JP2009040033A - Image forming apparatus and printer control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus and a printer control method. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus 100, which receives print data from outside and prints out the received print data as printed matter, includes: a printer control unit 230 that converts the received print data into job data that can be printed on a transfer sheet and informs of the storage of the print data as the job data; and an engine control unit 240 that determines whether the printer control unit 230 is in processing next print data to be printed out upon finishing the printing operation of the job data received from the printer control unit 230 and before starting the ending sequence of the image formation process, and if it is determined that the printer control unit 230 is in processing the next print data to be printed out, maintains a printing status without starting the ending sequence. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming technique, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus and a printer control method for controlling a printing process by detecting a remaining print data to be printed.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an image forming apparatus using electrophotography is a printer that converts print data received from the outside of an image forming apparatus into print data having a format such as PDL (Page Description Language) and performs image formation by an electrophotographic process. The image data is transferred to the engine unit, and printing is performed in units of pages. The image forming apparatus is a network-compatible printer device, a printer device, or a multi-function peripheral that is also referred to as a multi-function peripheral. When the image forming apparatus acquires the image data, the image forming apparatus notifies the printer engine unit of the print request, and the printer engine unit receives the print request and drives each mechanism unit of the image forming apparatus in cooperation to perform print output. If there is no next print request, an electrophotographic process end process (such as charge removal or cleaning of the photosensitive member) is performed at a predetermined timing to stop the apparatus.

FIG. 7 shows the control timing of the end sequence control by the conventional image forming apparatus. The operation of the image forming apparatus is controlled by a control clock. A conventional image forming apparatus receives a print request and job data at a point T1, starts a setup sequence, and simultaneously asserts a process interval timer enable signal at CLK_STRT to start measuring the process interval.

Usually, the process interval is set to an interval at which the entire page data is sufficiently printed out for a character-based document such as a word processor document. For this reason, when the image forming apparatus reaches CLK_EXPR which is a timing at which the process interval expires, the image forming apparatus starts an end sequence, saves the image forming apparatus to the energy saving mode, and prepares for a subsequent job start.

Conventionally, as described above, once the end sequence is activated once in the image forming apparatus, even if the next print request is notified, the printing operation cannot be started until the electrophotographic process end processing is ended. Depending on the situation, it is necessary to temporarily evacuate the apparatus to the energy-saving mode and then restore it to perform printing, resulting in a significant reduction in productivity.

In recent years, the processing speed of a central processing unit (CPU) that performs image processing has been improved and the memory capacity has been increased, but image data to be processed has also been increased in resolution, resolution, and color. The processing speed of the interpreter that converts the raster data acquired by the image forming apparatus from the scanner or the like into a format such as PDL is that the processing efficiency is not improved corresponding to the improvement of the hardware performance of the image forming apparatus. Currently.

On the other hand, the operation speed of the printer engine unit (number of printed sheets per minute: PPM) is also improved. For this reason, the printer engine unit performs print processing for print data received in response to a print request before the controller unit is ready for print data to be printed next due to an increase in the volume of image data. In some cases, the above-mentioned intermittent operation is likely to occur.

Processing corresponding to the above-described intermittent operation has also been studied. For example, when it takes time to create print data in the controller unit as in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-65413 (Patent Document 1), the image forming apparatus waits. In order to reduce the time, there are a technique for controlling the fixing heater, a method for preventing a decrease in print duty due to an image development processing time in the controller, and a method for extending the life of the apparatus as in Japanese Patent No. 3229621 (Patent Document 2). Proposed. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-6497 (Patent Document 3) discloses a printing apparatus that includes a host device and a printer, and that can perform energy saving control of components of the printer from the host device side. Yes.

JP 2007-65413 A Japanese Patent No. 3229621 JP 2000-6497 A

However, Patent Document 1 describes how to optimally control the fixing heater even when the intermittent operation occurs, but the intermittent operation itself is not eliminated.

In addition, in the case of Patent Document 2, a method is described in which the sequence control unit stacks the print start and starts the printing operation when the conditions are met, thereby performing continuous printing and extending the life of the apparatus. Since the print start is stacked, the first output (first print) may drop. Further, when the image data is large and time is required for the image development process, printing is performed one by one, and depending on the timing, an intermittent operation occurs, resulting in a decrease in productivity.

  Furthermore, in Patent Document 3, depending on whether or not the print data is all white data that does not need to drive the printer engine of the printer, the control for turning off the fuser heater of the printer engine during the printing period of the band. Information is generated and transmitted to the printer. However, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 3 has a problem that, due to an increase in printing speed, a reheating time of the fixing heater and a decrease in printing speed have a trade-off relationship.

  In addition, in order to achieve energy saving, in an image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method, when the fixing heater is turned off during a printing sequence, it is necessary to rapidly heat to a temperature that can be fixed again within a printing interval. From the viewpoint of thermal load and energy saving, it was not sufficient.

  Furthermore, in an image forming apparatus that employs an ink jet method, although there are few energy saving requirements such as a fixing heater, a process such as nozzle withdrawal and nozzle cleaning occurs along with the end sequence of the image forming process, which imposes a burden on each mechanism unit. Has been added, and there has been a problem of shortening the service life.

SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming apparatus capable of improving productivity by suppressing generation of intermittent operation of a printer engine unit as much as possible.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus, a printer control method, and a program that minimize the influence of the conversion processing of image data into print data by the print controller unit on the print speed.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus, a printer control method, and a program that can control the state of a print engine unit using an image processing state by a print controller unit.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and according to the present invention, an image forming apparatus that outputs print data received from the outside as a printed matter, wherein the image forming apparatus includes: Converting the print data received from the outside into job data that can be printed on transfer paper, and notifying that the print data to be used as the job data is held; and the job received from the printer controller unit After the end of the data printing operation and before starting the end sequence of the image forming process, the printer controller unit determines whether or not print data to be printed is being processed, and the printer controller The process is not started and the process printing is not performed when the printing unit is processing the print data to be printed. And a engine control unit to maintain the state, the image forming apparatus is provided.

In the present invention, after the engine controller unit is notified that the print data is being processed from the printer controller unit, if the subsequent job data is not received after a set period of time, the engine controller unit The sequence can be activated. The engine controller unit of the present invention acquires a maximum likelihood prediction time until the job data created from the print data being processed is transferred, and the end sequence based on the passage of the maximum likelihood prediction time Can be controlled. The image forming apparatus of the present invention can be an electrophotographic image forming apparatus or an inkjet image forming apparatus.

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer control method for outputting print data received from the outside as printed matter, the printer control method including job data capable of printing the print data received from the outside by a printer controller unit on transfer paper. Converting the data into the job data and notifying that the print data to be used as the job data is held, and after the completion of the printing operation of the received job data and before starting the end sequence of the image forming process, A step of determining whether or not print data to be printed is being processed for the printer controller unit; and when the print data to be printed is being processed from the printer controller unit, start the end sequence. And maintaining a process printing state.

In the present invention, after the notification that the print data is being processed from the printer controller unit, if the subsequent job data is not received even after a set period has elapsed, the step of starting the end sequence Can be included.

In the present invention, a step of acquiring a maximum likelihood prediction time until the job data created from the print data being processed is transferred, and starting the end sequence based on the elapse of the maximum likelihood prediction time. Controlling. In the present invention, the printer control method can further control a process printing state of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus or an inkjet image forming apparatus.

According to the present invention, by controlling so that the image data conversion processing state by the image forming apparatus does not cause the electrophotographic process end processing, a time lag to the start of the next printing operation can be prevented and energy saving can be achieved. It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus and a printer control method capable of extending the life of the engine process by reducing the geometric and thermal burden on the driving mechanism and the fixing roller.

Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated with embodiment, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned later. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus 100 can be configured as a multi-function full color digital copying machine, a color laser printer, or the like. In the embodiment of the copying machine, the image forming apparatus 100 can include an image reading unit such as an ADF (Auto Document Feeder), a facsimile processing unit, and an operation input unit. When the image forming apparatus 100 is mounted as a color printer, the image forming apparatus 100 is mounted with a parallel interface such as IEEE 1294 or USB, a serial bus interface, or a network interface for connecting to Ethernet (registered trademark). Printer
Execute image forming process using (Job Language).

  The image forming apparatus 100 includes an optical unit 110, an image forming unit 120, and a transfer / fixing unit 130. The optical unit 110 includes a polygon mirror 102, a plurality of fθ lenses 106, and a plurality of reflection mirrors 108. The polygon mirror 102 is mounted on a spindle motor 104 or the like and is driven at a rotational speed of several thousand to several tens of thousands rpm. The polygon mirror 102 is irradiated with a light beam from a laser diode, reflected to the fθ lens 106, and reflected toward the image forming unit 120 by the reflection mirror 108 via an optical system such as a WTL lens.

  The image forming unit 120 accommodates a plurality of photosensitive drums 122 corresponding to cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K), and developer of each color, and includes a developing sleeve and a developing blade. And a developing device 124 including The photosensitive drum 122 is applied with an electrostatic charge by a charger (not shown) such as a charging roller and then imagewise exposed by a plurality of light beams from a multi-beam light source to form an electrostatic latent image. .

  The formed electrostatic latent image is conveyed to the developing device 124 as the photosensitive drum 122 rotates. The electrostatic latent image is developed with a developer, and a developer image is formed on the photosensitive drum 122 and carried. The developer image is conveyed to the transfer / fixing unit 130 as the photosensitive drum 122 rotates. The transfer / fixing unit 130 includes a transport belt 132, a plurality of paper feed cassettes 146, 150, 154, a paper feed unit including a plurality of transport rollers 144, and the like. The paper feed cassettes 146, 150, and 154 contain transfer members such as high-quality paper and plastic sheets, and the transfer members are transported to the transport belt 132 by transport rollers 144, 148, and 152.

  The developer image on the photosensitive drum 122 is transferred to a transfer member electrostatically attracted to the conveyance belt 132 under a transfer bias potential, and after transferring four colors, a full color image is formed on the transfer member. The formed full color image is fixed by the fixing device 134. The printed matter after fixing is discharged onto a discharge tray 164. In addition, when double-sided printing is performed on a printed matter, a double-sided printing unit including a separation claw 136, a reverse feeding conveyance member 140, 142, and the like performs double-sided printing, and then a plurality of conveyance rollers, conveyance rollers 162, switching The sheet is discharged to the outside of the image forming apparatus 100 through a finisher 160 including a plate 166 and the like.

  The finisher 160 guides the transfer member conveyed by the paper discharge unit 138 of the main body toward the conveyance roller 162 or the staple table 172, and provides the finishing printed matter processed by the user. When the switching plate 166 is directed upward, the printed matter is discharged to the normal discharge tray 164 side via the conveying roller 162. Further, by switching the switching plate 166 downward, the transfer member is transported to the staple table 172 via the transport rollers 168 and 170, and the stapling process is performed. Each time a sheet of transfer paper loaded on the staple table 172 is discharged, the paper end surface is aligned by the paper alignment jogger 174 and is bound by the stapler 178 upon completion of copying in a partial unit. The transfer member bound by the stapler 178 is stored in the staple completion discharge tray 176 by its own weight.

  Note that the image forming apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is an exemplary embodiment, and the image forming apparatus can be implemented as an image forming apparatus of another type such as a page printer, a network printer, or a multi-function copying machine. . Further, the image forming apparatus 100 can be implemented as a monochrome printer in addition to the full-color image forming apparatus.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional block 200 of the image forming apparatus 100 shown in FIG. The image forming apparatus 100 receives print data from an information processing apparatus (not shown) that functions as a host device, and outputs the print data. The functional block 200 of the image forming apparatus 100 includes a printer controller unit 230 and an engine controller unit 240.

  The printer controller unit 230 receives print data from the host, generates job data, and issues a print request and job data to the engine controller unit 240. The engine controller 240 receives a print request and job data, and in accordance with the job data, synchronously drives a laser diode, a polygon mirror, a photosensitive drum, a drive motor, and other mechanical elements to transfer the job data. It is reproduced as an image above.

  The printer controller 230 includes an H_I / O 212 configured as an interface such as IEEE 1294 and USB (Universal Serial Bus) with the host, and receives print data from the host. The print data can be described in PDL (Page Description Language) such as PostScript (registered trademark). The printer controller unit 230 includes a CPU 220, a RAM 222, an image RAM 224, and a reciprocal ROM 214 and 216. The RAM 222 provides an execution space for the CPU 220, and the image RAM 224 is used for buffering print data. It's being used. The reciprocal ROMs 214 and 216 of the printer controller 230 store programs and setting conditions for the printer controller unit 230 to execute processing. The programs and data stored in the ROM are stored in the image forming apparatus 100. Is read by the CPU 220 and used for the subsequent processing.

  In addition, the printer controller unit 230 includes a user interface U_I / O 218 that can acquire user settings from the I / O panel 210 and set the printing conditions of the image forming apparatus 100. Further, the printer controller unit 230 includes an E_I / O 226 as an interface for sending a print request and job data to the engine controller unit 240. The printer controller unit 230 generates job data generated by the printer controller unit 230 together with the print request. To part 240. Upon receiving the print data, the printer controller unit 230 identifies the image and font data, executes conversion processing corresponding to the image and font data, creates job data, and sends the job data to the engine controller unit 240.

  The processing of the engine controller unit 240 is controlled by a CPU (ASIC) 242. The CPU 242 includes an IRQ 246 that processes an interrupt from the printer controller unit 230, and an IRQ 244 that processes an interrupt from the OP_I / O 248 and the module 280. An interrupt request from the printer controller unit 230 and the option module 280 is provided. The processing is controlled corresponding to

  In addition to the interrupt signal, the CPU 242 is provided with a data line for receiving job data and a number of ports such as I / O_in and I / O_out for receiving various control signals. Under the control of 230, a printer engine (not shown) can be controlled. The CPU 242 reads a program and setting data necessary for processing from the ROM 260 storage device, secures an execution space in the RAM 262, and enables the processing. The engine controller unit 240 is mounted with a flash ROM 252, an EEPROM 258, and the like, so that various settings can be written and modified. Further, control signals from the other input unit 264, the DIP switch DIP_SW 268, various sensors 270, and the like are input to the CPU 242 via the input port 254, and the processing of the CPU 242 is controlled.

  When the CPU 242 receives the print request and the print request from the printer controller unit 230, the CPU 242 controls the other output driver 272 including the motor driver 274, the clutch driver 276, the high voltage generation module 278, the optical system driver, etc. The engine is operated to enable image formation. The engine controller 240 is equipped with an EEPROM 282 as an exchange unit so that various data and programs can be updated.

  The image forming apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment notifies the engine controller unit 240 whether or not there is job data to be output by the printer controller unit 230, and the engine controller unit is notified by the remaining print data in the print controller unit 230. 240 drivers are controlled.

  FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of processing modules of the printer controller unit 230 and the engine controller unit 240. The printer controller unit 230 receives print data in a format such as PDL that is transferred from the host via a bus such as a USB, for example, generates job data described in the printer control language, and sends it to the engine controller unit 240. And pass along with the print request. Upon receiving the print data, the printer controller unit 230 stores the print data in the buffer memory 310 and registers a job in the print queue 320 for each print job. The print data registered in the print queue 320 is read by the PDL interpreter 330 and converted from PDL into a printer control language. The print data converted into the printer control language is converted into job data by the control language interpreter 340. The created job data is transferred to the engine controller 240 together with the print request or at an appropriate timing after the print request.

  When one or both of the PDL interpreter 330 and the control language interpreter 340 are activated, the printer controller unit 230 sets a print data conversion flag in an appropriate register memory, and the register memory performs the print data conversion process. Assert the appropriate output port of the CPU 220 I / O output port until it is erased in response to termination. Note that “assert” means to set the signal level to positively execute control using the value of the output port, and is not limited to a specific output level of the output port. Absent. The control signal of the output port is transferred to the controller unit I / O (CTR_I / O) 250 of the engine controller unit 240, notified to the CPU 242 via the IRQ 246, and causes the CPU 242 to execute end sequence start control.

  When the engine controller unit 240 receives the job data, the engine controller unit 240 stores the job data in the buffer 350, and executes an image forming process by synchronously controlling the laser diode, the drive motor, and the like under the control of the CPU 242. Conventionally, when the engine controller unit 240 receives a print request, each driver is enabled over a set process interval, and when the process interval ends, the driver is disabled according to a specific end sequence.

  FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of an embodiment of an image forming process of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. The processing in FIG. 4 starts from step S400, and system initialization processing is executed in step S401. In step S402, an engine status check task is executed, the state of the engine is inspected, and initial setting is executed.

  In step S403, the state of the engine / controller interface is inspected and various settings are executed. In step S404, the state of the engine / option interface and initial setting are executed. Thereafter, in step S405, processing for registering a print job in the printer queue is executed in response to a print command from the host. Thereafter, in step S406, a print control task is executed to execute a printing process.

  FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an embodiment of an end sequence start process executed by the engine controller unit 240 of the present embodiment.

  In the case of the above-described conventional processing, for example, it takes time to convert to job data, and when the job data is sent with the next page print request after the process interval has elapsed, the end sequence is executed with priority. Therefore, the print job cannot be started until the time for the next page print request has elapsed for the end sequence and the startup processing sequence.

  The image forming apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment controls the timing of starting the end sequence of the engine controller unit 240 by determining whether or not the engine controller unit 240 has print data to be received from the printer controller unit 230 soon. To do. The process of FIG. 5 starts from step S500. In step S501, the engine controller unit 240 receives a print request and starts a setup sequence. In step S502, the printer controller unit 230 determines whether the print data is stored and is being processed.

  This determination can be made using whether or not the value of the output port indicating that the CPU 220 of the printer controller 230 is processing the image data is asserted, and the value of the output port from the engine controller 240 side. Can be inspected, and the interrupt from the printer controller 230 can be determined, and the engine controller 240 can determine passively. If the printer controller 230 has print data to be printed (yes), the process branches to step S503, and if the process interval timer is activated in step S504 (the process interval timer enable signal is asserted). Reset the process interval timer, and if the process interval timer is not activated, keep the process interval timer disabled and receive subsequent print requests and job data to include machine elements. The image forming engine is driven to execute the printing process.

  Thereafter, the process branches to step S502, where it is determined whether the printer controller unit 230 has print data to be printed. Specifically, until the printer controller unit 230 does not have print data, specifically, The processing from step S502 to step S504 is repeated until both the PDL interpreter 330 and the control language interpreter 340 are stopped.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S502 that the printer controller unit 240 does not have print data, that is, if neither the PDL interpreter 330 or the control language interpreter 340 is activated (no), the process branches to step S505. Enable the process interval timer and start the process interval timer. In step S506, it is determined whether or not the process interval timer has expired. If the process interval timer has expired (yes), an end sequence is activated in step S505.

  The end sequence is executed by starting an assembler program implemented as firmware of the CPU 242 and is sequentially enabled according to setting procedures such as charging sequence off, development sequence off, transfer sequence off, separation navel off, and cleaning sequence off. It includes processing to be executed by negating. When the end sequence started in step S505 is ended, in step S507, the engine controller unit 240 sets the image forming engine in the energy saving mode, for example, and waits for subsequent print requests and job data reception.

  On the other hand, if the process interval timer has not expired in step S506 (no), the process branches to step S504 to execute processing of the print request and job data received until the process interval timer expires, and the printer controller unit As long as 230 holds image data, the process interval timer is prevented from expiring, and the start processing of the end sequence of the engine controller unit 240 is controlled by conversion processing by the interpreter of the printer controller unit 230.

  FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of a control sequence of the engine controller unit 240. The engine controller unit 240 is synchronously controlled by a control clock, and receives a print request and job data in synchronization with the control clock. When a print request and job data are received, a charging enable signal for starting a charging sequence, a development enable signal, a transfer enable signal, and a separation enable signal are asserted in accordance with a set sequence, thereby returning from the energy saving mode. Execute.

  When the return sequence is completed, the job data corresponding to the print request is transferred to the semiconductor laser at the timing indicated by the image formation start point P1, and the lighting control of the semiconductor laser is executed and synchronized with the drawing in the main scanning direction by the semiconductor laser. Then, the transport motor is driven. The image forming engine executes an image forming process of latent image formation, development, transfer, cleaning, fixing, and discharge, and ends printing of job data held at that time at point P2.

  In the present embodiment, the control signal indicating that the printer controller 230 is processing the print data is asserted even at the stage where the data to be transferred to the image forming engine at that point is completed at the point P2. For this reason, the engine controller unit 240 does not assert the process interval timer enable signal at the time when there is no job data, and does not start the end sequence by controlling each enable signal as indicated by the broken line in FIG. As a result, the image forming engine is held in the process print state, that is, the image formable state. Even if the conversion from the print data to the job data by the interpreter in the printer controller 240 is delayed, the next print request and Prompt image formation corresponding to job data is enabled.

  When the printer controller 230 has no print data, the control signal during the print data processing is negated and then transferred to the engine controller 240 and the final page data and print request. Can be smoothly started without starting the setup sequence at point P3.

  At this time, since the control signal during print data processing is negated to the engine controller 240, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, in synchronization with the reception of the print request corresponding to the print execution in P3. Then, the process interval timer enable signal is asserted, the process interval timer starts counting the control clock, and when the set count expires, the end sequence is activated, and the image forming engine shifts to the energy saving mode.

In another embodiment, if the printer controller unit 230 holds image data to be printed and the next print request and job data do not come even after the set timeout period has expired, the engine The controller unit 240 can also perform a timeout process. In this embodiment, the process end operation is forcibly entered in response to the expiration of the timeout. For example, by reducing unnecessary operations in an abnormal state such as a host hang-up or an exception occurrence of the printer controller unit 230, The lifetime of the process elements of the imaging engine can be extended.

Further, the set time of the timeout timer can be set as appropriate, and these values can be held in a ROM or the like, so that the machine life can be optimized. In yet another embodiment, the printer controller unit 230 can also acquire the maximum likelihood prediction time for issuing the next print request given from the past history and notify the engine controller unit 240 of it. The engine controller unit 240 can optimize the printing state holding time by acquiring the maximum likelihood prediction time and setting and controlling the setting time of the timeout timer.

In yet another embodiment, when it is time to shift to the process end process, the user can set a mode for selecting whether or not to inquire a control signal indicating the remaining print data of the printer controller unit 230. As the energy-saving mode return process of the forming apparatus, a setting according to the user's usage can be selected.

  As described above, according to the image forming apparatus and the printer control method of the present embodiment, when the print data is converted into the printer control language, the interpreter efficiency decreases due to the characteristics of the print data, and printing is originally performed. It is possible to avoid an inconvenience that the image forming apparatus retreats to an energy saving mode or the like during a period in which print data to be left remains, and to enable efficient image formation.

  Further, according to the image forming apparatus and the printer control method of the present embodiment, mechanical stress is applied to the optical element, the mechanical element, and the fixing element by preventing frequent return / retraction from the energy saving mode to the print execution mode. The history and the thermal stress application history can be reduced, and the life of the image forming engine can be extended. Although the image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic method has been described in detail with respect to the present embodiment, the present invention is directed to image formation in which transfer paper is fed at a constant speed and image formation is performed in units of lines in a direction crossing the feeding direction. It goes without saying that the same printer control method can be used for an apparatus that uses a specific termination sequence, for example, an inkjet printer.

  Although the present embodiment has been described so far, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and other embodiments, additions, changes, deletions, and the like can be conceived by those skilled in the art. It can be changed, and any aspect is within the scope of the present invention as long as the effects and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a control block diagram of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a processing module of a printer controller unit and an engine controller unit of the image forming apparatus. 6 is a flowchart of an image forming sequence of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of an end sequence of an image forming process. 6 is a timing chart of the printer control method of the present embodiment. 6 is a timing chart of a printer control method in a conventional image forming apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Image forming apparatus, 110 ... Optical unit, 120 ... Image forming unit, 130 ... Transfer / fixing unit, 210 ... I / O panel, 220 ... CPU, 230 ... Printer controller part, 240 ... Engine controller part, 242 ... CPU , 310 ... buffer, 320 ... print queue, 330 ... PDL interpreter, 340 ... control language interpreter, 350 ... buffer

Claims (8)

An image forming apparatus that outputs print data received from the outside as printed matter, the image forming apparatus should convert the print data received from outside into job data that can be printed on transfer paper and use it as the job data A printer controller unit for notifying that the print data is held; In contrast, if it is determined whether the print data to be printed is being processed and the printer controller unit is processing the print data to be printed, the process print state is not started without starting the end sequence. And an engine controller for maintaining The engine controller unit activates the end sequence when the printer controller unit is notified that the print data is being processed and does not receive subsequent job data after a set period of time. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1. The engine controller unit obtains a maximum likelihood prediction time until the job data created from the print data being processed is transferred, and activates the end sequence based on the elapse of the maximum likelihood prediction time. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image forming apparatus is controlled. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus or an inkjet image forming apparatus. A printer control method for outputting print data received from outside as printed matter, wherein the printer control method converts the print data received from outside by a printer controller unit into job data printable on transfer paper, and A step of notifying that the print data to be stored as data is held, and after the end of the printing operation of the received job data and before starting the end sequence of the image forming process, to the printer controller unit Determining whether or not print data to be printed is being processed; and if the print data to be printed is being processed from the printer controller unit, the end sequence is not activated and the process print state is A printer control method comprising: maintaining. And a step of activating the end sequence when no subsequent job data is received after a set period has elapsed after the printer controller is notified that the print data is being processed. Item 6. The printer control method according to Item 5. A step of obtaining a maximum likelihood prediction time until the job data created from the print data being processed is transferred; a step of controlling the start of the end sequence based on the passage of the maximum likelihood prediction time; A printer control method according to claim 6, comprising: The printer control method according to claim 5, wherein the printer control method controls a process printing state of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus or an inkjet image forming apparatus.

Images