JP2007171796A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus such that a unit as a replaced article can be replaced by accurately judging the actual degree of consumption of the unit. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus is equipped with a sensor 28 for acquiring information on the environment in the apparatus and a control means 21 of generating a histogram of print pages for the environment information data acquired by the sensor 28. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer, and a multifunction machine.

  Since the image forming apparatus is composed of a plurality of units, and the unit life is often shorter than the mechanical life, replacement of the unit is indispensable. For this purpose, it is necessary to display a warning message for prompting replacement, whether it is a user maintenance-oriented machine or a service engineer-maintained machine.

In many cases, the number of printed sheets, motor operating time, etc. are used as the warning display standard for prompting unit replacement. However, the method of judging from operating data uniformly may not match the actual deterioration level depending on the usage environment. . Even when the replaced unit is reused, it is difficult to determine reuse if the operation data and the actual deterioration level do not match.
The present invention has been made in view of such a background, and an object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of accurately determining the actual consumption level of a replacement unit and replacing the unit.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 1 includes a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus, and a control means for creating a histogram of the number of printed pages for the environmental information data acquired by the sensor. And an image forming apparatus including:
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control unit that generates a histogram of the number of times of image formation for environmental information data acquired by the sensor. Features.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control unit that creates a histogram of operating time for environmental information data acquired by the sensor. And
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control unit that creates a histogram of working distance with respect to environmental information data acquired by the sensor. And
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the environmental information is a temperature.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the environmental information is absolute humidity.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a display unit that has a unit that can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body, and that displays a warning prompting replacement on the operation panel unit based on operation data. A sensor for acquiring information, and a control means for creating an operation data histogram for the environmental information data acquired by the sensor, wherein the control means determines the timing for displaying the replacement warning between the environmental information and the operation data histogram. It is characterized by an image forming apparatus that moves back and forth according to the analysis result.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the seventh aspect, the unit includes a non-volatile storage unit, and the control unit stores the non-volatile storage when the unit is attached to the apparatus main body. The environmental information and operation data histogram data are stored in the means.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the seventh aspect, the image forming apparatus includes a plurality of sensors for acquiring the environmental information, and the control unit displays a histogram of the environmental information and the operation data. It is characterized in that it is created for each unit based on data acquired from a sensor closest to the unit.

  According to the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus that has a detachable unit in the apparatus main body, displays a warning for prompting replacement based on operation data on the operation panel unit, and appropriately replaces it with a new one. Environmental information in the apparatus And a control unit that creates a histogram of operation data for the environmental information data acquired by the sensor, and the control unit determines the timing for displaying the replacement warning in the histogram of the environmental information and the operation data. Since it is moved back and forth according to the analysis result, it is possible to replace the unit as a replacement part by accurately determining the actual degree of wear.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment includes an image forming unit 1, a paper feeding unit 2, an image reading unit 3, and a document conveying unit 4. The detailed configuration and operation are well known and are not directly related to the present invention, and thus the description thereof is omitted.
What is unitized in the above configuration is a photosensitive drum unit that is a component of the image forming unit 1, a charging device 12, and a cleaning device 13, a developing sleeve, a toner conveying screw, and a toner density sensor. And a fixing unit 15 including parts such as a heater, a fixing roller, a fixing belt, a pressure roller, a thermistor, and a thermostat (or a thermal fuse).
FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
In addition to the image forming unit 1, the sheet feeding unit 2, the image reading unit 3, and the fixing unit 15, a high voltage power supply 25 for image formation and driving are added to a CPU 21 having a flash ROM (rewritable ROM) 22, a RAM 23 and an NV-RAM 24. The unit 26, the operation panel unit 27, and the sensor 28 are connected. The sensor 28 is a temperature sensor or a humidity sensor, and detects environmental information data such as temperature and humidity.
The CPU 21 controls the operation of the entire image forming apparatus, and controls the input / output devices according to a control program written in the flash ROM 22 in advance. The RAM 23 and the NV-RAM 24 temporarily store data that is input / output or referenced in the control.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a state where the unit and the CPU of FIG. 2 are connected.
Nonvolatile memories 32-1 and 32-2 of a plurality of units (photosensitive unit, developing unit, fixing unit, etc.) 31-1 and 31-2 are connected to the CPU 21.
Each of the units 31-1 and 31-2 has a set lifetime, and the count reference is the number of prints or the number of image formation. When the life counter for each of the units 31-1 and 31-2 exceeds a predetermined value, a message is displayed on the operation panel unit 27 that disables the machine or prompts replacement. The replacement warning message may be displayed on the PC screen if there is a printer function.
When this replacement warning message is displayed, the user contacts the service station, and the service person replaces the corresponding unit 31-1 or 31-2 (if the user can be replaced, the user replaces it). The replaced unit 31-1 or 31-2 is sent to the reproduction site by the service person or the user.
These units 31-1 and 31-2 have a life span as a unit, but their lifespan is adapted to the parts with the shortest lifespan, so some individual parts can still be used. is there. Therefore, it can be used again by replacing the short-life component in the regeneration process.

[Example 1]
FIG. 4 shows an example of a histogram created by the image forming apparatus of the present invention. The horizontal axis shows the level of environmental information data acquired from the sensor 28, and the vertical axis shows operation data. In this embodiment, the operation data is the number of print pages.
In the histogram of FIG. 4, the counter value for each level is actually held in the RAM 23. Each time the printing operation for one page is completed, environmental information is acquired from the sensor 28, and the counter of that level is counted up. The count increment at this time may be changed according to the paper size, the operation mode, and the like.
[Example 2]
In a color copier, not all the units 31 are operated for each page print. For example, when outputting in the monochrome mode, the Y, C, and M photoconductor units and the developing unit are not driven.
Therefore, in order to grasp the operation state of such a unit, in this embodiment, “operation data” in FIG. This is counted up when one image is formed for each unit. In this case, the count increment may be changed in accordance with the paper size.

[Example 3]
Image forming units such as the photosensitive member, the developing unit, and the intermediate transfer unit undergo a preparatory operation for starting up to a printable state before the printing operation. This is an operation necessary to bring the motor drive and high voltage output non-applied state to the state where the motor drive and high voltage output applied are stable. Conversely, at the end of printing, a stop operation is performed to shift the motor drive / high voltage output application from a stable state to a motor stop state / high voltage output non-apply state. In some cases, a cleaning operation may be performed before the stop operation.
In this way, when the preparation / stop operation is performed before and after the printing operation for one page, the print page count and the image formation count may not completely match the actual operation status. As the number of print pages per print job decreases, the counter and the actual operating status become more dissimilar.
Therefore, in this embodiment, “operation data” in FIG. 4 is defined as “drive time”. The time from when the unit 31 starts driving to when it stops is timed, and when it stops, environmental information is acquired and added to the counter for each level.

[Example 4]
The drive linear speeds of the units of the image forming apparatus are not necessarily the same. In order to sufficiently fix the toner on the thick paper, the driving line speed may be reduced to half of the normal line speed.
Therefore, in this embodiment, “operation data” in FIG. 4 is defined as “drive time”. The time from when the unit 31 starts driving until it stops is counted, and the “driving distance” calculated by multiplying the measured time by the driving linear velocity is calculated. When the driving of the unit 31 is stopped, the environmental information is acquired and added to the counter for each level.
[Example 5]
In this embodiment, histogram data is prepared for each of the units 31-1 and 31-2.
These data are held in the NV-RAM 24. The data referred to display the replacement warning is the same as the data used on the vertical axis of the histogram.
When the vertical axis of the histogram is the driving distance, the replacement warning display reference is set to A [m]. Then, the replacement warning determination method is changed according to the analysis result of the histogram. For example, the following method can be considered.
Method 1: When the frequency above a certain environmental level exceeds a predetermined value, the replacement warning display standard is advanced by B [m]. Conversely, when the frequency below a certain environmental level exceeds a predetermined value, the replacement warning display standard is delayed by C [m].
Method 2: A coefficient is provided for each environmental level, the frequency for each environmental level is multiplied by the coefficient, and the integrated value is compared with the replacement warning display standard.
Which of these schemes to use and constants such as A, B, C and coefficients are determined by experiment.

[Example 6]
The nonvolatile memory 32 of the unit 31 shown in FIG. 3 can be read and written by the CPU 21 of the image forming apparatus main body.
FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of information in the nonvolatile memory provided in each unit.
The model ID, manufacturing date, serial number, etc. are written at the time of unit shipment, starting with the unit ID indicating what the unit is, and information that is read-only is placed when the unit is mounted on the image forming apparatus. Thereafter, an area for recording the generated histogram data is prepared as a unit usage history.
[Example 7]
Since there is a fixing unit 15 provided with a heater in the image forming apparatus, the temperature distribution in the apparatus is generally non-uniform. Since it is impossible to cover all units with a single environmental detection sensor (temperature sensor, humidity sensor) 28, a plurality of environmental detection sensors 28 are prepared in the apparatus.
The data placed on the horizontal axis when creating the histogram for each unit is the data of the sensor 28 closest to that unit 3. However, this does not apply if there is no problem in airflow design even if it is not close. The generated histogram data is recorded in the nonvolatile memory 32 on the unit 31 side.

1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a control block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a state where the unit and the CPU of FIG. 2 are connected. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a histogram created by the image forming apparatus of the present invention. The conceptual diagram of the information in the non-volatile memory provided in each unit.

Explanation of symbols

21 CPU (control means), 28 sensors, 31 units, 32 non-volatile memory

Claims (9)

  An image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control unit that creates a histogram of the number of print pages for environmental information data acquired by the sensor.   An image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control means for creating a histogram of the number of image formations for environmental information data acquired by the sensor.   An image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control unit that creates a histogram of operating time for environmental information data acquired by the sensor.   An image forming apparatus comprising: a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus; and a control unit that creates a histogram of working distances for environmental information data acquired by the sensor.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the environment information is temperature.   5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the environmental information is absolute humidity.   An image forming apparatus having a display unit that has a unit that can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body, and that displays a warning prompting replacement based on operation data on an operation panel unit, and a sensor for acquiring environmental information in the apparatus main body A control means for creating an operation data histogram for the environmental information data acquired by the sensor, the control means changing the timing for displaying the replacement warning according to the analysis result of the environmental information and the operation data histogram. An image forming apparatus.   8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the unit has a non-volatile storage unit, and the control unit performs environmental information and operation with respect to the non-volatile storage unit when the unit is mounted on the apparatus main body. An image forming apparatus for storing data histogram data. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a plurality of sensors for acquiring the environment information are provided, and the control unit acquires a histogram of the environment information and the operation data from a sensor closest to the unit. An image forming apparatus, which is created for each unit based on data.

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