JP2012008231A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus for quickly providing information required for securing safety, when earthquake occurs.SOLUTION: In facilities having many peoples such as a school and a business place, an image forming apparatus 100 periodically obtains safety information required for securing the safety of each person when earthquake occurs from a safety information server 101 controlling and recording the safety information in peace time. When an emergency earthquake report broadcasted from a broadcast station 110 is received, the image forming apparatus 100 interrupts a print job, image stabilization processing, etc., to print-output the previously obtained safety information, even when the print job, the image stabilization processing, etc. are in execution.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for quickly providing information necessary for ensuring safety in the event of an earthquake.

In recent years, earthquakes of various scales have occurred in various parts of the world, resulting in physical and human damage. Since the occurrence of an earthquake cannot be suppressed, and even it is difficult to predict, the only way to mitigate the damage is to detect it quickly to ensure safety when an earthquake occurs.
For this reason, for example, the following printer devices have been proposed. When emergency report data broadcast on TV is received in the event of an earthquake, information about nearby maps, evacuation facilities, etc. is obtained from the server from the current location of the printer, and a map with evacuation routes is printed out. . In this way, the map in which the evacuation route is entered is automatically output upon receipt of the emergency call data, which can contribute to ensuring safety.

JP 2006-270159 A

However, if you have a large number of people, such as schools or business establishments, simply checking the evacuation route and evacuating disorderly may cause confusion, and you cannot ensure sufficient safety. Is expected. For this purpose, for example, it is indispensable to quickly grasp information such as the number of people and the location of each person for each class and department and perform appropriate personnel management.
In addition, when such information is centrally managed by the server device, it may be difficult to acquire personnel information due to a communication interruption due to an earthquake, so it is necessary to take some measures.

In order to quickly acquire information necessary for ensuring safety, it may be possible to continue collecting such information from normal times. However, considering the frequency of earthquakes, it is less effective. However, it may be too late to start collecting information after the earthquake.
SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming apparatus that promptly provides information necessary for ensuring safety when an earthquake occurs.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an earthquake early warning receiving means for receiving an emergency earthquake early warning, and safety information related to ensuring safety in the event of an earthquake, and safety information other than a map indicating an evacuation route Safety information acquisition means for acquiring the safety information, safety information storage means for storing the acquired safety information, and earthquake early warning reception means when the earthquake early warning is received, the ongoing processing is interrupted and the safety information is stored. Emergency output means for printing out the safety information stored in the means.

  In this way, safety information is acquired in advance prior to receiving the earthquake early warning, and when the earthquake early warning is received, the current process is interrupted and the safety information is printed out. Information required for ensuring safety can be provided promptly. The safety information other than the map indicating the evacuation route is information useful for ensuring safety in the event of a disaster, such as the name and location of the personnel to be evacuated, emergency contact information, blood type, etc. Information other than the map shown.

  Specifically, the emergency output means can quickly output the safety information by outputting the safety information in black and white when the two types of output of the color output and the monochrome output whose printing speed is faster than the color output are possible. Can be printed out. Further, a fixing device that heat-fixes the toner image on the recording sheet by a heating member may be provided, and the emergency output unit may print out the safety information even if the heating member does not reach the fixing temperature.

  The safety information acquisition means can store newer and therefore more accurate safety information in the safety information storage means if the safety information is periodically acquired from the server device storing the safety information via the network. As a result, safety can be ensured more reliably in the event of an earthquake. In addition, even when communication is interrupted with a server device that manages safety information, the safety information can be reliably printed out. Furthermore, since the safety information can be centrally managed by the server device, it is possible to save time and effort for updating the safety information.

It is a figure which shows the system configuration | structure of the safety information delivery system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating a main configuration of an image forming apparatus 100. FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a main configuration of a fixing device 215. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 100. FIG. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating examples of the contents of safety information, where (a) is safety information stored in the safety information server 101, and (b) is safety information output by the image forming apparatus 100. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the image forming apparatus 100 when receiving an earthquake early warning. 4 is a flowchart illustrating processing in which the image forming apparatus 100 acquires safety information from the safety information server 101.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with a safety information distribution system as an example with reference to the drawings.
[1] System Configuration First, the system configuration of the safety information distribution system according to the present embodiment will be described.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a safety information distribution system according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a safety information distribution system 1 according to the present embodiment is a system in which a safety information server 101 and a plurality (N units) of image forming apparatuses 100 are connected via a network 102. Therefore, the image forming apparatus 100 receives the earthquake early warning broadcast from the broadcasting station 110 by the antenna 103.

[2] Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 100 will be described.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a main configuration of image forming apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a document reading unit 200, an image forming unit 210, and a paper feeding unit 220. The document reading unit 200 optically reads a document and generates image data.

The image forming unit 210 includes image forming units 211Y to 211K, a control unit 212, an intermediate transfer belt 213, a secondary transfer roller pair 214, a fixing device 215, a paper discharge roller pair 216, a paper discharge tray 217, a cleaner 218, and a timing roller pair 219. It has.
The image forming units 211Y to 211K form toner images of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black), respectively, under the control of the control unit 212, so that the toner images of the respective colors overlap. Then, electrostatic transfer (primary transfer) is performed on the intermediate transfer belt 213. The intermediate transfer belt 213 is an endless rotating body, and rotates in the direction of arrow A to convey the toner image to the secondary transfer roller pair 214.

  The paper feed unit 220 includes a paper feed cassette 221 that stores the recording paper P for each paper size, and supplies the recording paper P to the image forming unit 210. The supplied recording paper P is unloaded in parallel with the intermediate transfer belt 213 conveying the toner image, and is conveyed to the secondary transfer roller pair 214 via the timing roller pair 219. The timing roller pair 219 includes a pair of rollers, and adjusts the timing at which the recording paper P reaches the secondary transfer roller pair 214.

The secondary transfer roller pair 214 is composed of a pair of rollers having a potential difference, and these roller pairs are pressed against each other to form a transfer NIP portion. In the transfer NIP portion, the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 213 is electrostatically transferred (secondary transfer) to the recording paper P. The recording paper P to which the toner image has been transferred is conveyed to the fixing device 215.
The fixing device 215 is, for example, an electromagnetic induction heating type fixing device, and heats and melts a toner image and press-bonds it to the recording paper P. The recording paper P to which the toner image is fused is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 217 by the paper discharge roller pair 216.

The control unit 212 controls the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 including the above. In addition, a terminal for connecting to the network 102 and a terminal for connecting to the antenna 103 are connected to the control unit 212.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a main configuration of the fixing device 215. As shown in FIG. 3, the fixing device 215 includes a fixing roller 302 and a pressure roller 303 arranged in a housing 301 so that the rotation axes thereof are parallel to each other, and press-contacts via a fixing belt 306 to apply pressure. The pressure roller 303 is rotationally driven by a drive motor (not shown).

  The fixing roller 302 has a heat insulating elastic layer 305 made of silicone sponge or the like formed on the peripheral surface of a long cored bar 304. An endless fixing belt 306 is loosely fitted on the outer periphery of the fixing roller 302 so as to be in contact with only the fixing nip. The fixing belt 306 is formed by laminating a metal heating layer, an elastic layer, and a release layer from the side closer to the peripheral surface of the fixing roller 302. The metal heating layer is made of a Ni electroformed sleeve.

  The pressure roller 303 is formed by laminating a release layer around an elongated core metal through an elastic layer, and is urged by an urging mechanism (not shown) so that the fixing belt 306 is moved from the outside of the fixing belt 306. The fixing roller 302 is pressed to secure a fixing nip with the surface of the fixing belt 306. The pressure roller 303 is rotationally driven by a driving mechanism (not shown), and the fixing belt 306 and the fixing roller 302 are driven to rotate as the pressure roller 303 rotates.

In the vicinity of the outer peripheral surface of the fixing belt 306, an infrared sensor 308 that detects a surface temperature at a substantially central portion in the rotation axis direction of the fixing belt 306 in a non-contact manner is disposed.
The exciting coil 307, the center core 309, and the bottom cores 310 and 311 are held by the coil bobbin 312, and the main core 313 is held by the core holding member 314.
The exciting coil 307 is formed by winding a litz wire that is a bundle of thin wires covered with a heat-resistant resin. The exciting coil 307 is connected to a high-frequency power source (not shown), and generates an alternating magnetic flux to cause the metal heating layer to generate heat by electromagnetic induction and raise the temperature to the fixing temperature. The amount of energization to the exciting coil 307 is controlled by the control unit 212 referring to the detection signal from the infrared sensor 308.

The center core 309, the bottom cores 310 and 311 and the main core 313 are made of a magnetic material having high magnetic permeability and low loss, and form a magnetic circuit together with the fixing belt 306 and the excitation coil 307. As a result, leakage of magnetic flux outside the magnetic circuit is shielded, and heat generation efficiency is improved.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 100. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the image forming apparatus 100 includes an earthquake early warning reception unit 401, a safety information reception unit 402, a storage unit 403, and a print processing unit 404.

The earthquake early warning receiving unit 401 receives the earthquake early warning from the broadcasting station 110 via the antenna 103. When the earthquake early warning receiving unit 401 receives the earthquake early warning, it notifies the print processing unit 404 to that effect.
The safety information receiving unit 402 acquires safety information from the safety information server 101 via the network 102 periodically, for example, every hour. When the safety information receiving unit 402 acquires the safety information, the safety information receiving unit 402 stores it in the safety information storage area 406 of the storage unit 403. The safety information storage area 406 is a non-volatile storage area. For example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) is used.

The storage unit 403 includes a job storage area 405 and a safety information storage area 406, and jobs such as print jobs are stored in the job storage area 405. In addition, safety information is stored in the safety information storage area 406. The safety information stored in the safety information storage area 406 includes map information indicating an emergency evacuation route when a disaster occurs.
5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating the contents of safety information. FIG. 5A is safety information stored in the safety information server 101, and FIG. 5B is safety information output by the image forming apparatus 100. FIG. As shown in FIG. 5A, in the safety information server 101, for each of the N image forming apparatuses, the names of the persons belonging to the department where the image forming apparatus is installed, the sunrise absence situation, and the emergency Contact information is registered.

When the safety information receiving unit 402 specifies the number of the own device and acquires the safety information for the own device from the safety information server 101, the safety information receiving unit 402 refers to the attendance status in the safety information and calculates the number of employees working. Then, the safety information as shown in FIG. 5B is created, and the safety information stored in the safety information storage area 406 is updated.
The print processing unit 404 reads the safety information from the safety information storage area 406 when it is notified that the earthquake early warning has been received from the earthquake early warning receiving unit 401. The temperature of the fixing belt 306 is acquired with reference to the infrared sensor 308 of the fixing device 215. If the acquired temperature is equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature (for example, 150 ° C., hereinafter referred to as “reference temperature”), even if the fixing temperature (for example, 180 ° C.) has not been reached, an ongoing process, for example, warming up is performed. Stop processing and print jobs and print out safety information.

[3] Operation when Receiving Earthquake Early Warning The operation of the image forming apparatus 100 when receiving the earthquake early warning will be described.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the image forming apparatus 100 when receiving an earthquake early warning. As shown in FIG. 6, when the image forming apparatus 100 is turned on, the image forming apparatus 100 performs a warm-up process for preheating the fixing belt 306 (S601). When the earthquake early warning information is received by the earthquake early warning receiving unit 401 before the surface temperature T of the fixing belt 306 detected by the infrared sensor 308 reaches the fixing temperature (S602: NO), the earthquake early warning receiving unit 401 receives (S603: YES), check whether the surface temperature T has reached the reference temperature.

  If the surface temperature T has not reached the reference temperature (S604: NO), the warm-up process is continued (S605). After that, when the surface temperature T reaches the reference temperature (S604: YES), the print processing unit 404 reads the safety information from the safety information storage area 406 and outputs the safety information in monochrome (S606). In this way, the safety information is output without waiting for the fixing belt 306 to reach the fixing temperature, so that the safety information can be provided more quickly.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that monochrome output has a higher printing speed than color output, and monochrome information is output because safety information can be printed faster with monochrome output. However, if color output is faster than monochrome output, the safety information should be output in color.
After the safety information is output in monochrome, the warm-up process is continued (S601). When the surface temperature T of the fixing belt 306 reaches the fixing temperature (S602), it is confirmed whether a print job has been accepted. When a print job is received (S610: YES), the print job is executed (S611). If the earthquake early warning is received (S613: YES) before the print job is finished (S612: YES), the print job is interrupted (S614). The print job is interrupted in the same manner as so-called interrupt processing.

  When the safety information is read from the safety information storage area 406 and the monochrome information is generated (S615), the interrupted print job is resumed (S616). Thereafter, when the execution of the print job is completed (S612: YES), the process proceeds to B in the flowchart. In this way, the safety information is output without waiting for the end of the print job, so that the safety information can be provided more quickly.

  If it is time to execute the so-called image stabilization process without accepting the print job (S610: NO), the image stabilization process is executed (S621). The image stabilization process is a process for adjusting the toner density and printing position of each color of YMCK, which varies due to environmental conditions, etc., to prevent color misregistration and to stabilize the image quality. It is executed every time a certain number of sheets are printed.

  Then, before the end of the image stabilization process (S622: NO), if the earthquake early warning is received (S623: YES), the image stabilization process is interrupted (S624), and the safety information is output in monochrome (S625). . When the safety information is output in monochrome, the image stabilization process is executed again (S621). When the image stabilization process ends (S622: YES), the process proceeds to B in the flowchart. In this way, even if some image degradation such as color misregistration occurs, the safety information is output before the image stabilization is finished, so that the safety information can be provided earlier.

  It is not the time to execute the image stabilization process (S620: NO), and when it is time to transition to the standby state (S630: YES), the state transitions to the standby state (S631). The standby state includes various modes such as a sleep mode and a power saving mode depending on the state of the image forming apparatus 100. In the present embodiment, the state where the temperature of the fixing belt 306 is not maintained at a temperature higher than the reference temperature. Take as a standby state. The transition to the standby state is performed, for example, when a print job is not received for a certain period of time.

  Thereafter, when the standby state is to be ended (S632: YES), the process proceeds to A in the flowchart and the warm-up process is executed (S601). In addition, the reception of the earthquake early warning is treated as one of the conditions to get out of the standby state. When the earthquake early warning is received during standby, the same process is executed when the earthquake early warning is received during the warm-up process. . In this way, since the safety information is output in monochrome even when the fixing belt 306 has not reached the fixing temperature, the safety information can be provided more quickly.

If it is not the time to transition to the standby state (S630: NO) and the emergency earthquake warning is received in the standby state (S640: YES), the safety information is immediately printed in monochrome (S641), and the process proceeds to B in the flowchart. Even when the earthquake early warning is not received (S640: NO), the process proceeds to B in the flowchart.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing in which the image forming apparatus 100 acquires safety information from the safety information server 101. As shown in FIG. 7, in order to acquire safety information from the safety information server 101, the image forming apparatus 100 requests the safety information by notifying the safety information server 101 of its own number after power-on (S701). ), A timer is set (S702). This timer is used to monitor whether safety information is returned from the safety information server 101, and is set to, for example, 1 second.

  Thereafter, without receiving safety information from the safety information server 101 (S705: NO), if a timeout occurs (S703: YES), a communication error is notified (S704), and the safety information is requested again (S701). . The communication error may be notified by being displayed on an operation panel provided in the image forming apparatus 100, or a history of communication error information including a request transmission time may be left.

  If the safety information is received before the timeout occurs (S703: NO) (S705: YES), the received safety information is stored in the safety information storage area 406 (S706), and a timer is set (S707). This timer is used to detect the next time when the safety information server 101 is requested for safety information. For example, one hour is set. If a timeout occurs (S708: YES), the safety information server 101 is requested again for safety information (S701).

In this way, since the latest safety information is always obtained from the safety information server 101 and stored in the nonvolatile memory, even if communication with the safety information server 101 is interrupted due to an earthquake, a newer information is obtained. Safety information can be output.
[4] Modifications Although the present invention has been described based on the embodiments, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the following modifications can be implemented. .

(1) In the above embodiment, a case has been described in which safety information is output as an interrupt process when an emergency earthquake warning is received during execution of a print job. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Needless to say, the following may be used instead.
That is, when outputting the safety information for all N sheets, if the m-th print of M print jobs is being printed, the total number of print jobs being executed is changed from M to (M + N And the safety information may be output from the (m + 1) th sheet to the (m + N) th sheet of the print job. Even in this case, safety information can be output quickly during execution of a print job.

  (2) In the above embodiment, no particular mention was made as to which color is used for monochrome output, but safety information is output before the fixing belt reaches the fixing temperature, or image stabilization processing is interrupted. When safety information is output, there is a risk that image quality will be slightly degraded. Even in such a case, it is desirable to use black as the monochrome output in order to make the safety information easier to see.

  (3) Although not particularly mentioned in the above embodiment, for example, the safety information server 101 may also serve as a device that manages attendance information at the office during normal times. In recent years, since there are not a few offices that manage the location of employees by computer, in a normal time, the safety information server 101 manages attendance information, and when safety information is requested from the image forming apparatus 100, the attendance information is obtained from the attendance information. It is also possible to respond by extracting data corresponding to.

  (4) In the above embodiment, the case where the safety information is printed out when the fixing belt has not reached the fixing temperature but has reached the reference temperature of 150 ° C. has been described. Needless to say, even if the temperature is other than 150 ° C., if the temperature is lower than the fixing temperature, the effect of the present invention can be obtained by adopting this as the reference temperature.

  (5) In the above embodiment, the case where a list of three items of name, attendance and contact information is output as safety information has been described, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this, and in addition to these May be output. For example, if each person's blood type is output, even if the person loses blood due to an accident or the like, the blood can be safely transfused.

(6) In the above-described embodiment, the case where each image forming apparatus 100 receives the earthquake early warning by the antenna 103 has been described. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited thereto. You may receive the earthquake early warning by means.
For example, an earthquake early warning may be received by installing a common antenna in the entire school or office and distributing a signal received by the common antenna to each image forming apparatus 100. Further, the earthquake early warning received by the common antenna may be distributed to each image forming apparatus 100 using a local area network (LAN). The effect of the present invention is the same regardless of whether the image forming apparatus 100 receives the earthquake early warning.

  The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is useful as an apparatus for quickly providing information necessary for ensuring safety in the event of an earthquake.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ......... Safety information delivery system 100 ... Image forming apparatus 101 ... Safety information server 102 ... Network 103 ... Antenna 212 ... Control part 215 ... Fixing apparatus 306 ... Fixing belt 308 ... Infrared sensor 401 ... Emergency earthquake early warning receiving part 402 ... Safety Information receiving unit 403 ... storage unit 404 ... print processing unit 405 ... job storage area 406 ... safety information storage area

Claims (4)

An earthquake early warning receiving means for receiving an earthquake early warning;
Safety information for ensuring safety in the event of an earthquake, and safety information acquisition means for acquiring safety information other than a map indicating an evacuation route in advance;
Safety information storage means for storing the acquired safety information;
And an emergency output means for printing out the safety information stored in the safety information storage means by interrupting the process being executed when the emergency earthquake warning is received by the earthquake warning information receiving means, Image forming apparatus. The emergency output means outputs the safety information in monochrome when the two types of print output are possible, that is, color output and monochrome output whose printing speed is faster than color output. Image forming apparatus. A fixing device that heat-fixes the toner image on the recording sheet by a heating member;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the emergency output unit prints out the safety information even if the heating member does not reach the fixing temperature. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the safety information acquisition unit periodically acquires the safety information from a server device that stores the safety information via a network.

Images