JP2007076025A - Image forming apparatus and image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus which can rapidly cope with a printing trouble in a slave unit, and which can reduce time for being spent on mass printing. <P>SOLUTION: This image forming apparatus 3, which serves as a master unit for transmitting printing information to plurality of slave units 1a-1d which are connected together via a network 2, comprises: a printing processing means 5 for performing printing processing; a first printing information transfer means 6 for distributing the printing processing to one slave 1a and transferring the printing information, including printing distribution information, to the slave unit 1a; a printing progress information receiving means 7 for receiving printing progress information including printing error information, when a printing error is caused in the slave unit 1a; and a second printing information transfer means 8 for redistributing the printing processing to another slave unit 1b on the basis of the printing progress information and transferring the printing information, including printing redistribution information, to the slave unit 1b. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming system as a master unit that transmit print information to an image forming apparatus as a slave unit connected via a network.

  In recent years, an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine is equipped with a large-capacity storage medium, and the processing speed is gradually shortened by increasing the processing speed. There is a limit to the amount of printing that can be processed per unit time in the device. Therefore, multi-printing is performed in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected and a requested large number of printing processes are distributed to the respective image forming apparatuses.

For example, when an image forming device as a master unit and an image forming device as a slave unit are connected with a wired cable, etc., and a print job received by the master unit is distributed to the slave unit, and an abnormality occurs in the slave unit Has proposed a technique in which the parent device takes over all pages for which it is not clear whether printing has been completed on the child device (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2004-284115 A

  However, in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, a dedicated connection I / F is provided in the master unit and the slave unit, and each connection I / F is connected via a dedicated line such as a wired cable. If the image forming apparatuses are not connected to each other, the print job received by the master cannot be distributed, and the number of image forming apparatuses that can be applied to multi-printing is limited.

  In addition, if an error occurs in the slave unit, the master unit takes over all the remaining prints of the slave unit, so after the master unit has finished printing, the remaining prints of the slave unit in which an error has occurred There is a problem that printing is performed on a printing press, which hinders a reduction in time spent for mass printing.

  The present invention has been made in order to eliminate such inconveniences, and can increase the number of image forming apparatuses applicable to multi-printing to quickly cope with printing troubles of the slave unit. Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming system capable of reducing the time spent for mass printing.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is an image forming apparatus as a master unit that transmits print information to an image forming apparatus as a slave unit connected via a network. The print processing means for executing the process and the print processing are distributed to at least one of the plurality of slave units, and the print information including the print distribution information is transferred to the slave unit to which the print processing is distributed. First printing information transfer means, printing progress information receiving means for receiving printing progress information including the printing error information when a printing error occurs in the slave device to which the printing process is distributed, and the printing error Based on the print progress information including the information, the print processing is redistributed to the other slave units, and the print information including the print redistribution information is transferred to the slave units to which the print processing is redistributed. A configuration equipped with a second print information transfer means for.

According to the above configuration, since the image forming apparatus connected to the network can be used as the slave unit that distributes the printing process of the master unit, the number of image forming apparatuses that can be applied to multi-printing can be increased. It is also possible to easily add an image forming apparatus as a slave unit.
As a result, when a printing error occurs in the slave unit during sort printing, it is possible to accurately re-distribute the printing process of the master unit to other slave units and to respond quickly to printing troubles. it can.

  In addition, when a printing error occurs in the slave unit during sort printing, the other slave units take over for the remaining prints of the slave unit, so the printing process is performed in parallel between the master unit and the slave unit. As a result, even when a printing error occurs in the slave unit during sort printing, the time spent for mass printing can be shortened.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the first print information transfer unit transfers the print information to the slave unit when there is no previous job for the slave unit. .

The invention according to claim 3 determines whether or not a print error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the print progress information including the print error information at the time of sorting or stack printing in claim 1 or 2, In the case where it is determined that it has occurred, an additional printing means for additionally printing the remaining pages of the set is provided.
According to the above configuration, even when a printing error occurs in the slave unit in the middle of a section, it is possible to avoid missing pages in the section.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there are provided a plurality of image forming apparatuses serving as slave units and an image forming apparatus serving as a master unit connected to the plurality of slave units via a network and transmitting print information to the slave units. The master unit distributes the print process to a print processing unit that executes a print process and at least one slave unit of the plurality of slave units, and the print process First print information transfer means for transferring print information including print distribution information to the child device to which the print processing is distributed, and when a print error occurs in the child device to which the print processing has been distributed, A print progress information receiving unit for receiving the print progress information including the print progress information, and a slave unit that redistributes the print process to another slave unit based on the print progress information including the print error information and distributes the print process again. And a second print information transfer means for transferring print information including print redistribution information. The slave unit monitors the print status and print processing means for executing print processing, and a print error occurs. A print status monitoring unit that transmits print progress information including the print error information to the print progress information receiving unit, and the print processing unit of the slave unit includes the first print information transfer unit or the The system includes a sort print processing unit that executes print processing based on the print information transferred from the second print information transfer unit.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, the printing status monitoring unit transmits the end signal to the first print information transfer unit when the printing of the slave unit is completed. The print information transfer means transfers the print information to the slave unit after receiving the end signal from the print status monitoring means.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth or fifth aspect, the master device determines whether or not a printing error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the printing progress information including the printing error information during sorting or stack printing. If it is determined that it has occurred, additional printing means for additionally printing the remaining pages of the set is provided.

  According to the present invention, the number of image forming apparatuses that can be applied to multi-printing can be increased, so that it is possible to quickly cope with printing troubles of the slave unit and to reduce the time spent for mass printing. The effect is obtained.

  Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an image forming system as an example of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a master unit, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a slave unit, and FIG. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of an image forming system.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an image forming system as an example of an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of image forming apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as slave units) 1 a to 1 d as slave units and a plurality of units via a network 2. An image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a “master device”) 3 is provided as a master device that is connected to the slave devices 1 a to 1 d and transmits print information to the slave devices 1 a to 1 d.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the master unit 3 includes a scanner unit 4, a print processing unit 5, a first print information transfer unit 6, a print progress information reception unit 7, a second print information transfer unit 8, and an additional print unit 9. It has. Each processing of these means is executed by the CPU after the multi-print program stored in the storage means (ROM, hard disk, etc.) of the base unit 3 is loaded into the RAM.

The print processing unit 5 executes a predetermined print process based on the image data of the original read by the scanner unit 4.
The first print information transfer means 6 distributes the printing process to at least one slave unit (for example, the slave unit 1a) among the plurality of slave units 1a to 1d. Also, the first print information transfer means 6 ends the printing (previous job) transmitted from the print status monitoring means 13 (see FIG. 3) of the slave device 1a to the slave device 1a to which the printing process is distributed. When the signal is received, the print information including the print distribution information is transferred (see FIG. 4).

The print progress information receiving unit 7 receives the print progress information including the print error information transmitted from the print status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a when a print error occurs in the slave unit 1a to which the printing process is distributed. (See FIG. 4).
The second print information transfer unit 8 redistributes the printing process to another slave unit (for example, the slave unit 1b) based on the print progress information including the print error information received by the print progress information reception unit 13. Then, the print information including the print redistribution information is transferred to the slave unit 1b to which the print processing is redistributed (see FIG. 4).

  The additional printing unit 9 determines whether or not a printing error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the printing progress information including the printing error information received by the printing progress information receiving unit 13 during sorting or stack printing. If it is determined that it has occurred, the remaining pages of the copy are additionally printed.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the slave units 1 a to 1 d include a scanner unit 10, a print processing unit 11, and a print state monitoring unit 13, and each process of these units is stored in the slave units 1 a to 1 d. The multi-print program stored in the means (ROM, hard disk, etc.) is loaded into the RAM and executed by the CPU.

  The print processing unit 11 executes a predetermined print process based on the document image data read by the scanner unit 10. The print processing unit 11 includes a sort print processing unit 12 that executes sort print processing. The sort print processing unit 12 includes the first print information transfer unit 6 or the second print information of the parent device 3. A print process is executed based on the print information transferred from the transfer means 8.

  The printing status monitoring unit 13 monitors the printing status, and when a printing error occurs during the sorting printing, the printing progress information including the printing error information is transmitted to the printing progress information receiving unit 7 of the master unit 3. Further, when the printing of the slave unit (including normal printing and multi-printing) is completed, the printing status monitoring unit 13 transmits the termination signal to the master unit 3 (see FIG. 4).

FIG. 5 shows an example of multi-printing during sort printing. In this example, the first page to the fifth page are set as one copy, and four copies are made by the master unit 3 and four copies are made by the slave unit 1a, for a total of eight copies.
First, when a document of page 1 to page 5 is read by the scanner unit 4 of the base unit 3, four copies are executed by the print processing unit 5 of the base unit 3 based on the image data of page 1 to page 5. At the same time, the first printing information transfer means 6 of the parent device 3 distributes four copies of printing processing to the child device 1a. When the first print information transfer unit 6 of the master unit 3 receives the print (previous job) end signal transmitted from the print status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a, the print distribution information and one page The print information for ˜5 pages is transferred to the sorting print processing means 12 of the slave unit 1a, and the sorting printing processing means 12 performs four copies of printing processing.

  Here, for example, when a printing error occurs on the fifth page of the first copy in the slave unit 1a, the printing status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a prints the print progress information receiving unit 7 of the master unit 3 including the print error information. Send progress information. Then, based on the print progress information including the print error information received by the print progress information receiving unit 13, the second print information transfer unit 8 of the base unit 3 performs three copies of print processing on the other slave unit 1 b. At the same time, the re-distribution information and the printing information for one to five pages are transferred to the sorting print processing means 12 of the slave unit 1b. As a result, the print processing unit 12 executes three copies of the printing process.

  Further, the additional printing unit 9 determines whether a printing error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the printing progress information including the printing error information received by the printing progress information receiving unit 13, and determines that it has occurred. In this case, the remaining 5th page of the first copy is additionally printed. In this example, the case of sort printing is illustrated, but the same processing as described above is also performed in the case of stack printing.

  Next, an example of the operation of the image forming system configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 6a and 6b. 6a shows the operation of the parent device 3, and FIG. 6b shows the operation of the child device 1a. Here, step S1 and step S2 in FIG. 6a are the print processing means 5 of the base unit 3, steps S3 to S5 are the first print information transfer means 6, step S6 is the print progress information receiving means 7, step S7 and steps. S8 corresponds to the additional printing means 9, and steps S9 and S10 correspond to the second print information transfer means 8, respectively. Further, Step S21, Step S22, Step S25 to Step S28 in FIG. 6b correspond to the print status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a, and Step S23 and Step S24 correspond to the sorting print processing unit 12, respectively.

First, with reference to FIG. 6A, the operation of the master unit 3 will be described. When image data of a document read by the scanner unit 4 is read in step S1, the process proceeds to step S2 and based on the image data. A predetermined printing process.
In step S3, the printing process is distributed to the slave unit 1a. In step S4, when the print (previous job) end signal transmitted from the print status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a is received, the process proceeds to step S5. Then, the print information including the print distribution information is transferred to the distribution print processing means 12 of the slave unit 1a.

  Next, when the print progress information including the print error information transmitted from the print status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a is received in step S6, the process proceeds to step S7. In step S7, based on the print progress information including the print error information received in step S6, it is determined whether a print error has occurred in the middle of the copy, and if no print error has occurred in the middle of the copy. If it is determined, the process proceeds to step S9. If it is determined that a printing error has occurred in the middle of the copy, the remaining pages of the copy are additionally printed in step S8, and the process proceeds to step S9.

In step S9, the other slave unit 1b is searched based on the print progress information including the print error information received in step S6, the print process is redistributed to the slave unit 1b, and step S10 is performed. Then, the print information including the print redistribution information is transferred to the distribution print processing means 12 of the slave unit 1a.
In step S11, when the print end signal is received from the slave unit 1b or the print status monitoring unit 13 of the slave unit 1a, the multi-printing is ended.

Next, the operation of the slave unit 1a will be described with reference to FIG. 6B. First, in step S21, when the print processing of the previous job is completed, the process proceeds to step S22, and the print (previous job) end signal is sent to the parent job. To the first print information transfer means 6 of the machine 3.
Next, in step S23, when print information including print distribution information transmitted from the first print information transfer means 6 of the master unit 3 is received, the process proceeds to step S24, and distribution print processing is performed based on the print information. Execute.

Next, when a printing error occurs during the distribution printing in step S25, the process proceeds to step S26, and the printing progress information including the printing error information is transmitted to the printing progress information receiving unit 7 of the master unit 3.
In step S25, when a printing error does not occur during distribution printing and printing ends in step S27, the process proceeds to step S28, a print end signal is transmitted to the master unit 3, and the print distribution printing process ends.

As is apparent from the above description, in this embodiment, the image forming apparatuses 1a to 1d connected to the network can be used as the slave unit that distributes the printing process of the master unit 3, and thus is applied to multi-printing. It is possible to increase the number of image forming apparatuses that can be used, and to easily add an image forming apparatus as a slave unit.
As a result, when a printing error occurs in the slave unit 1a during sort printing, the printing process of the master unit 3 can be accurately redistributed with respect to the other slave unit 1b, and a printing trouble can be quickly dealt with. can do.

In addition, when a printing error occurs in the slave unit 1a during sort printing, the other slave unit 1b takes over the remaining printing amount of the slave unit 1a, so that the master unit 3 and the slave unit 1b concurrently. Printing processing can be performed, and thereby, even when a printing error occurs in the slave unit 1a during sorting printing, it is possible to reduce the time spent for mass printing.
Further, at the time of sorting or stack printing, it is determined whether or not a print error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the print progress information including the print error information received by the print progress information receiving unit 13, and it is determined that it has occurred. In this case, since the remaining pages of the copy are additionally printed, page missing in the copy can be avoided even when a printing error occurs in the slave unit 1a in the middle of the copy.

  The slave unit, the master unit, the print processing unit (master unit), the first print information transfer unit, the print progress information reception unit, the second print information transfer unit, the distribution print processing unit, and the print status monitoring unit of the present invention. The configurations of the print processing means (child device), the additional printing means, and the like are not limited to those exemplified in the above embodiment, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

1 is a diagram for explaining an image forming system which is an example of an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a main | base station. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a subunit | mobile_unit. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of an image forming system. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the image forming system during sort printing. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of a main | base station. It is a flowchart figure for demonstrating operation | movement of a subunit | mobile_unit.

Explanation of symbols

1a to 1d Image forming apparatus (child machine)
3 Image forming device (master unit)
5 Print processing means (base unit side)
6 First print information transfer means 7 Print progress information reception means 8 Second print information transfer means 9 Additional print means 11 Print processing means (slave side)
12 Sorting print processing means 13 Print status monitoring means

Claims (6)

An image forming apparatus as a master unit that transmits print information to an image forming apparatus as a slave unit connected via a network.
Print processing means for executing print processing;
First print information transfer means for distributing print processing to at least one of the plurality of slave devices and transferring print information including print distribution information to the slave device to which the print processing has been assigned; ,
Print progress information receiving means for receiving print progress information including the print error information when a print error occurs in the slave device to which the print processing is distributed;
A second process of reallocating print processing to another slave unit based on the print progress information including the print error information and transferring print information including print redistribution information to the slave unit that has re-sorted the print process. An image forming apparatus comprising: a printing information transfer unit. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first print information transfer unit transfers the print information to the slave unit when there is no previous job for the slave unit. When sorting or stack printing, it is determined whether a print error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the print progress information including the print error information. If it is determined that a print error has occurred, the remaining pages of the copy are added. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an additional printing unit that performs printing. An image forming system comprising: a plurality of image forming apparatuses as slave units; and an image forming apparatus as a master unit connected to the plurality of slave units via a network and transmitting print information to the slave units. There,
The base unit is
Print processing means for executing print processing;
First print information transfer means for distributing print processing to at least one of the plurality of slave devices and transferring print information including print distribution information to the slave device to which the print processing has been assigned; ,
Print progress information receiving means for receiving print progress information including the print error information when a print error occurs in the slave device to which the print processing is distributed;
A second process of reallocating print processing to another slave unit based on the print progress information including the print error information and transferring print information including print redistribution information to the slave unit that has re-sorted the print process. Printing information transfer means,
The slave is
Print processing means for executing print processing;
Printing status monitoring means for monitoring the printing status and transmitting printing progress information including the printing error information to the printing progress information receiving means when a printing error occurs,
The print processing unit of the slave unit includes a distribution print processing unit that executes a print process based on the print information transferred from the first print information transfer unit or the second print information transfer unit. Image forming system. The printing status monitoring unit transmits the end signal to the first print information transfer unit when printing of the slave unit is completed,
5. The image according to claim 4, wherein the first print information transfer unit transfers the print information to the slave unit after receiving the end signal from the print state monitoring unit. Forming system. The base unit is
When sorting or stack printing, it is determined whether a print error has occurred in the middle of the copy based on the print progress information including the print error information. If it is determined that a print error has occurred, the remaining pages of the copy are added. The image forming system according to claim 4, further comprising an additional printing unit that performs printing.

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