JP2012174073A - Controller and control method of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the total power consumption when a print request is distributed to a plurality of printers to be executed.SOLUTION: A controller 100 of printers integrally manages a plurality of printers 201-203 to perform transfer control of a print request which is requested at present. The controller 100 has: specification means (a spool information management part 102) for calculating predicted execution time when the print request is executed by the respective printers, respectively to specify a printer which can complete execution of the print request within print allowable time; determination means (a power consumption calculation processing part 103) for determining printers in which the total of power consumption of all the printers becomes minimum at point when execution of all the print requests is completed when the print request is executed by the specified printer, respectively, when a plurality of specified printers exist; and transfer processing means (a job transfer processing part 104) for performing transfer processing of the print request to the determined printers.

Description

  The present invention relates to a control apparatus and a control method for a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a control apparatus and a control method for a printing apparatus that can reduce power consumption as a whole when a plurality of printing apparatuses are provided.

  When processing a large number of print requests for which an allowable time is determined, the processing may be distributed to a plurality of printing apparatuses and executed. In such a system, when a print request is made irregularly, a request is made to the printing apparatus with the smallest print request spooled at that time, or it is sequentially transferred in a round-robin manner. Thus, each print request is completed within an allowable time.

  However, in this case, there may be many transitions between states, and the amount of power consumption is greater than when printing to some extent. Here, the states are mainly an operation state (a state where printing is being executed), an operation preparation state (a waiting state for a print request), a sleep state (a power saving state), a power off state (a state where the power is not turned on) 4).

  On the other hand, if it is executed only with the printing device with the lowest power consumption, the power consumption is of course minimized, but in that case, it is highly likely that the printing will not be completed within the allowable printing time, and a significant delay occurs. Is predicted.

  As a technology related to this, for example, there is JP-A-8-223795 (Patent Document 1). In this technique, in order to suppress power consumption, a time period during which the user can arbitrarily enter the sleep state can be defined by defining a calendar schedule instead of entering the sleep state after a certain time.

  Another related technique is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-297715 (Patent Document 2). In this technique, for a print job designated by a user, information on the predicted power consumption of the job is displayed for each apparatus and operation mode, thereby promoting eco-consciousness of the user.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-22395 JP 2002-297715 A

  Patent Document 1 is a technique for controlling the timing of transition to a sleep state, and Patent Document 2 is a technique related to power consumption prediction. Neither technique can reduce the total power consumption when a print request is distributed to a plurality of printing apparatuses and executed.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a technique for solving the above-described problems of the prior art, and to reduce the total power consumption when a print request is distributed to a plurality of printing apparatuses and executed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control apparatus and a control method for a printing apparatus capable of performing the above.

The present invention is a control apparatus for a printing apparatus that performs centralized management of a plurality of printing apparatuses and performs transfer control of a currently requested print request,
A specific unit that calculates an expected execution time when the printing request is executed by each printing device, and specifies a printing device that can be completed within the allowable printing time;
When there are a plurality of the specified printing devices, when the print request is executed by each of the specified printing devices, the total power consumption of all the printing devices when the execution of all the printing requests is completed Determining means for determining a printing apparatus having a minimum value;
The image processing apparatus includes transfer processing means for transferring the print request to the determined printing apparatus.

Further, the present invention is a method for controlling a printing apparatus that performs centralized management of a plurality of printing apparatuses and performs transfer control of a currently requested print request,
Calculate the expected execution time when the printing request is executed in each printing device, identify the printing device that can be completed within the allowable printing time,
When there are a plurality of the specified printing devices, when the print request is executed by each of the specified printing devices, the total power consumption of all the printing devices when the execution of all the printing requests is completed Determine the printing device that minimizes
The print request is transferred to the determined printing apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the total power consumption when a print request is distributed to a plurality of printing apparatuses and executed.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the control apparatus of the printing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the specific information stored in a database (DB). It is a figure which shows the power supply state of a general printing apparatus. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the Example of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the Example of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the specific effect (reduction of power consumption) of the Example of this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, basic features of the present invention will be described.
The basic feature of the present invention is to centrally manage a plurality of printing apparatuses and appropriately control the transfer of print requests, thereby reducing power consumption as a whole while completing printing within an allowable printing time. It is.

  As described above, the present invention focuses on the power consumption in the printing apparatus. Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the power state of a general printing apparatus is roughly divided into the following four types.

(1) Operating state 300
Printing is in progress. The power consumption for maintaining the state is the largest.

(2) Operation ready state 301
Waiting for print request. Although the power consumption for maintaining the state is large, the amount of power required for shifting to the operating state is small, and it is possible to immediately shift to the operating state 300.

(3) Sleep state 302
This is a power saving state. Although power consumption for maintaining the state is small, a large amount of power is required to shift to the operating state 300, and a certain amount of time is required.

(4) Power off state 303
The power is off. The power consumption for maintaining the state is zero, but a warm-up process is required for a certain period of time to shift to the operating state 300, and at that time, a very large amount of power consumption is required.

  When printing is performed by the printing apparatus, the above four states are transitioned. A certain amount of power is required to shift from the other states to the operation state 300 for performing printing. This increases in the order of the operation preparation state 301, the sleep state 302, and the power-off state 303. On the other hand, of course, electric power is necessary to maintain the state, and this increases in the order of the power-off state 303, the sleep state 302, the operation preparation state 301, and the operation state 300.

  In the above description, the states are classified into four. However, the number of intermediate states other than the operating state 300 and the power-off state 303 is not particularly limited, and the scope of application of the present invention is not limited. .

  The present invention provides a mechanism that suppresses power consumption while completing each print request within the allowable printing time as much as possible on the premise of the above basic characteristics, and mainly has the following two characteristics ( Hereinafter, the print request is referred to as a job).

The first feature is that each printing apparatus is centrally managed, and an estimated execution time of each job when the printing apparatuses are executed is calculated.
Here, the management apparatus management information includes the following information.

(1) Static information Static information that is basically unchanged, such as the specifications of the printing apparatus. This corresponds to the time required for the first print in each state, the power consumption in each state, the power consumption during the state transition, and the printing speed.

(2) Dynamic information Information that varies depending on the operating status of the printing apparatus. This is the current status of the printing device and spooled job information.
Here, the following information is managed as job information.

(A) Number of printed sheets This is the number of printed sheets of the job.
(B) Additional attributes Job additional attributes such as color / monochrome, single-sided / double-sided, and stapling.
(C) Permissible printing time This is the permissible time by which the job should be printed.
(D) Expected execution time This is the expected execution time of this job.

  The estimated execution time of a job can be obtained by dividing the number of printed sheets by the printing speed of the printing apparatus (the printing speed may vary depending on the additional attributes of the job, but all of them are given). Thereby, it is possible to select and execute a printing apparatus capable of printing within the allowable time.

  A second feature is to suppress power consumption by performing transfer control using the management information and the estimated execution time of each printing apparatus described above. As shown in the first feature, when a predicted execution time is calculated and printing apparatuses that can be completed within the allowable printing time are determined, and there are a plurality of the printing apparatuses, those printing apparatuses When executing in step (1), the printing apparatus with the smallest power consumption is determined and executed by the printing apparatus, thereby reducing the total power consumption.

  Next, on the premise of the characteristics of the present invention, the configuration of the control apparatus of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a control apparatus 100 of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention performs centralized management of a plurality of printing apparatuses 201 to 203 and performs transfer control of a currently requested print request.

  The control apparatus 100 includes a printing apparatus state management unit 101, a spool information management unit 102, a power consumption calculation processing unit 103, a job transfer processing unit 104, and a database (DB) 105.

  Here, the printing apparatus state management unit 101 periodically monitors each of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 and registers the current state in the database (DB) 105.

  The spool information management unit 102 determines the transfer destination printing apparatuses 201 to 203 with reference to the database (DB) 105, and manages jobs spooled in the respective printing apparatuses 201 to 203.

  In response to a request from the spool information management unit 102, the power consumption calculation processing unit 103 calculates power consumption when the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 execute the corresponding job.

  The job transfer processing unit 104 performs actual job transfer processing to each of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203.

  The database (DB) 105 stores specification information (static information) of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 and dynamic information updated by the printing apparatus state management unit 101.

  In FIG. 1, the number of printing apparatuses 201 to 203 is three. However, the present invention is intended for distributed execution to two or more units, and any number may be used as long as the number is two or more. .

FIG. 2 shows an example of specific information stored in the database (DB) 105.
As shown in FIG. 2, the following information is managed for each of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203.

(1) Static information (a) Name
The name of the printing device.
(B) Warm-up It is the time taken to shift from the power-off state (303 in FIG. 3) to the printing operation state (300 in FIG. 3).
(C) First print This is the time taken to shift from the sleep state (302 in FIG. 3) to the printing operation state (300 in FIG. 3).
(D) Sleep transition time Generally, when a job repeats frequently, the operation ready state (301 in FIG. 3) is continuously maintained so that printing can be executed immediately. In order to suppress this, the state shifts to a sleep (power saving) state (302 in FIG. 3). This is the time until the sleep state (302 in FIG. 3) is entered.
(E) Power consumption Power consumption necessary for maintaining each state.
(F) Amount of power consumption required to shift to the operating state (300 in FIG. 3) Consumption required to shift from each state (301 to 303 in FIG. 3) to the operating state (300 in FIG. 3) The amount of power. In general, the watt hour (Wh) is used as the amount of power, but in the explanation of FIG. 2 and a specific embodiment described later, it is expressed in watt seconds (Ws) for convenience of explanation of the effect.
(G) Printing speed This is the printing speed of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203. Here, it is expressed in ppm (page per minute). For convenience, only one type is shown, but as described above, it can be changed depending on the job attribute.

(2) Dynamic information (a) Current state The current state of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 (operation state (300 in FIG. 3), operation preparation state (301 in FIG. 3), sleep state (302 in FIG. 3). ), Power off state (303 in FIG. 3)).
(B) Job information Job information currently being executed or spooled in each printing apparatus 201-203. Although there are the number of printed sheets, additional attributes, and allowable printing time, only the number of printed sheets is shown here. For convenience of illustration, only up to three jobs are shown, but there are actually as many entries as the number of spooled jobs.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 4, the operation of the control device of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  An operational feature of the present invention is a process of determining which printing apparatus 201 to 203 is to transfer a job requested irregularly by calculating power consumption.

  First, the printing apparatus state management unit 101 periodically monitors each of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 registered in advance, but even when a job submission request is made, the latest state at that moment is displayed. A check is made to obtain (S401). The result is registered / updated in the database (DB) 105 (S402).

  Next, when the update of the database (DB) 105 is completed, the spool information management unit 102 refers to the information and checks whether there is any abnormality in the operating printing apparatuses 201 to 203 (S403).

  At this time, if there is an abnormality (paper jam, out of toner, etc.) in the operating printing apparatuses 201 to 203, the jobs spooled in the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 remain unexecuted. It is necessary to turn to 201-203. For this purpose, recalculation processing is performed in S404. This logic (to which printing apparatus 201 to 203 is transferred) is the same as the transfer destination determination logic of one job, which will be described later.

  Note that S404 is not an indispensable matter of the present invention, and is intended only for general recovery processing. For jobs that have been spooled in the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 in which an abnormality has occurred, the retransfer destination It may be simply terminated abnormally without determining.

  As described above, S401 to S404 are processes that should be performed as a pre-stage of determining a job transfer destination, and the periodic monitoring of the printing apparatus state management unit 101 described in S401 to S402 is also the process from S401 to S404. Refers to that.

  Next, the spool information management unit 102 refers to the database (DB) 105, and when the currently requested job is executed by a specific printing apparatus 201 to 203, the printing is completed within the print allowable time. It is checked whether or not (S405).

This check is performed for all the printing apparatuses (normal printing apparatuses) other than the printing apparatus in the abnormal state checked in S403, and the condition whether or not to complete within the allowable time is as follows (1) ).
(Printable time)> (Current time) + (Predicted execution time of currently requested job) + Σ (Predicted execution time of already spooled job) (1)

  If the conditional expression (1) is true, it can be determined that the printing can be completed within the allowable printing time, and the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 are added to the printing apparatus list 1 (S406).

  For all the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 that are not abnormal, after the processing of S405 and S406 is completed, it is checked whether or not an entry exists in the printing apparatus list 1 (S407).

  The fact that there is no entry in the printing apparatus list 1 means that the requested job cannot be completed within the allowable printing time, and in this case, it is terminated as a request error. Here, for convenience of explanation, it is set as “request error”, but it is also possible to perform a process of “execution by a printing apparatus that completes the earliest while giving a warning message”. In such an irregular case, other processing may be performed for so-called error processing.

  Next, when one or more entries exist in the printing apparatus list 1, the spool information management unit 102 requests the power consumption calculation processing unit 103 to calculate power consumption. The power consumption calculation unit 103 performs the following calculation for each of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 entered in the printing apparatus list 1. That is, when the currently requested job is executed by the printing apparatuses 201 to 203, the power consumption (total power consumption) of all the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 at the time when the execution of all the jobs is finally completed. ) Is calculated (S408).

Here, the power consumption when one job is executed is given by the following formula (2).
(Power consumption) = (Power consumption for state transition) + (Power consumption in the operating state of the printing device) x (Expected execution time of job)) (2)

  The sum of all the jobs described above is the final power consumption of one printing apparatus, and the total power consumption is obtained by performing this calculation on all the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 and adding them.

  Next, in response to the calculation result of the total power consumption when executed by each of the printing apparatuses 201 to 203 performed in S <b> 408, the spool information management unit 102 selects a printing apparatus with the smallest power consumption. This is selected and determined as the print execution destination of the currently requested job (S409).

  Finally, the spool information management unit 102 issues a job transfer request to the job transfer processing unit 104, and the job transfer processing unit 104 performs job transfer processing to the corresponding printing apparatus (S410).

  As described above, by the processing up to S410, when the job is requested, the printing device that can be completed within the allowable printing time and has the smallest power consumption when all the jobs including the job are completed is selected. Can be executed.

  Next, examples of the present invention and specific effects thereof (reduction of power consumption) will be described assuming specific numerical values with reference to FIGS.

  To show the simplest example, assume two printing apparatuses (apparatus 1 and apparatus 2) as shown in FIG. Assume that the requested job is requested a total of 8 times at 5-minute intervals, the number of printed sheets of the job is uniformly 150 sheets, and the allowable print time is within 20 minutes after the request. For simplicity, the warm-up time is omitted in FIG. 5 (because the power is not turned off in this embodiment).

  Although the printing speed differs for each job attribute, for the sake of simplification, the job assumes the same condition (for example, all monochrome + one side), and only the printing speed is described.

  FIG. 6 shows the result of calculation performed according to the logic of the present invention when the above conditions are given, and the destination printing apparatus is determined.

  The requested job information is on the right, and the power consumption and job end time (cumulative time) when the job is executed on each printer are shown in the middle of the chart. The right side of the chart describes the printing device.

  Under these conditions, basically, the amount of power consumption is smaller when it is input to the printing apparatus 2, and therefore, the data is transferred to the printing apparatus 2. The job 7 is transferred to the printing apparatus 1 because it exceeds the allowable printing time.

  Then No. For both jobs 8, the power consumption for the state transition is zero because both are RUN (running state). However, since the power consumption is smaller when executed by the printing apparatus 2, it should be transferred to the printing apparatus 2. become.

  FIG. 7A shows the state of this execution in time series. Further, FIG. 7B shows a state in which execution is performed so that the print completion time is always transferred to a printing apparatus with few jobs that are spooled under the same conditions. In addition, the total power consumption required to complete the execution of all jobs is described below.

  From the above, when the present invention is executed, the difference is 832 kWs, that is, a reduction in power consumption of about 18% can be expected.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, first, it is possible to select and execute a printing apparatus that can be completed within the allowable printing time. This is because the estimated execution time when each job is executed by each printing apparatus is calculated by centrally managing the static information and the dynamic information of each printing apparatus.

  Second, it is possible to reduce power consumption as a whole while completing printing within an allowable time. This is because the total power consumption when executed by each printing apparatus is calculated from the information and job information of each printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus that consumes the least power is selected.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been specifically described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications based on the technical idea of the present invention are possible.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the control device 100 is described as being in a location (for example, an external computer device) different from the printing devices 201 to 203. You may install in the inside of any one of printing apparatuses 201-203. Some recent high-performance multifunction peripherals include a CPU and a memory inside, and can be realized by applying the present invention to these.

  Further, the present invention can be widely applied in the field of handling printing apparatuses such as printers and multifunction peripherals.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Control apparatus 101 Printing apparatus state management part 102 Spool information management part 103 Power consumption calculation process part 104 Job transfer process part 105 Database (DB)
201-203 Printer 300 Operating state 301 Ready state 302 Sleep state 303 Power off state

Claims (10)

A control device for a printing apparatus that performs centralized management of a plurality of printing apparatuses and performs transfer control of a currently requested print request,
A specific unit that calculates an expected execution time when the printing request is executed by each printing device, and specifies a printing device that can be completed within the allowable printing time;
When there are a plurality of the specified printing devices, when the print request is executed by each of the specified printing devices, the total power consumption of all the printing devices when the execution of all the printing requests is completed Determining means for determining a printing apparatus having a minimum value;
A control apparatus for a printing apparatus, comprising: transfer processing means for performing transfer processing of the print request to the determined printing apparatus.   2. The control apparatus for a printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unified management of the plurality of printing apparatuses is performed by centrally managing static information and dynamic information of each printing apparatus.   The printing apparatus control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the estimated execution time of the print request is calculated by dividing the number of prints by the printing speed of the printing apparatus.   The power consumption of the printing apparatus is calculated based on a power consumption amount for the state transition of the printing apparatus, a power consumption amount in an operating state of the printing apparatus, and an estimated execution time of the print request. Item 4. The control device for a printing apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 3.   The control apparatus for a printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control apparatus is provided inside the printing apparatus. A method of controlling a printing apparatus that performs centralized management of a plurality of printing apparatuses and performs transfer control of a currently requested print request,
Calculate the expected execution time when the printing request is executed in each printing device, identify the printing device that can be completed within the allowable printing time,
When there are a plurality of the specified printing devices, when the print request is executed by each of the specified printing devices, the total power consumption of all the printing devices when the execution of all the printing requests is completed Determine the printing device that minimizes
A printing apparatus control method, comprising: transferring the print request to the determined printing apparatus.   The method according to claim 6, wherein the unified management of the plurality of printing apparatuses is performed by centrally managing static information and dynamic information of each printing apparatus.   The printing apparatus control method according to claim 6, wherein the estimated execution time of the print request is calculated by dividing the number of prints by the printing speed of the printing apparatus.   The power consumption of the printing apparatus is calculated based on a power consumption amount for the state transition of the printing apparatus, a power consumption amount in an operating state of the printing apparatus, and an estimated execution time of the print request. Item 9. The method for controlling a printing apparatus according to any one of Items 6 to 8.   The method for controlling a printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the print request is requested irregularly.

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