printing apparatus characterized in that a control means for discharge to a position shifted by a predetermined distance transversely to the direction.

 According to the present invention, when out of paper occurs, the subsequent printed matter is discharged to another tray or is discharged to a place where the discharge position of the same tray is shifted, so that the loss due to mixing of printed matter is lost. It becomes possible to prevent such problems. In addition, since the setting of the printing operation when resuming printing of out-of-paper data can be changed, the operation setting when resuming printing can be flexibly performed according to the usage status of the printing apparatus.

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the printing apparatus of the present embodiment. The printing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a microprocessor and a ROM (read only memory) in which a program of the processor is stored. The control unit 11 performs overall control, and a RAM (random access memory) for temporary data storage. 12, an HDD (hard disk) 13 in which font data and print job data (print data) are stored and also used for temporary data storage, and an operation unit 14 for the user of the apparatus to perform operation settings of the printing apparatus, etc. A communication unit 15 that receives job data supplied from a computer of the apparatus user via a LAN (local area network) and outputs the job data to the control unit 11; and a machine for feeding, discharging, and conveying printing paper A mechanical drive unit 16 for driving the parts, and paper feed cassettes C1, C2, C3 which are paper feed sources The image forming unit 17 forms a non-fixed toner image (unfixed image) by transferring the toner image onto the fed printing paper, and the image forming unit 17 fixes the unfixed image on the paper. The fixing unit 18 includes discharge trays TR1 and TR2 that are discharge destinations of the paper fixed by the fixing unit 18.

 Here, the print job data is composed of data of one page or a plurality of pages, and paper size designation data, page number data, and the like are written therein. Further, in the apparatus according to the present embodiment, the apparatus user operates the operation unit 14 to set an initial discharge destination tray for print paper and a print paper discharge destination tray other than the out-of-paper size after the paper runs out. Can do.

 Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing operations during normal printing without running out of paper and when a print job is interrupted according to the present embodiment. First, the user of the apparatus operates the operation unit 14 to set the default print paper discharge destination as the tray TR1. Further, when a paper out occurs, a discharge destination tray of printing paper other than the paper out size after that is set as the tray TR2. As shown in FIG. 2A, when the communication unit 15 receives print jobs via the LAN in the order of A4 data DT1, B4 data DT2, A4 data DT3, A3 data DT4, and A4 data DT5, the communication unit 15 Outputs the received data to the control unit 11 and stores the job data received by the control unit 11 in the HDD 13.

 The control unit 11 reads the first print job A4 data DT1 from the HDD 13 and checks the paper size designation from the data. If there is A4 size paper of a specified size in the paper feed cassette 17, the control unit 11 instructs the machine drive unit 16 to feed paper and checks whether the print job A4 data DT1 is the last page. The machine drive unit 16 feeds paper from the A4 size paper feed cassette C1, the image forming unit 17 transfers a toner image onto the printing paper to form an unfixed image, and the fixing unit 18 is on the paper. Fix the unfixed image. Thereafter, the control unit 11 instructs the machine driving unit 16 to discharge the printing paper onto the paper discharge tray TR1, and the machine driving unit 16 discharges the paper onto the paper discharge tray TR1. If the control unit 11 checks whether or not it is the last page, if it is the last page, the print job A4 data DT1 is deleted from the HDD 13 after the last page printing is finished, and the printing of the job A4 data DT1 is finished. If it is not the last page, the next page is printed in the same manner. Thereafter, when printing of the last page of the print job A4 data DT1 is completed and the printer job is deleted, the next printer job B4 data DT2 is printed in the same manner.

  Next, a case where the paper runs out during the printing of the A4 data DT1 will be described with reference to FIG. In the state in which the sheet has not run out, the printing sheet of the A4 data DT1a before the interruption in FIG. 2B is discharged to the tray TR1. Here, when the paper runs out during the printing of the A4 data DT1, the control unit 11 temporarily stores the print job of the A4 data DT1 in the RAM 12 or the storage device of the HDD 13, and the control unit 11 performs the next B4. A print job of data DT2 is first read from the HDD 13 and printed. The control unit 11 instructs to automatically change the print paper discharge destination to the tray TR2, and the machine drive unit 16 discharges the print paper to the tray TR2 instructed by the control unit 11.

  The print job of the next A4 data DT3 is stored in the storage device by the control unit 11, the next A3 data DT4 is printed first, and the machine drive unit 16 discharges the printing paper to the tray TR2. The control unit 11 saves the next A4 data DT5 print job in the storage device. The print job temporarily stored in the storage device is replenished with A4 paper, and when the print job being printed is completed, the control unit 11 performs processing for resuming A4 printing. In this case, the printing apparatus user can select the following three operation modes as the print resuming operation. The first mode is a mode in which printing is resumed from a page that has run out of paper. In the second mode, a print job that has run out of paper is reprinted from the beginning of the job. The third mode is a mode in which the print job is canceled without restarting printing of the print job that has run out of paper. The operation in each operation mode will be described with reference to an example in which a sheet is cut out during printing of the A4 data DT1 in FIG.

 When the first mode is selected, the control unit 11 can read the A4 data DT1, which is an out-of-paper print job, from the storage device, and resume printing of A4 size data from the page where the out-of-paper state has occurred. The A4 size data stored in is sequentially printed, and the machine drive unit 16 discharges the printing paper onto the tray TR1. When the second mode is selected, the paper is replenished in the same manner as in the operation of the first mode, and when the print job being printed is completed, the control unit 11 receives the A4 data DT1 that is a print job out of paper from the storage device. The A4 size data is resumed from the first page of the print job, and the A4 size data stored in the storage device is sequentially printed. The machine drive unit 16 discharges the printing paper to the tray TR1. To do. When the third mode is selected, the control unit 11 deletes the print job of the A4 data DT1 from the storage device. Therefore, the deleted print job is not printed thereafter.

 Note that in FIG. 2B, when the A4 data DT1 is out of print and the paper of another size is printed, the same paper discharge tray as the paper out size is used instead of discharging to another tray. Paper is discharged to TR1 and discharged to a position shifted from the paper discharge position before paper out by a certain distance in the lateral direction with respect to the paper discharge direction so that it can be distinguished from paper before paper out. Also good.

 The present invention is suitable for use in a printing apparatus that is shared by a plurality of people and used in a situation where print jobs frequently occur.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the process at the time of printing out of paper of the printing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the paper feed cassette structure of a printing apparatus. It is a figure which shows a normal printing process with the printing apparatus using a 1st prior art. It is a figure which shows the printing process at the time of paper out interruption with the printing apparatus using the 1st prior art. It is a figure which shows a normal printing process with the printing apparatus using a 2nd prior art. It is a figure which shows the printing process at the time of paper out interruption with the printing apparatus using a 2nd prior art.

Explanation of symbols

11 ... Control unit 12 ... RAM
13 ... HDD
C1, C2, C3 ... paper feed cassette TR1, TR2 ... paper discharge tray

Claims (3)

Multiple paper cassettes that store multiple sizes of paper for each size, multiple paper output trays to which printed paper is output, and print job data are stored. Storage means for temporarily storing print job data, feeding paper from one of the plurality of paper cassettes, and printing the print job data stored in the storage means A printing apparatus for discharging paper to one of the plurality of paper discharge trays;
When paper discharge occurs in one of the plurality of paper feed cassettes while paper is discharged to the first paper discharge tray in the plurality of paper discharge trays, the next print job A printing apparatus comprising: a first control unit configured to control a print paper discharge destination to be switched to a second paper discharge tray among the plurality of paper discharge trays.  After printing is interrupted due to running out of paper, printing is resumed from the page that was interrupted due to running out of paper when replenishing paper in the paper feeding cassette out of the plurality of paper feeding cassettes and restarting printing of the print job. Control is performed so that the printing operation is performed in the operation mode designated by the apparatus user among the three operation modes of the mode, the mode for restarting printing from the beginning of the print job, and the mode for canceling the print job without restarting printing. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second control unit. Multiple paper cassettes that store multiple sizes of paper for each size, multiple paper output trays to which printed paper is output, and print job data are stored. Storage means for temporarily storing print job data, feeding paper from one of the plurality of paper cassettes, and printing the print job data stored in the storage means A printing apparatus for discharging paper to one of the plurality of paper discharge trays;
When paper is discharged from one of the plurality of paper discharge trays and one of the plurality of paper supply cassettes is out of paper, the next print job is printed. Control means is provided for controlling the discharge of the sheet to the position where the discharge position on the tray is shifted by a certain distance in the horizontal direction with respect to the discharge direction. Characteristic printing device.

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