JP2010095326A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of reducing the amount of paper sheets stacked on a paper discharge table of a paper discharge port for standard use. <P>SOLUTION: The printer 1 executes printing in the page order in which the image processing is completed before the image processing of every page of document images is completed, discharges the printed paper sheets to a face-down paper discharge table 62 as a paper discharge table for standard use, executes the printing in the reverse order of the pages after completing the image processing of every page of the document images, and discharges the printed paper sheets to a face-up paper discharge table 42. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a face-up discharge port and a face-down discharge port.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a printing apparatus that includes a face-up discharge port that discharges a printed sheet with the print side facing up, and a face-down discharge port that discharges a printed sheet with the print side facing down. It has been. At the face-up discharge port, the printed sheets are sequentially stacked on the discharge table with the printing surface facing upward. On the other hand, at the face-down paper discharge port, printed sheets are sequentially stacked on the paper discharge tray with the printing surface facing downward.

A maximum stacking amount is determined for each of the face-up discharge port and the face-down discharge port. Therefore, a technique is known in which when the maximum stacking capacity of one paper discharge tray is reached during printing of multiple pages, the paper is switched to the other paper discharge tray so that the paper is not discharged beyond the maximum stacking capacity. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-157746

  In a printing apparatus having a face-up discharge port and a face-down discharge port, the discharge table of one discharge port may be set to be used as a standard. In this case, since one of the paper discharge trays is frequently used, the paper discharge tray easily reaches the maximum load capacity in a short period of time.

  In the conventional technology described above, when the maximum stacking capacity of one paper discharge tray is reached during printing, the paper is switched to the other paper discharge tray and discharged. Until the printed material is removed from the paper discharge tray that has reached the maximum stacking capacity. Therefore, it becomes impossible to discharge the printed matter by another subsequent print job to the discharge tray. For this reason, it is desirable that the maximum load capacity of the paper discharge tray of the paper discharge outlet used as a standard is not reached as much as possible.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of reducing the number of sheets stacked on a sheet discharge tray used as a standard.

  In order to achieve the above object, a printing apparatus according to the present invention includes a printing unit that prints on paper, and image data of a document image to be printed included in an input print job in the page order of the document image. An image processing unit that performs image processing to be converted into print image data to be used for printing, a face-up discharge port that discharges paper with the printed surface of the printed sheet facing up, and a paper discharged from the face-up discharge port A face-up discharge tray for stacking the printed paper, a face-down discharge port for discharging the printed paper with the print side down, and a face for stacking the paper discharged from the face-down discharge port A down discharge tray, and a print control unit that causes the printing unit to print on sheets in the order of pages on which image processing by the image processing unit has been completed, and sequentially discharges the printed sheets to the face down discharge port. The print control unit, when the image processing of the image data of all pages of the original image is completed in the image processing unit, and the remaining number of prints at that time is less than or equal to the maximum stacking capacity of the face-up discharge tray, The printing unit prints on the paper in the reverse order of the remaining pages, and the printed paper is sequentially discharged to the face-up discharge port.

  In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, the print control unit may have a remaining number of prints larger than the maximum stacking amount of the face-up discharge tray when the image processing unit finishes image processing of all image data of the document image. In this case, the printing in the order of pages is continued and sequentially discharged to the face-down discharge port, and after the remaining number of prints is equal to or less than the maximum stacking capacity of the face-up discharge tray, the printing is performed in the reverse order of the remaining pages. The paper is printed on the sheet by the unit, and the printed sheets are sequentially discharged to the face-up discharge port.

  In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, when a plurality of copies are designated by the print job, the print control unit prints pages in order of the pages of the copies and sequentially discharges them to the face-down discharge port. After the paper is formed, the printing unit prints the paper in the reverse order of the pages from the next part, and the printed paper is sequentially discharged to the face-up discharge port.

  In addition, the printing apparatus of the present invention has a display unit, a sheet stacked on the face-up discharge table, and a sheet loaded on the face-down discharge table after all pages of the original image to be printed are printed. It further comprises a display control unit for causing the display unit to display a guide screen for instructing the user to superimpose the sheet.

  According to the printing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the number of sheets stacked on the sheet discharge table used as a standard.

  The best mode for carrying out the printing apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a paper feed unit 2, a printer unit 3, a face-up paper discharge unit 4, a circulation transport unit 5, and a face-down paper discharge unit 6. Is provided.

  The paper feed unit 2 is exposed to the outside of the casing of the printing apparatus 1, and includes a side paper feed base 21 on which paper as a print medium is stacked and a sheet from the side paper feed base 21 one by one. A paper feed roller 22 that picks up and conveys, a plurality of paper feed trays 23a to 23d that are provided inside the housing and on which the paper is stacked, and picks up paper one by one from the paper feed trays 23a to 23d. The paper transported along the paper feed transport path 25 indicated by the thick black line in FIG. 1 from one of the paper feed rollers 24a to 24d, the side paper feed tray 21 and the paper feed trays 23a to 23d is slanted. And a registration roller 26 that performs line correction and supplies the printer unit 3 with a predetermined timing.

  The printer unit 3 includes a head unit 31 that ejects ink onto a sheet to print an image, and a conveyance unit 32 that conveys the sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit 2 toward the head unit 31.

  The head unit 31 includes a plurality of line-type print heads 31a to 31d in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged in a direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction. The print heads 31a to 31d are arranged above the conveying unit 32 at a predetermined interval, and in order from the paper supply side, ink of each color of C (cyan), K (black), M (magenta), and Y (yellow) is printed on the paper. To be discharged.

  The conveyance unit 32 includes an annular conveyance belt 33 that rotates, a drive roller 34 that drives the conveyance belt 33 to rotate, and conveyance belt rollers 35 to 37 that are driven rollers of the drive roller 34. The conveyance belt 33 is an endless belt having a large number of holes, and adsorbs and conveys paper with a negative pressure generated by sucking air from the holes by a suction fan (not shown).

  The face-up paper discharge unit 4 is provided downstream of the printer unit 3 in the paper conveyance direction, and is a face-up paper discharge unit that discharges the printed paper conveyed by the conveyance unit 32 with the printing surface facing upward. A port 41 and a face-up discharge table 42 on which sheets discharged from the face-up discharge port 41 are stacked with the printing surface facing upward. The face-up discharge tray 42 has a tray shape that protrudes from the housing and is inclined, and is discharged from the face-up discharge port 41 and inclined by a wall formed at a lower position of the inclination. The paper that slides down is arranged naturally and overlaps.

  The circulation conveyance unit 5 includes a switching mechanism 51, conveyance rollers 52 and 53, a switching mechanism 54, and a face-down paper discharge roller 55, and causes the paper printed by the head unit 31 to pass along the circulation inversion path 56. It is conveyed and guided to the face-down paper discharge unit 6.

  When discharging to the face-up discharge tray 42, the switching mechanism 51 guides the sheet to the face-up discharge tray 41 and discharges it to the face-down discharge tray 62 or after single-sided printing during duplex printing. The sheet is guided to the circulation inversion path 56. The paper guided to the circulation inversion path 56 is transported toward the face-down paper discharge unit 6 by the transport rollers 52 and 53 with the printing surface facing downward.

  The switching mechanism 54 guides the paper to the face-down paper discharge roller 55 when discharging the paper to the face-down paper discharge tray 62, and guides the paper in the direction of a switchback transport roller 63 described later during double-sided printing. The face-down paper discharge roller 55 sends the paper conveyed via the switching mechanism 54 to a face-down paper discharge port 61 described later.

  The face-down paper discharge unit 6 is a face-down paper discharge port 61 that discharges printed paper that has been conveyed by the circulation conveyance unit 5 with the printing surface facing downward, and the paper that has been discharged from the face-down paper discharge port 61. And a face-down discharge tray 62 on which sheets are stacked with the printing surface facing downward. The face-down discharge tray 62 has a tray shape that protrudes from the housing on the side opposite to the face-up discharge tray 42, is inclined, and is placed on the face by a wall formed at a lower position of the tilt. The paper discharged from the down paper discharge port 61 and sliding down along the inclination is naturally arranged and overlapped.

  A space 62a is provided in the face-down paper discharge tray 62, and a switchback transport roller 63 is disposed in the vicinity of the opening of the space 62a. During double-sided printing, the single-side printed paper is guided to the switchback transport roller 63 by the switching mechanism 54, and is pulled into the space 62a by the switchback transport roller 63 to perform switchback. Thereafter, the single-side printed paper is transported by the transport roller 64, guided again to the registration roller 26 with the printing surface facing downward, and is supplied to the printer unit 3 at a predetermined timing by the registration roller 26, and the unprinted surface Is printed.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the printing apparatus 1. The printing apparatus 1 includes a main control unit 100 including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory, and the like, and the image processing unit 101 and the print control unit are operated by the CPU operating according to a program stored in the memory. 102, a drive control unit 103, and a display control unit 104 are configured. A part of the memory functions as the print image data storage unit 105.

  In addition, the printing apparatus 1 includes an operation receiving unit 110 that receives setting of printing conditions and the like via an operation panel (not shown) and the like, and a display unit 120 that is provided in the operation panel and displays information related to the printing apparatus 1. And a communication processing unit 130 for connecting to a computer network or the like.

  The image processing unit 101 converts image data included in a print job received from a host computer (not shown) via the communication processing unit 130 into print image data used for printing by the printing unit 140 including the head unit 31 and the like. Perform image processing.

  Specifically, the image processing unit 101 converts R, G, and B component digital image signals that form an image into Y, M, C, and K component digital image signals. Then, the image processing unit 101 converts each pixel data in the digital image signals of the Y component, M component, C component, and K component into ink amount data when ink is ejected from each nozzle of the print heads 31a to 31d. This is stored in the print image data storage unit 105 as print image data.

  The print control unit 102 controls the printing process in the printing unit 140 by controlling the drive of the ink ejection operation of each of the print heads 31 a to 31 d based on the print image data generated by the image processing unit 101.

  The drive control unit 103 operates the transport drive unit 150 under the control of the print control unit 102. The transport driving unit 150 drives the transport unit 32, the circulation transport unit 5 and the like to transport the paper. The display control unit 104 performs display control of the display unit 120.

  Next, the operation of the printing apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, in the printing apparatus 1, it is assumed that a face-down paper discharge tray 62 is set as a paper discharge tray used as a standard. Further, the maximum stacking amount of sheets is set for each of the face-up discharge tray 42 and the face-down discharge tray 62, and the maximum stacking amount of the face-up discharge tray 42 is larger than the maximum stacking amount of the face-down discharge tray 62. Shall.

  First, in step S <b> 10, the main control unit 100 receives a print job including image data of all pages of a document image to be printed transmitted from the host computer via the communication processing unit 130. The print job includes information indicating the number of copies to be printed.

  In step S20, the image processing unit 101 performs image processing for converting the image data of the document image included in the received print job into print image data used for printing by the printing unit 140 in the order of pages of the document image. The generated print image data is stored in the print image data storage unit 105.

  In step S <b> 30, the print control unit 102 ejects ink from the nozzles of the print heads 31 a to 31 d based on the print image data in order from the page on which the image processing by the image processing unit 101 is completed, and the transport unit 32 transports the ink. The printing unit 140 is controlled to print on the paper to be printed.

  In step S <b> 40, the drive control unit 103 conveys the printed sheet along the circulation inversion path 56 by the circulation conveyance unit 5 under the control of the print control unit 102, and faces down from the face-down discharge port 61. The paper is ejected to the paper ejection tray 62.

  In step S50, the print control unit 102 determines whether or not the image processing unit 101 has completed the image processing for all pages of the document image included in the print job. If the image processing for all pages has been completed (step S50: YES), the process proceeds to step S60. If there is a page for which image processing has not been completed (step S50: NO), the process returns to step S20.

  In step S <b> 60, the print control unit 102 determines whether or not the remaining number of prints at the time when the image processing of the image data of all pages is less than or equal to the maximum stacking amount of the face-up discharge tray 42. If it is less than or equal to the maximum load amount of the face-up discharge tray 42 (step S60: YES), the process proceeds to step S90. If it is greater than the maximum load amount of the face-up discharge tray 42 (step S60: NO), the process proceeds to step S70. .

  In step S70, the print control unit 102 controls the printing unit 140 to continue printing in the page order. In step S80, the drive control unit 103 causes the circulation conveyance unit 5 to feed the printed paper to the circulation inversion path. 56, and is discharged onto the face-down discharge tray 62. Thereafter, the process returns to step S60.

  In step S90, the print control unit 102 determines whether printing of a plurality of copies is designated based on information indicating the number of copies included in the print job. When printing of a plurality of copies is designated (step S90: YES), the process proceeds to step S100, and when printing of a plurality of copies is not designated (step S90: NO), the process proceeds to step S130.

  In step S100, the print control unit 102 determines whether or not the number of printed sheets has reached the copy separator. If the division has been reached (step S100: YES), the process proceeds to step S130. If the division has not been reached (step S100: NO), the process proceeds to step S110.

  In step S110, the print control unit 102 controls the printing unit 140 to continue printing in the page order. In step S120, the drive control unit 103 causes the circulation conveyance unit 5 to feed the printed paper to the circulation inversion path. 56, and is discharged onto the face-down discharge tray 62. Then, it returns to step S100.

  In step S130, the print control unit 102 controls the printing unit 140 to print the remaining unprinted pages in reverse order from the last page of the document image.

  In step S <b> 140, the drive control unit 103 guides the printed paper from the transport unit 32 to the face-up discharge port 41 by the switching mechanism 51 under the control of the print control unit 102. Eject paper.

  In step S150, the print control unit 102 determines whether printing of all pages of the document image included in the print job has been completed. In the case of a plurality of copies, it is determined whether printing of all the numbers has been completed. If printing of all pages has been completed (step S150: YES), the process proceeds to step S160. If printing of all pages has not been completed (step S150: NO), the process returns to step S130.

  At the end of printing all pages, the printed matter is divided and placed in two places, a face-down discharge tray 62 and a face-up discharge tray 42. On the face-down paper discharge tray 62, sheets with the print side facing down are placed in page order from the bottom. On the other hand, since sheets printed in reverse order of the pages are stacked on the face-up discharge tray 42 with the print side facing up, the sheets with the print side facing up are placed in page order from the top. For this reason, in order to obtain a printed material arranged in the page order, a bundle of two printed materials must be appropriately overlapped.

  Therefore, in step S160, the display control unit 104 guides the user to properly superimpose the sheets stacked on the face-down discharge tray 62 and the sheets stacked on the face-up discharge tray 42. A screen is displayed on the display unit 120. The user can obtain printed materials arranged in the page order by superimposing a bundle of two printed materials according to the guide screen displayed on the display unit 120.

  Next, a specific example will be described. For the sake of simplicity, an example will be described in which a 12-page document is printed as shown in FIGS. Here, when up to 4 pages are printed, the image processing for 12 pages is completed. Further, the maximum stacking capacity of the face-up discharge tray 42 is 8 sheets.

  In this case, as shown in FIG. 4A, printing is performed in the page order of “1” “2” “3” “4” up to the fourth page. “N” indicates the Nth page. Then, the sheets printed in the page order are discharged from the face-down discharge port 61, and as shown in FIG. 4B, the print surface is down and “1”, “2”, “3” from the bottom. "4" are stacked on the face-down discharge tray 62 in this order. Note that the inverted numbers in FIG. 4 indicate that printing is performed on the lower surface of the sheet.

  When the image processing up to the 12th page is completed at the time of printing up to the 4th page, the pages from the 5th page to the 12th page are “12” “11”. Printing is performed in the order of “6” and “5”. Then, the sheets printed in this order are discharged from the face-up discharge port 41, and as shown in FIG. 4C, the print side is “5” “6”. ”“ 12 ”in order, the sheets are stacked on the face-up discharge tray 42.

  Therefore, in order to obtain printed materials stacked in the order of “1” “2”... “11” “12”, the printed material on the face-down paper discharge tray 62 is face-up paper discharge tray 42 with the print side up. It will be sufficient if it is stacked on the printed matter. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a guide that visually and visually indicates that the printed material on the face-down paper discharge tray 62 is superimposed on the printed material on the face-up paper discharge tray 42 with the printing surface up. A screen 160 is displayed on the display unit 120.

  If the image processing for 12 pages is completed at the time of printing up to 2 pages, the remaining number of prints (10 sheets) at that time is larger than the maximum stacking amount of the face-up discharge tray 42 (step S60: NO). . For this reason, printing is continued in the page order until the remaining number of prints reaches eight sheets, which is the maximum stacking capacity of the face-up discharge tray 42, and then the printing is performed in the reverse order of the pages. As a result, printing is performed in the order shown in FIG. 4A, and the printed material is stacked on the face-down discharge tray 62 and the face-up discharge tray 42 as shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C.

  Next, an example in which printing of a plurality of copies is designated will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, it is assumed that three copies of a four-page document are printed, and image processing for four pages is completed when two pages are printed. Further, the maximum stacking capacity of the face-up discharge tray 42 is 10 sheets.

  In this case, even when the image processing for four pages is completed when printing up to the second page of the first copy, printing is performed in page order until the division of the copies. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6A, printing is performed in the page order of “1”, “2”, “3”, and “4” up to the fourth page of the first copy. Then, the sheets printed in the page order are discharged from the face-down discharge port 61, and as shown in FIG. 6B, the print surface is down and “1”, “2”, “3” from the bottom. "4" are stacked on the face-down discharge tray 62 in this order.

  In the second and subsequent copies, as shown in FIG. 6A, printing is performed in the order of “4”, “3”, “2”, and “1” in the reverse order of the pages. Then, the sheets printed in this order are discharged from the face-up discharge port 41 and, as shown in FIG. 6C, “1”, “2”, “3” from the top with the printing surface facing up. In the order of “4”, the second and third copies are stacked on the face-up discharge tray 42.

  Therefore, in order to obtain a printed material in which the printed materials of the first to third copies are stacked in the order of “1”, “2”, “3”, and “4”, the printed material on the face-down discharge tray 62 is printed on the printing surface. It is only necessary to place the printed material on the face-up discharge tray 42 with the face up. Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, a guide that visually and visually indicates that the printed material on the face-down paper discharge tray 62 is superimposed on the printed material on the face-up paper discharge tray 42 with the printing surface up. A screen 170 is displayed on the display unit 120.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, until image processing for all pages of image data of the original image is completed, printing is performed in the order of the pages for which image processing has been completed, and paper is discharged to the face-down paper discharge tray 62. After the image processing of all pages of the original image is completed, the pages are printed in the reverse order and discharged to the face-up discharge tray 42, and therefore loaded on the face-down discharge tray 62, which is a standard discharge tray. The amount of paper used can be reduced. As a result, it is possible to reduce the situation in which the face-down paper discharge tray 62 reaches the maximum load capacity and it becomes impossible to discharge the printed material from another subsequent print job to the face-down paper discharge tray 62.

  In this embodiment, the case where printing is performed based on the image data included in the print job received from the host computer has been described. However, the present invention also applies to the case where image data of a document read by a scanner (not shown) is used. Applicable.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows an example of a page printing order. It is a figure which shows an example of a guide screen. It is a figure which shows the other example of a page printing order. It is a figure which shows the other example of a guide screen.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing apparatus 2 Paper feed part 3 Printer part 4 Face up paper discharge part 5 Circulation conveyance part 6 Face down paper discharge part 21 Side paper feed stand 23a-23d Paper feed tray 26 Registration roller 31 Head unit 32 Conveyance part 33 Conveyance belt 41 Face-up discharge port 42 Face-up discharge plate 56 Circulation reversal path 61 Face-down discharge port 62 Face-down discharge plate 100 Main control unit 101 Image processing unit 102 Print control unit 103 Drive control unit 104 Display control unit 105 Print image Data storage unit 110 Operation receiving unit 120 Display unit 130 Communication processing unit 140 Printing unit 150 Transport drive unit 160, 170 Guide screen

Claims (4)

A printing section for printing on paper;
An image processing unit that performs image processing for converting image data of a document image to be printed included in an input print job into print image data used for printing by the printing unit in the page order of the document image;
A face-up discharge port that discharges the printed paper with the print side facing up,
A face-up discharge tray for stacking sheets discharged from the face-up discharge port;
A face-down discharge port for discharging the printed paper with the print side down,
A face-down discharge tray for stacking sheets discharged from the face-down discharge port;
A printing control unit that causes the printing unit to print on a sheet in the order of pages on which image processing by the image processing unit has been completed, and sequentially discharges the printed sheet to the face-down discharge port;
The print control unit, when the image processing of the image data of all pages of the original image is completed in the image processing unit, and the remaining number of prints at that time is equal to or less than the maximum stacking amount of the face-up discharge tray, A printing apparatus that prints on a sheet by the printing unit in reverse order of pages, and sequentially discharges the printed sheets to the face-up discharge port.   The print control unit continues printing in the page order when the remaining number of prints at the time when the image processing of all the image data of the original image is completed in the image processing unit is larger than the maximum stacking amount of the face-up discharge tray. The paper is discharged sequentially to the face-down paper discharge port, and after the remaining number of prints is less than or equal to the maximum stacking capacity of the face-up paper discharge tray, the printing unit prints on the paper in the reverse order of the remaining pages. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printed sheets are sequentially discharged to the face-up discharge port.   When a plurality of copies are designated by the print job, the print control unit prints the pages in order of pages up to a page between the copies and sequentially discharges them to the face-down discharge port, and then sets the next copy. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit causes the printing unit to print on a sheet in reverse order of pages, and the printed sheets are sequentially discharged to the face-up discharge port. A display unit;
For instructing the user to superimpose the sheets stacked on the face-up discharge tray and the sheets stacked on the face-down discharge tray after all pages of the original image to be printed are printed. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a display control unit that displays a guide screen on the display unit.