JP2009267654A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus accumulating diagnostic data sufficient for analyzing a failure without being restricted by memory capacity on the main body side. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus is characterized by being provided with: a storage means for storing information; a diagnostic means for diagnosing an abnormality to create diagnostic information; a writing means for writing the diagnostic information created by the diagnostic means in an RFID on paper; a reading means for reading the diagnostic information written by the writing means; a decision means for deciding whether there is the abnormality from the diagnostic information read by the reading means; and a notification means for advising a result by the decision means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that accumulates data for device status diagnosis without consuming memory of a main body.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for storing device state diagnosis data, for example, a timing at which a sheet reaches a sensor on a sheet conveyance path, in a memory of the image forming apparatus main body has been used for failure analysis of the image forming apparatus.

  As described above, it is possible to identify the cause of the malfunction or discover a sign of the malfunction by acquiring and analyzing the data accumulated on the main body side.

  However, in a device that accumulates diagnostic data in the memory on the main unit side, the amount of memory that can be used to accumulate diagnostic data is limited, so it is possible to accumulate a sufficient amount of data to analyze the failure. Can not. Further, if the memory capacity is increased, the amount of data that can be stored increases, but there is a problem of an increase in cost.

Therefore, for the purpose of reducing the memory cost without sacrificing the diagnostic accuracy of trouble analysis, for example, Patent Document 1 has two memories, a main body memory and an extended memory, as storage means, and the diagnostic data is stored by the user. The main body memory and expansion memory are classified into basic diagnostic data for identifying the basic cause of trouble that actually occurs in use and diagnostic detailed data for identifying the detailed cause of the trouble. In other words, the storage cost is reduced by using low-cost storage means with a small memory capacity.
JP 2006-015518 A

  However, the invention according to Patent Document 1 reduces the memory cost of the main body of the image forming apparatus by distributing data. However, since the main body memory is used although the amount is small, there is a limitation due to the capacity of the main body memory. There is a possibility of receiving.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to accumulate sufficient diagnostic data to analyze a failure even in an image forming apparatus having a limited memory capacity on the main body side.

  In order to solve the above problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a storage unit for storing information, a diagnostic unit for diagnosing an abnormality and creating diagnostic information, and diagnostic information created by the diagnostic unit on a sheet. Writing means for writing to RFID, reading means for reading out diagnostic information written by the writing means, determining means for determining whether there is an abnormality from diagnostic information read by the reading means, and notification for notifying the result by the determining means Means.

  The storage means stores the diagnostic information temporarily until the diagnostic information is written in the writing means.

  The determination means calculates an average value of a plurality of pieces of diagnostic information and determines whether or not a threshold value is exceeded.

  The determining means associates each sheet with diagnostic information, and determines whether or not the printing environment is based on the diagnostic information when an abnormality occurs.

  The notifying means displays a message for prompting replacement of parts.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to accumulate a sufficient amount of data without being limited by the memory capacity on the main body side, and it is possible to link an actually printed sheet and diagnostic data.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The transport paper A is stacked and held on the paper stacking unit 1 and includes a paper feed roller 2 for feeding the transport paper A and a separation pad 3 for separating them one by one.

  When the transport paper A is transported, electric charges are formed on the transport belt 6 by the charging roller 4, and the transport paper A is attached to the belt by electrostatic attraction force. The charge is formed by applying a voltage from the high voltage power source 5 to the charging roller 4. The conveyance belt 6 is held by a conveyance roller 7 and a tension roller 8, and the conveyance roller 7 is rotated to rotate the conveyance belt 6 in the sheet conveyance direction.

  The transport paper A is transported while contacting the transport belt 6 while being guided by the transport guide 9 and being pressed by the leading end roller 10. When printing on the back side of the paper for double-sided printing, the paper is not discharged to the paper discharge tray 15 even after the printing is finished, and the conveyance belt 6 is kept in the direction of paper conveyance shown in the drawing while being adsorbed by the electrostatic adsorption force. Rotate in reverse. The paper A is rotated in the reverse direction, and the transport paper A is inserted into the double-sided printing paper reversing unit 11 so that the paper is reversed and printing is performed in the same manner as the front surface.

  Printing is performed by ejecting ink from the head 12, and the ink is supplied from the ink supply pipe 13. Further, the non-contact type storage medium (RFID) reader / writer 14 is provided on the paper discharge tray 15.

  The RFID reader / writer 14 is a device that writes and reads information in a non-contact type storage medium (RFID) provided in advance on the transport paper A. Here, information effective for diagnosing the state of the device is written in the RFID provided on the conveyance sheet A.

  The installation location of the RFID reader / writer 14 is not necessarily near the paper discharge tray 15, but more information can be collected if the RFID reader / writer 14 is arranged after printing is completed.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control unit of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the following description, a print job is received from the host PC and printing is executed. However, the print job may be a copy image read by the ADF, not from the host PC, or the FAX received from the FAX apparatus. An image may be used.

  The control unit according to the present exemplary embodiment controls the entire image forming apparatus, and includes a control microcomputer 601 that includes a microcomputer that also functions as a determination unit and a unit that controls a recovery operation, and a print that includes a microcomputer that controls print control. And a control microcomputer 608.

  When there is a print command from the user through the application 90, the OS (Operating System) OS 91 transmits image data output from the image forming apparatus to the printer driver 100. Here, GDI (Graphic Device Interface) is taken as an example.

  The printer driver 100 converts the image data transmitted from the application 90 into printed image data in a format that can be processed by the image forming apparatus main body, and inputs the converted image data to the image forming apparatus via the communication path 101.

  The control microcomputer 601 uses a carriage drive motor and a conveyance motor via a carriage drive motor drive circuit 603 and a conveyance motor drive circuit 605 to form an image on a sheet based on the printed image data input from the communication circuit 101. And controlling to send print data to the print control microcomputer 608.

  The control microcomputer 601 receives a detection signal from a carriage position detection circuit 602 that detects the position of the carriage, and the control microcomputer 601 controls the movement position and movement speed of the carriage based on this detection signal. The carriage position detection circuit 602 detects the position of the carriage by, for example, reading and counting the number of slits of the encoder sheet arranged in the scanning direction of the carriage with a photosensor mounted on the carriage.

  The carriage drive motor drive circuit 603 rotates the carriage drive motor according to the carriage movement amount input from the control microcomputer 601 and moves the carriage to a predetermined position at a predetermined speed.

  The control microcomputer 601 receives a detection signal from a conveyance amount detection circuit 604 that detects the movement amount of the conveyance belt, and the control microcomputer 601 controls the movement amount and movement speed of the conveyance belt based on the detection signal. The carry amount detection circuit 604 detects the carry amount by, for example, reading and counting the number of slits of the rotary encoder sheet attached to the rotation shaft of the carry roller with a photo sensor.

  The conveyance motor drive circuit 605 rotates the conveyance motor according to the conveyance amount input from the control microcomputer 601 and rotates the conveyance roller to move the conveyance belt to a predetermined position at a predetermined speed.

  The control microcomputer 601 rotates the paper feed roller once by giving a paper feed roller drive command to the paper feed roller drive circuit 610. The control microcomputer 601 causes the cap to move up and down and the wiper blade to move up and down by rotationally driving the motor via the maintenance / recovery mechanism drive motor drive circuit 611.

  Further, the control microcomputer 601 drives and controls an ink supply motor for driving the pump of the supply unit via the ink supply motor drive circuit 612, and ink is supplied from the ink cartridge loaded in the cartridge loading unit to the sub tank. Replenish supply.

  The control microcomputer 601 receives a detection signal from the sub tank full sensor 613 for detecting that the sub tank is full, a detection signal from the cartridge cover sensor 614 for detecting opening and closing of the front cover of the cartridge loading unit, and the like. The

  Further, the control microcomputer 601 takes in the information stored in the nonvolatile memory 616 which is a storage unit provided in each ink cartridge attached to the cartridge loading unit through the cartridge communication circuit 615, and performs a necessary process. Then, it is stored and held in a non-volatile memory (for example, EEPROM) which is a main body storage means.

  The print control microcomputer 608 discharges the droplets of the recording head 34 based on the signal from the control microcomputer 601 and the carriage position and transport amount from the carriage position detection circuit 602 and the transport amount detection circuit 604. Data for driving the generating means is generated and given to the head driving circuit 609.

  The head drive circuit 609 drives the recording head pressure generating means (or a piezoelectric element in the case of a piezo-type head) based on the print data from the print control microcomputer 608 to discharge droplets from the required nozzles.

  The control microcomputer 601 detects the size of the paper being passed from the paper size sensor 606, and if the input image data can be arranged on the paper, and if there is image data outside the paper, the image data The print control microcomputer can be set so as to trim and draw the image.

  As a method for detecting the paper size, it is possible to detect the paper width by arranging a reflective sensor on the side of the carriage and detecting the difference in reflectance between the paper and the conveyance path when the carriage scans. In addition, it is possible to detect the sheet width by arranging a line sensor perpendicular to the transport direction on the transport path. As for the sheet length in the conveyance direction, a reflection type sensor is similarly arranged on the conveyance path, and the sheet length can be detected by counting the conveyance amount after the sheet is detected. In addition, a plurality of paper position sensors 607 arranged on the conveyance path can detect the position in the machine where the paper is located. It can be detected and the location where the abnormality has occurred can also be indicated.

  FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the RFID reader / writer in the embodiment of the present invention. The IC tag reader / writer 31 reads data from a plurality of IC tags TG1 to TGn (n is an integer of n> 1) and writes data to each IC tag TG1 to TGn. 32, a control circuit unit 33, a modulation / demodulation circuit unit 34, and antenna units AU1 to AUn.

  The internal configurations of the antenna units AU1 to AUn are the same, and any one antenna unit ANUk (k = 1 to n) includes an antenna ANTak, a modulation / demodulation circuit unit DEak, and a switch SWk. Also, the IC tags TG1 to TGn have the same internal configuration, and an arbitrary IC tag TGk includes an antenna ANTbk and a modulation / demodulation circuit unit DEbk. The oscillation circuit unit generates and outputs a carrier wave for performing wireless communication with the IC tags TG1 to TGn.

  When writing data to an arbitrary IC tag TGk, the control circuit unit 33 performs input / output control of the data signal superimposed on the carrier wave output from the oscillation circuit unit 32 and switches the antenna unit AUk corresponding to the IC tag TGk. SWk is turned on exclusively. The modulation / demodulation circuit unit DEak receives the carrier wave and the data signal output from the control circuit unit 33, modulates the carrier wave based on the data signal, and outputs the modulated signal to the antenna ANTak. The antenna ANTak emits the modulated data as radio waves. The IC tag TGk receives the radio wave transmitted from the IC tag reader / writer by the antenna ANTbk, and demodulates the received signal by the modulation / demodulation circuit unit DEk.

  Next, a case where the IC tag reader / writer reads data from the IC tag TGk will be described. When read command data is sent from the IC tag reader / writer to the IC tag TGk, the IC tag TGk modulates the desired data into a carrier wave by the modulation / demodulation circuit unit DEbk, and emits it as a radio wave from the antenna ANTbk of the IC tag TGk. . The IC tag reader / writer receives the radio wave with the antenna ANTak, demodulates the received signal with the modulation / demodulation circuit unit DEak, and takes out the desired data with the control circuit unit 33.

  Table 1 is an example of diagnostic information written in the RFID.

  Job No./Page No .: It is possible to specify the print result of the print data of which page of which job the corresponding paper.

  Amount of drive until reaching the sensor: It is possible to diagnose how much the actual arrival timing is behind the theoretical arrival timing. If the driving amount until reaching the sensor is larger than the theoretical value, it can be determined that the paper arrival roller is slipped or the paper arrival is delayed due to idling. Here, the driving amount until reaching the sensor is used, but it may be the time until reaching the sensor.

  Printing temperature / humidity: Usually, it may be affected by the printing environment (temperature / humidity). By recording the temperature and humidity at the time of printing in the RFID, for example, when an abnormal image occurs, the RFID of the paper can be read to identify the temperature and humidity around the head when the abnormal image occurs. Cause analysis can be performed.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart when writing diagnostic information in the embodiment of the present invention. Upon receiving a print request from the user, the image forming apparatus starts printing (S401). Thereafter, various diagnostic information is measured and acquired until the paper discharge is completed (S402). Here, the measured / acquired diagnostic information is temporarily stored in a memory in the image forming apparatus. When the paper discharge is completed (S403), the RFID reader / writer writes the diagnostic information measured and acquired during printing and stored in the memory in the image forming apparatus to the RFID chip attached to the paper ( S404). After writing to the RFID, the diagnostic information temporarily written to the memory of the main body becomes unnecessary, so that the same area can be used again when acquiring diagnostic information on the next sheet.

  As described above, the main body only needs to have a temporary storage area before the diagnostic information is written to the RFID, and even if the number of printed sheets increases, it is not necessary to increase the memory of the image forming apparatus main body in order to store the diagnostic information. .

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart for determining the state by reading the diagnostic information written on the RFID of the paper in the embodiment of the present invention. When the RFID-added paper in which the diagnostic information is written is set in the paper feed tray and the diagnostic information reading instruction is given, conveyance of the paper in the paper feed tray is started (S501). Thereafter, when the conveyed paper is discharged to the paper discharge tray (S502), the diagnostic information written in the RFID is read by the RFID reader (S503), and the read diagnostic information is processed so as to be able to determine the abnormality of the device. Perform (S504). For example, calculating an average value of data for a plurality of sheets.

  Thereafter, it is determined whether or not reading of the number of sheets designated by the user has been completed (S505). If not, the next sheet is conveyed and RFID is read. If the reading for the number of sheets designated by the user has been completed, the device state abnormality determination is performed from the data obtained by processing the diagnostic information (S506).

  Here, an example in which an average value of the sensor arrival timings for a plurality of sheets is calculated and a warning is displayed if the average value is equal to or greater than a predetermined amount will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for calculating an average value of a plurality of pieces of diagnostic information. (Specific example of S506 in FIG. 5)

  First, an average value AVEn−1 of drive amounts from the storage area to the arrival of n−1 sensors is acquired (S601). Next, an average value AVEn of the drive amount until reaching the n sensors is calculated from the drive amount Dn until reaching the nth sensor read from AVEn-1 and RFID (S602). The calculation formula is shown below.

  The calculated AVEn is stored in the storage area (S603). Since AVEn-1 becomes unnecessary, it is discarded here.

  By repeating the above for the number of sheets designated by the user, the average value for the number of sheets designated by the user can be calculated. As a result, it is possible to calculate the average value without holding the driving amount until the sensor reaches the total number of sheets in the main body.

  Thereafter, in the abnormality determination in S506 of FIG. 5, when a predetermined sensor reaching drive amount threshold is exceeded, a warning message display is displayed to the user. The content of the message may be a notification that paper conveyance is delayed, or a prompt to replace a component (roller wear) that causes the paper conveyance to be delayed.

  In the above-described embodiment, the tendency of the operation of the machine (whether paper conveyance is delayed or the like) is determined by reading a plurality of pieces of data and calculating an average value thereof. As another embodiment, for example, it can be determined whether or not there is an abnormality in the environment when a printed matter that has become an abnormal image is printed.

  In an image forming apparatus such as an ink jet printer, an image output result is affected by temperature and humidity. Particularly in a low-humidity environment, the nozzle may feel dry and ink may not be ejected, and the image may not be output correctly.

  In addition, it is conceivable that the ink is not ejected because ink mist adheres to the nozzle surface or paper dust adheres to the nozzle surface.

  However, in the method of recording diagnostic information in the memory in the image forming apparatus, the printed matter cannot be associated with the diagnostic information (it is not known which data was printed when which printed matter). For this reason, the printing environment when the abnormal image occurs cannot be specified, and it cannot be easily determined whether the cause of the abnormal image is due to the temperature and humidity environment or other factors.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, since the printed matter and the diagnostic data are associated with each other, the temperature and humidity data of the RFID of the paper on which the abnormal image has occurred is read, so that the printing environment is guaranteed as the printing operation. It is possible to easily determine whether the cause of the abnormal image is due to the printing environment or other factors.

  The present invention has been described above by the preferred embodiments of the present invention. While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. Obviously you can.

1 is a configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a control unit of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of an RFID reader / writer. It is a flowchart figure at the time of writing diagnostic information. It is a flowchart figure at the time of reading the diagnostic information written in RFID, and performing state determination. It is a flowchart figure at the time of calculating the average value of several sheets of diagnostic information.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Paper loading part 2 Paper feeding roller 3 Paper separation pad 4 Charging roller 5 High voltage power supply 6 Conveying belt 7 Conveying roller 8 Tension roller 9 Conveying guide 10 Lead end roller 11 Paper reversing unit for double-sided printing 12 Head 13 Ink supply pipe 14 RFID reader Writer 15 Output tray

Claims (5)

Storage means for storing information;
Diagnostic means for diagnosing abnormalities and creating diagnostic information;
Writing means for writing diagnostic information created by the diagnostic means to RFID on paper;
Reading means for reading diagnostic information written by the writing means;
Determination means for determining whether or not there is an abnormality from the diagnostic information read by the reading means;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a notification unit configured to notify a result of the determination unit.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit temporarily stores the diagnostic information until the diagnostic information is written in the writing unit.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit calculates an average value of a plurality of pieces of diagnostic information and determines whether or not a threshold value is exceeded.   4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit associates each sheet with diagnostic information, and determines whether or not the printing environment is based on the diagnostic information when an abnormality occurs. Image forming apparatus.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification unit displays a message that prompts replacement of a part.

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