JP2017065206A - Image formation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation apparatus which shortens the duration of printing processing as a whole even if a slippery sheet is used in a portion.SOLUTION: A plurality of media sensors 31, 32 detect the characteristic of the sheets respectively stored in a plurality of sheet feeding cassettes 11, 12. A job management unit selects jobs to be executed out of jobs in the queue in the order from the head of the queue, and causes a printing control unit to execute printing processing of the selected job. The job management unit specifies a sheet feeding cassette 11 or 12 storing the sheets to be used by printing processing of a job for each of a plurality of jobs, determines whether or not the sheet is slippery on the basis of the characteristic of the sheets detected by the media sensor 31 or 32 arranged in the specified sheet feeding cassette 11 or 12 and inserts the job in which it is determined that the sheet is slippery to the last of the queue.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

  In a certain printer system, an optimal printer is selected for a paper type specified by print data, and a printing process is executed by the selected printer (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2006-178846 A

  However, in the above-described printer system, it is difficult to switch the print mode according to the state of the paper such as the slipperiness of the paper.

  For example, in an image forming apparatus, there are an image priority mode and a paper priority mode as print modes, and print processing is executed in one of the print modes selected from both.

  Here, the paper priority mode is a print mode in which generation of a toner image is started after the paper is transported from the paper feed cassette to the secondary paper feed position, and the toner image is transferred to the paper. This is a printing mode in which a toner image is generated in parallel with the conveyance of the sheet from the sheet feeding cassette to the secondary sheet feeding position, and the toner image is transferred to the sheet.

  In the paper priority mode, the paper waits at the secondary paper feeding position until the generation of the toner image is completed, and the toner image is transferred to the paper by the secondary paper feeding after the completion of the toner image generation. However, the time required from the start of primary paper feeding to the secondary transfer of the toner image becomes longer.

  In the image priority mode, the conveyance of the paper to the secondary paper feed position is executed in parallel with the generation of the toner image. When the paper reaches the secondary paper feed position, the secondary paper feed is started immediately and the toner image is Since it is transferred onto the paper, the time required from the start of primary paper feeding to the secondary transfer of the toner image is short, but if the paper transport is delayed and the toner image transfer timing is not met, the toner image is discarded. It will be.

  If paper slips with respect to the paper feed roller or transport roller on the transport path to the secondary paper feed position, paper transport will be delayed, so if slippery paper is selected in the image priority mode, paper transport The toner image is likely to be discarded without being in time for the transfer timing of the toner image.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that shortens the time required for printing as a whole even when slippery paper is used in part.

  An image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of sheet storage units, a print control unit that executes a printing process using a printing apparatus, and the plurality of sheet storage units. A plurality of media sensors for detecting the characteristics of the paper stored in each of the printers, and a job to be executed among a plurality of jobs in the queue is selected in order from the top of the queue, and printing processing of the selected job is performed And a job management unit that causes the print control unit to execute. The job management unit specifies (a) the paper storage unit that stores the paper used by the job printing process for each of the plurality of jobs, and (b) the specified paper storage unit And determining whether or not the sheet is slippery based on the characteristics of the sheet detected by the media sensor disposed in the queue, and (c) determining that the job determined to be slippery is stored in the queue Insert at the end.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an image forming apparatus that shortens the time required for the printing process as a whole even when slippery paper is partially used.

  These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a part of a mechanical internal configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a part of the electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image forming apparatus shown in FIGS.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a side view showing a part of a mechanical internal configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is an apparatus having an electrophotographic printing function, such as a printer, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, or a multifunction machine.

  The image forming apparatus of this embodiment has a tandem color developing device. The color developing device includes photosensitive drums 1a to 1d, exposure devices 2a to 2d, and developing units 3a to 3d. The photoconductor drums 1a to 1d are four-color photoconductors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The photosensitive drums 1a to 1d are made of amorphous silicon, for example.

  The exposure devices 2a to 2d are devices that form electrostatic latent images by irradiating the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d with laser light while scanning. The laser beam is scanned in a direction (main scanning direction) perpendicular to the rotation direction (sub-scanning direction) of the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d. The exposure apparatuses 2a to 2d have a laser scanning unit including a laser diode that is a light source of laser light and an optical element (lens, mirror, polygon mirror, etc.) that guides the laser light to the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d.

  Further, around the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d, a charger such as a scorotron, a cleaning device, a static eliminator and the like are arranged. The cleaning device removes residual toner on the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d after the primary transfer, and the static eliminator neutralizes the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d after the primary transfer.

  The developing units 3a to 3d attach the toner cartridge filled with toners of four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and the toner conveyed from the toner hopper in the toner cartridge to the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d. A developing unit, and the toner is attached to the electrostatic latent images on the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d to form a toner image. The toner is transported from the toner hopper to the developing device by a toner transport unit that is operated by a driving device such as a motor (not shown).

  The photosensitive drum 1a, the exposure device 2a, and the developing unit 3a develop magenta, and the photosensitive drum 1b, the exposure device 2b, and the developing unit 3b develop cyan, the photosensitive drum 1c, and the exposure device 2c. The developing unit 3c performs yellow development, and the photosensitive drum 1d, the exposure device 2d, and the developing unit 3d perform black development.

  The intermediate transfer belt 4 is an annular image carrier (intermediate transfer member) that comes into contact with the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d and primarily transfers the toner images on the photosensitive drums 1a to 1d. The intermediate transfer belt 4 is stretched around the driving roller 5 and circulates in the direction from the contact position with the photosensitive drum 1d to the contact position with the photosensitive drum 1a by the driving force from the driving roller 5.

  As will be described later, the transfer roller 6 brings the conveyed paper into contact with the intermediate transfer belt 4 and secondarily transfers the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 4 to the paper. The sheet on which the toner image has been transferred is conveyed to the fixing device 9 and the toner image is fixed on the sheet.

  The roller 7 has a cleaning brush, and the cleaning brush is brought into contact with the intermediate transfer belt 4 to remove the toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 4 after the transfer of the toner image onto the paper or after calibration.

  The sensor 8 irradiates the intermediate transfer belt 4 with a light beam, and detects reflected light from the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 4 or a toner pattern on the surface. For example, the sensor 8 irradiates a predetermined region of the intermediate transfer belt 4 (region to which the calibration toner patch is transferred) and detects the reflected light of the light beam at the time of toner gradation calibration, An electrical signal corresponding to the amount of light is output.

  Further, the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes 11 and 12 as a plurality of paper storage units.

  The paper feed cassettes 11 and 12 contain the paper sheets 101 and 102, and the paper sheets 101 and 102 are pushed upward by the lift plates 21 and 24 and brought into contact with the pickup rollers 22 and 25. The sheets 101 and 102 placed on the sheet feeding cassettes 11 and 12 are picked up one by one from the upper side to the sheet feeding rollers 23 and 26 by the pickup rollers 22 and 25. The paper feed rollers 23 and 26 are rollers for transporting the sheets 101 and 102 fed from the paper feed cassettes 11 and 12 by the pickup rollers 22 and 25 one by one onto the transport path.

  The conveyance roller 27 is a conveyance roller on a conveyance path common to the sheets 101 and 102 conveyed from the sheet feeding cassettes 11 and 12.

  The registration roller 28 temporarily stops the conveyed sheet and conveys the sheet to a transfer position by the intermediate transfer belt 4 and the transfer roller 6 at the secondary sheet feeding timing. The secondary paper feed timing is designated by a controller 41 described later so that the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 4 is transferred to a designated position on the paper.

  The registration sensor 29 is a sensor that is installed in the vicinity of the registration roller 28 and optically detects that the paper has reached the registration roller 28 (that is, the secondary paper feeding position).

  Further, a plurality of media sensors 31 and 32 are arranged in the plurality of paper feed cassettes 11 and 12, respectively. The plurality of media sensors 31 and 32 detect the characteristics of the sheets stored in the plurality of sheet feeding cassettes 11 and 12, respectively.

  In this embodiment, the plurality of media sensors 31 and 32 optically detect the surface roughness of the paper as the paper characteristics. The smaller the surface roughness, the smoother the paper surface and the easier it is to slip. That is, in the case of slippery paper, the surface roughness detected by the media sensors 31 and 32 is reduced.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a part of the electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus includes a controller 41, a printing device 42, and an operation panel 43.

  The controller 41 includes a computer, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), etc., implements various processing units with software and / or hardware, monitors and controls internal devices such as the printing apparatus 42, and performs various data processing. .

  The printing apparatus 42 is an internal device that prints a document image with a mechanical configuration as shown in FIG.

  The operation panel 43 includes a display device such as a liquid crystal display that displays an operation screen to the user, and an input device such as a touch panel that accepts user operations and hard keys.

  Further, the controller 41 includes a print control unit 51 and a job management unit 52.

  The print control unit 51 executes print processing by controlling the sheet conveyance, toner development, and fixing in the printing apparatus 42 while acquiring the output value of the sensor 29 described above. At that time, the print control unit 51 controls a drive source (not shown) that drives the above-described roller, a bias application circuit that applies a development bias and a primary transfer bias, and exposure apparatuses 2a to 2d to control the toner image. Development, transfer and fixing, and paper feeding, printing, and paper discharge are executed.

  When the job management unit 52 accepts the job, it adds it to the queue, and among the jobs in the queue, the job management unit 52 executes the job to be executed in order from the top of the queue (that is, in the order of FIFO (First-In First-Out)). And print processing of the selected job is executed by the print control unit 51.

  In addition, the job management unit 52 specifies (a) the paper feed cassette 11 or the paper feed cassette 12 in which the paper used by the job printing process is stored for each of a plurality of jobs, and (b) the specified feed. It is determined whether or not the paper is slippery based on the characteristics of the paper detected by the media sensor 31 or the media sensor 32 disposed in the paper cassette 11 or the paper feed cassette 12, and (c) the paper is slippery. Insert the judged job at the end of the queue.

  Here, if the surface roughness value obtained by the media sensors 31 and 32 is less than a predetermined threshold value, it is determined that the sheet is slippery. If the surface roughness value is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value, the sheet is Not determined to be slippery.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the print control unit 51 executes the printing process using the printing apparatus in either the paper priority mode or the image priority mode.

  Here, the paper priority mode refers to generation of a toner image after the paper is conveyed from the paper feed cassettes 11 and 12 to the secondary paper feed position (that is, formation of an electrostatic latent image, development with toner, and primary transfer). The image priority mode is a print mode in which a toner image is generated in parallel with the conveyance of the sheet from the sheet feeding cassettes 11 and 12 to the secondary sheet feeding position. Is a printing mode for transferring the image to the paper.

  The job management unit 52 causes the print control unit 51 to execute (a) print processing of a job that has not been determined to be slippery in the image priority mode, and (b) job that has been determined to be slippery. The print control unit 51 is caused to execute print processing in the paper priority mode.

  Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image forming apparatus shown in FIGS.

  Whenever the job management unit 52 receives a job based on a print request received from the host device via the network, for example, the job management unit 52 adds the job to the queue (the end of the queue).

  If there is a job in the queue, the job management unit 52 selects the head job in the queue (step S1).

  The job management unit 52 specifies the paper feed cassette 11 or the paper feed cassette 12 in which the paper used for the printing process of the selected job is stored, and is arranged in the specified paper feed cassette 11 or the paper feed cassette 12. The sensor value of the media sensor 31 or the media sensor 32 is acquired (step S2), and based on the characteristics of the paper indicated by the sensor value, it is determined whether or not the paper is slippery (step S3).

  If the job management unit 52 determines that the paper used in the printing process of the selected job is slippery, if the job has not been moved to the end of the queue (step S4), the selected job is temporarily stored. By canceling and adding the same job to the end of the queue, the selected job is moved to the end of the queue (step S5).

  On the other hand, if the job management unit 52 determines that the paper used by the printing process of the selected job is slippery, if the job has already been moved to the end of the queue (step S4), the selected job Is immediately executed in the paper priority mode by the print control unit 51 (step S6).

  On the other hand, if the job management unit 52 does not determine that the paper used in the printing process of the selected job is slippery, the job management unit 52 immediately executes the printing process of the selected job in the image priority mode. (Step S7).

  Therefore, after the print processing of a job that has not been determined to be slippery is continuously executed in the image priority mode and the print processing of a job that has not been determined to be slippery is completed, it is determined that the paper is slippery. The print processing of the executed job is executed in the paper priority mode.

  Note that a job received after a job determined to be slippery after being moved to the end of the queue may be inserted before the moved job in the queue. By doing so, even if a job that was determined to be slippery was accepted after the job was moved to the end of the queue, printing for all jobs that were not determined to be slippery was completed Later, a print process for a job that is determined to be slippery is executed.

  As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the print control unit 51 uses the printing device 42 to execute the printing process. The plurality of media sensors 31 and 32 are disposed in each of the plurality of paper feed cassettes 11 and 12, and detect the characteristics of the paper stored in each of the plurality of paper feed cassettes 11 and 12. The job management unit 52 selects jobs to be executed from a plurality of jobs in the queue in order from the head of the queue, and causes the print control unit 51 to execute the print processing of the selected job. Then, the job management unit 52 specifies (a) the paper feed cassette 11 or the paper feed cassette 12 in which the paper used by the job printing process is stored for each of a plurality of jobs, and (b) the specified feed. It is determined whether or not the paper is slippery based on the characteristics of the paper detected by the media sensor 31 or the media sensor 32 disposed in the paper cassette 11 or the paper feed cassette 12, and (c) the paper is slippery. Insert the judged job at the end of the queue.

  Thereby, even if slippery paper is used for a part, the time required for the printing process as a whole is shortened.

  In other words, since the print processing of a plurality of jobs that use paper that is not slippery is executed continuously, there is a high possibility that the print processing of those jobs will be executed without being interrupted by the paper conveyance delay. Therefore, the time required for all of the plurality of jobs is shortened.

  Specifically, since the print processing of a job that uses paper that is not slippery is continuously executed in the image priority mode, the time required for all of the plurality of jobs is shortened. In addition, since the print processing of a job using slippery paper is executed in the paper priority mode, it is difficult for toner images to be discarded due to paper transport delay.

  Various changes and modifications to the above-described embodiment will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter and without diminishing its intended advantages. That is, such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the claims.

  The present invention is applicable to, for example, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

11, 12 Paper feed cassette (example of paper compartment)
31, 32 Media sensor 51 Print control unit 52 Job management unit

Claims (4)

A plurality of paper storage units;
A print control unit that executes a printing process using a printing apparatus;
A plurality of media sensors that are disposed in each of the plurality of paper storage units and detect characteristics of the paper stored in each of the plurality of paper storage units;
A job management unit that selects a job to be executed from a plurality of jobs in the queue in order from the top of the queue, and causes the print control unit to execute print processing of the selected job;
The job management unit specifies (a) the paper storage unit that stores the paper used by the job printing process for each of the plurality of jobs, and (b) places the paper storage unit in the specified paper storage unit It is determined whether or not the sheet is slippery based on the characteristics of the sheet detected by the media sensor, and (c) the job determined to be slippery is placed at the end of the queue. Inserting,
An image forming apparatus. A first mode in which the print control unit starts generating a toner image after the sheet is conveyed from any one of the plurality of sheet storage units to a secondary sheet feeding position and transfers the toner image to the sheet; and The printing apparatus is used in one of the second modes in which a toner image is generated in parallel with conveyance of a sheet from any one of a plurality of sheet storage units to a secondary sheet feeding position and the toner image is transferred to the sheet. Execute the printing process
The job management unit (a) causes the print control unit to execute print processing of the job that has not been determined to be slippery in the second mode, and (b) determines that the sheet is slippery. Causing the print control unit to execute the print processing of the job performed in the first mode;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.   The job management unit specifies (a) the paper storage unit that stores the paper used in the printing process of the selected job, and (b) the medium disposed in the specified paper storage unit Based on the characteristics of the paper detected by the sensor, it is determined whether or not the paper is slippery. (C) When the paper used by the printing process of the selected job is determined to be slippery, the selection is made. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the job is moved to the end of the queue.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of media sensors optically detect a surface roughness of the paper as the characteristic of the paper.

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