JP2022029247A - Image forming apparatus, system, method for controlling image forming apparatus, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To distribute a processing load for detecting a sign of abnormality in an image forming apparatus.SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus comprises: first control means that acquires internal data indicating a state inside the image forming apparatus and transmits the acquired internal data; and second control means that receives the internal data from the first control means and extracts a feature quantity used for detection of a sign of abnormality in the image forming apparatus on the basis of the received internal data.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a system, a control method and a program of the image forming apparatus.

In recent years, a system that acquires the state of an image forming apparatus and detects a sign of an abnormality in the image forming apparatus has been used. The technique of Patent Document 1 is used as a related technique. In the technique of Patent Document 1, state data representing the state of the copying machine is transmitted from the copying machine to the management device, and the management device calculates from the state data to determine an abnormality sign. Further, the technique of Patent Document 2 has been proposed as a related technique. In the technique of Patent Document 2, the image processing apparatus reads a chart to acquire data, and detects a sign of abnormality based on the characteristics of the transition of the read data over time.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-166427 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2020-003656

By the way, the image forming apparatus performs job processing such as printing processing. The copying machine of Patent Document 1 detects the state of the copying machine from various sensors or the like at a predetermined timing, collects the state data, and transmits the collected state data to the management device. Therefore, in addition to the job processing, the copying machine of Patent Document 1 needs to perform processing such as collecting state data and transmitting state data for discriminating an abnormality sign, which increases the processing load. Further, in Patent Document 2, since the image processing device performs the sign detection based on the rate of change of the weighted moving average value and the like, the processing load of the image processing device for detecting the abnormal sign becomes high. Therefore, in the techniques of Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, the processing load for detecting an abnormality sign becomes high, which may affect the job processing and reduce the printing productivity.

An object of the present invention is to disperse the processing load of detecting an abnormality sign of an image forming apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, the image forming apparatus of the present invention acquires the internal data indicating the internal state of the image forming apparatus, and transmits the acquired internal data to the first control means and the internal data. It is characterized by comprising a second control means which is received from the first control means and extracts a feature amount used for detecting a sign of abnormality of the image forming apparatus based on the received internal data.

According to the present invention, it is possible to distribute the processing load for detecting an abnormality sign of the image forming apparatus.

It is a figure which shows an example of the system of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the structure of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware composition of the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware composition of the control part of an analyzer. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of a system control part and a printer control part. It is a figure which shows an example of the sensor measurement data. It is a figure which shows an example of the relation table and the feature extraction data. It is a sequence diagram which shows the flow of the whole processing of a system. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the acquisition process of a sensor measurement value. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a data transmission process. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the feature extraction process and the data transmission process to a server. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the feature extraction process of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a prediction process and a notification process. It is a figure which shows an example of various data and a prediction result.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the configurations described in the following embodiments are merely examples, and the scope of the present invention is not limited by the configurations described in the embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the system 10 of the present embodiment. The system 10 has a plurality of image forming devices 102, a server 103, a network 104, and an analysis device 105. In the example of FIG. 1, two image forming devices 102A and 102B are shown, but the number of image forming devices 102 may be three or more. Further, the number of image forming devices 102 may be one. The system 10 is a system used for detecting a sign of abnormality of each image forming apparatus 102. The analysis device 105 is an external device that detects a sign of abnormality in each image forming device 102 by analyzing the feature extraction data 107A and 107B acquired from each image forming device 102. In the present embodiment, the analyzer 105 analyzes the feature extraction data 107A and 107B to predict the failure and life of the parts mounted on the image forming apparatus 102, and outputs the maintenance information. The configuration of the system 10 is not limited to the example of FIG.

As the image forming apparatus 102, for example, an MFP or the like can be applied. The image forming apparatus 102 has a plurality of functions such as a scanning function, a printing function, and a copying function, and can accept a function selection operation by the user. The image forming apparatus 102 executes a job based on a job execution instruction by the user. Jobs executed by the image forming apparatus 102 include a scan job, a print job, a copy job, and the like. Further, when the image forming apparatus 102 is equipped with the FAX function, it is also possible to execute a job of transmitting and receiving FAX data. The image forming apparatus 102 is connected to the server 103 via a network 104 such as the Internet, and can communicate with the server 103. Then, the image forming apparatus 102 transmits the feature extraction data 107 and the log data used for managing and monitoring various internally mounted components to the server 103 at regular time intervals.

The server 103 receives and stores the feature extraction data 107 and the log data transmitted from each of the plurality of image forming apparatus 102. Further, the server 103 transmits the received log data and the feature extraction data 107 to the analyzer 105. The analysis device 105 detects a sign of abnormality in each image forming apparatus 102 by analyzing the feature extraction data 107 and the log data of each image forming apparatus 102, and generates maintenance information. Hereinafter, the process of detecting a sign of abnormality in the image forming apparatus 102 may be referred to as a predictive process. In the example of FIG. 1, an example in which the server 103 and the analyzer 105 are configured as separate devices is shown, but both may be configured integrally.

Based on the result of the prediction process, the analyzer 105 notifies the maintenance inspector 106 located near the installation location of the image forming apparatus 102 that the maintenance work is to be performed. For example, the analyzer 105 gives the above notification to the mobile terminal held by the maintenance inspector 106. As a result, the maintenance inspector 106 can recognize the possibility that the component mounted on the image forming apparatus 102 may fail or the life of the component is approaching. When the maintenance inspector 106 who has confirmed the above notification performs the maintenance work at the installation location of the image forming apparatus 102, the image forming apparatus 102 can maintain the state in which the job can be executed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the image forming apparatus 102. The image forming apparatus 102 can be realized by a printer, a copying machine, a multifunction device, a facsimile, or the like that forms a color image by an electrophotographic method. The image forming apparatus 102 is an intermediate transfer tandem type image forming apparatus in which four image forming portions Pa to Pd are arranged side by side on the intermediate transfer belt 206. However, the image forming apparatus 102 is not limited to the intermediate transfer tandem type image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 102 has a printer unit 200 and a reader unit 240.

The recording material S such as a sheet on which an image is formed is loaded in the recording material storages 230a and 230b, and is fed by adopting a friction separation method according to the timing of image formation by the image forming units Pa to Pd. The paper is fed by the rollers 231a or 231b. The paper feed rollers 231a and 231b convey the recording material S to the resist roller 232 via the transfer path. The resist roller 232 corrects the skew of the recording material S, adjusts the timing, and conveys the recording material S to the secondary transfer unit T2.

The printer unit 200 forms an image by the image forming units Pa to Pd. The image forming units Pa to Pd include photoconductors 201a to 201d, chargers 202a to 202d, exposure devices 203a to 203d, developing units 204a to 204d, primary transfer units T1a to T1d, and photoconductor cleaners 205a to 205d. The chargers 202a to 202d uniformly charge the surfaces of the photoconductors 201a to 201d. The photoconductors 201a to 201d are rotationally driven, and are irradiated with light by the exposure devices 203a to 203d. The exposure devices 203a to 203d irradiate the photoconductors 201a to 201d with light modulated according to the image information of the image to be formed. As a result, electrostatic latent images corresponding to the images are formed on the photoconductors 201a to 201d.

The developers 204a to 204d develop the electrostatic latent images formed on the photoconductors 201a to 201d with a developer. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that toner is used as the developer, but the present invention is not limited to this. The developing units 204a to 204d develop the toner image by adhering the toner to the photoconductors 201a to 201d on which the electrostatic latent image is formed. The primary transfer units T1a to T1d are given a predetermined pressure amount and an electrostatic load bias, and transfer the toner image from the photoconductors 201a to 201d to the intermediate transfer belt 206. At this time, the toner images formed on each of the photoconductors 201a to 201d are transferred so as to be superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt 206.

The image forming unit Pa generates a yellow toner image. The image forming unit Pb generates a magenta toner image. The image forming unit Pc generates a cyan toner image. The image forming unit Pd generates a black toner image. However, the number of colors of the formed toner image is not limited to four. The developers 204a to 204d of the present embodiment contain a two-component developer in which a non-magnetic toner and a magnetic carrier are mixed, but may be a one-component developer having only a magnetic toner or a non-magnetic toner.

A full-color toner image is formed by superimposing and transferring a toner image of each color of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black on the intermediate transfer belt 206. The toner remaining on the photoconductors 201a to 201d after the transfer is recovered by the photoconductor cleaners 205a to 205d. When the amount of toner contained in the developing units 204a to 204d becomes lower than a predetermined amount, toner is replenished from the toner bottles Ta to Td, which are replenishment containers for the developer. The intermediate transfer belt 206 is an endless belt provided on the intermediate transfer belt frame and stretched by the secondary transfer inner roller 208, the tension roller 212, and the secondary transfer upstream roller 213. The intermediate transfer belt 206 is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow R207 by the secondary transfer inner roller 208, the tension roller 212, and the secondary transfer upstream roller 213. The intermediate transfer belt 206 on which the full-color toner image is formed transfers the toner image to the secondary transfer unit T2 by rotating.

The toner images formed on the recording material S and the intermediate transfer belt 206 are conveyed by the secondary transfer unit T2 at matching timings. The secondary transfer portion T2 is a transfer nip portion formed by the secondary transfer inner roller 208 and the secondary transfer outer roller 209 arranged to face each other, and is subjected to a predetermined pressing force and an electrostatic load bias. By doing so, the toner image is adsorbed on the recording material S. In this way, the secondary transfer unit T2 transfers the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 206 to the recording material S. The toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 206 after transfer is recovered by the transfer cleaner 210.

The recording material S on which the toner image is transferred is conveyed from the secondary transfer unit T2 to the fixing device 211 by the secondary transfer outer roller 209. The fuser 211 applies a predetermined pressure and heat to the recording material S in the fixing nip formed by the opposing rollers, and melts and fixes the toner image on the recording material S. The fuser 211 has a heater as a heat source and is controlled so that the optimum temperature is always maintained. The recording material S on which the toner image is fixed is discharged onto the paper ejection tray 233. In the case of double-sided image formation, the recording material S is inverted by the inversion transport mechanism and conveyed to the resist roller 232. A density detection sensor 220 for detecting the toner density is provided in the vicinity of the intermediate transfer belt 206. The density detection sensor 220 is arranged between the photoconductor 201d and the secondary transfer outer roller 209 in order to detect the toner pattern of each color formed on the intermediate transfer belt 206.

The reader unit 240 is a scanner that reads an image formed on the document 245. The manuscript 245 is placed on the manuscript stand 246 with the side on which the image is formed facing the manuscript stand 246. The reader unit 240 transmits image data representing the read image to the printer unit 200. The reader unit 240 includes a reading unit 249 and a reader image processing unit 247. The reading unit 249 is integrally composed of a light emitting unit 242, an optical system 243, and a light receiving unit 244. The reading unit 249 is, for example, a line sensor extending in a direction orthogonal to the paper surface in FIG. 2, and reads an image from the entire surface of the document 245 while moving in the direction of arrow R248. The light emitting unit 242 irradiates the document 245. The light receiving unit 244 receives the light reflected by the document 245 via the optical system 243. The received light is transmitted to the reader image processing unit 247. The reader image processing unit 247 generates image data representing an image formed on the document 245 according to the light receiving result of the light receiving unit 244. The reader image processing unit 247 also functions as a sensor for measuring the image density of the image formed on the document 245 according to the light receiving result of the light receiving unit 244. The reader image processing unit 247 transmits the image data and the measured image density to the printer unit 200 via the system control unit 30 described later.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 102. The image forming apparatus 102 includes a system control unit 30, an operation panel 31, a storage device 32, a network interface 33, a reader unit 240, and a printer unit 200. Each unit can perform data communication with each other via the data bus 34. The system control unit 30 has a CPU 301 and a memory 302. The system control unit 30 comprehensively controls the overall operation of the image forming apparatus 102. The CPU 301 is a hardware processor capable of executing the program 321. The CPU 301 corresponds to the first control means and the transmission means. When the power is turned on to the image forming apparatus 102, the CPU 301 reads out the program 321 stored in the storage apparatus 32 and expands it into the memory 302. Then, the function of the system control unit 30 is realized by the CPU 301 executing the program 321 expanded in the memory 302.

In the present embodiment, the CPU 301 executes the program 321 to communicate with the reader unit 240 and the printer unit 200 to acquire the internal data 322. Further, the CPU 301 determines whether to transmit the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103 at regular time intervals. When the CPU 301 determines that the feature extraction data 107 is transmitted, the CPU 301 generates the feature extraction data 107 using the internal data 322. Then, the CPU 301 controls the network interface 33 and transmits the generated feature extraction data 107 to the server 103. The memory 302 is for temporarily storing data or the like used by the CPU 301 when executing a process based on the program 321.

The operation panel 31 has a display unit 311 and an operation unit 312. The display unit 311 may be composed of, for example, a color liquid crystal display. The display unit 311 displays various screens that can be operated by the user and the maintenance inspector 106, information necessary for maintenance, and the like. The operation unit 312 may be configured by, for example, a touch panel key arranged on the screen of the display unit 311. The operation unit 312 accepts operations by the user and the maintenance inspector 106.

The storage device 32 is a non-volatile storage device composed of, for example, a hard disk drive (HDD) or the like. The storage device 32 stores a program 321 executed by each CPU. Further, the storage device 32 stores internal data 322, log data 323, feature extraction data 107, and the like. The internal data 322 is data (for example, time series data) related to the measured values in the reader unit 240 and the printer unit 200. The measured value is a sensor measured value measured by the sensor of the sensor group, or a count value of a scan counter, a print counter, or the like. Hereinafter, the measured value will be described as being mainly a sensor measured value. The log data 323 is data that records the execution history of the job in the image forming apparatus 102, and includes detailed information of the executed job, execution date and time information of the job, and the like. The feature extraction data 107 is data indicating a feature amount calculated based on the internal data 322. Other data may be stored in the storage device 32.

The network interface 33 is connected to the network 104. The image forming apparatus 102 can communicate with the server 103 via the network interface 33. The reader unit 240 has a reader control unit 340 and a sensor group 341. The reader control unit 340 includes a CPU 342 and a memory 343. The CPU 342 controls the operation of the reading unit 249 of the reader unit 240 and the reader image processing unit 247 by reading and executing the program 321 stored in the storage device 32.

The memory 343 is for temporarily storing data or the like used by the CPU 342 when executing a process based on the program 321. The sensor group 341 includes at least one sensor that monitors the operating state of the moving parts that operate when the reader unit 240 reads the document. The sensor group 341 performs measurement based on a request from the reader control unit 340. The sensor measurement value obtained by measuring the operating state of the moving part is transmitted to the system control unit 30 after the measurement.

The printer unit 200 has a printer control unit 350 and a sensor group 351. The printer control unit 350 includes a CPU 352 and a memory 353. The CPU 352 reads and executes the program 321 stored in the storage device 32 to control operations related to image formation such as the photoconductor 201, the exposure device 203, and the developer 204 of the printer unit 200. The memory 353 temporarily stores data or the like used by the CPU 352 when executing a process based on the program 321. The sensor group 351 includes at least one sensor that monitors the operating state of the movable component that operates when the printer unit 200 performs the image forming process. Similar to the reader control unit 340, the sensor group 351 measures the operating state of the moving parts based on the request from the printer control unit 350. The measured sensor measurement value is transmitted to the system control unit 30 after the measurement. The CPU 342 of the reader control unit 340 or the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350 corresponds to the second control means.

Next, an example of the hardware configuration of the analyzer 105 will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the control unit 400 of the analyzer 105. It is assumed that the control unit of the server 103 has the same configuration as the control unit 400 of FIG. The control unit 400 includes a CPU 402, a memory 403, an external storage device 405, and a network interface 406. Each part is connected to each other by the system bus 401. The CPU 402 controls the overall operation of the control unit 400. The CPU 402 corresponds to the analysis means. The memory 403 is a non-volatile or volatile memory, and stores a startup program, a control program, and the like executed by the CPU 402. The external storage device 405 is a storage device having a larger capacity than the memory 403 (for example, a hard disk drive: HDD). The control program executed by the control unit 400 is stored in the external storage device 405. For the external storage device 405, another storage device having a function equivalent to that of a hard disk drive such as a solid state drive (SSD) may be applied.

The CPU 402 executes a boot program stored in the memory 403 when the power of the device is turned on and boots. The start-up program is a program for reading the control program stored in the external storage device 405 and expanding it on the memory 403. When the CPU 402 executes the boot program, it executes the control program expanded on the memory 403. As a result, various controls are realized. Further, the CPU 402 also stores the data used when executing the control program in the memory 403, and reads out the stored data. The external storage device 405 can further store various settings required when the control program is executed. The CPU 402 can also read and write various settings. The CPU 402 communicates with other devices on the network 104 via the network interface 406. For example, the CPU 402 of the server 103 can share the data received from the image forming apparatus 102 and the display screen information of the operation panel 509 via the network interface 406.

Next, the functional configurations of the system control unit 30 and the printer control unit 350 of the image forming apparatus 102 will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the system control unit 30 and the printer control unit 350. FIG. 5A shows the functional configuration of the system control unit 30. FIG. 5B shows the functional configuration of the printer control unit 350. It is assumed that the functional configuration of the reader control unit 340 is the same as that of the printer control unit 350 of FIG. 5 (B). The system control unit 30 will be described. When the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 executes the program 321, the functions of the data management unit 50 and the job control unit 51 are realized. The data management unit 50 generates feature extraction data 107 based on internal data 322 such as sensor measurement values measured by various sensors mounted inside the image forming apparatus 102.

The job control unit 51 controls the execution of the job in the image forming apparatus 102. The job control unit 51 controls the execution of the job specified by the user or the maintenance inspector 106 by communicating with the reader unit 240 and the printer unit 200 to control the operation. The job control unit 51 includes a log recording unit 511. The log recording unit 511 records the job execution history in the log data 323 as the job specified by the user or the maintenance inspector 106 is executed.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the data management unit 50 includes a data reception unit 501, a timing determination unit 502, a data transmission determination unit 503, a data transmission unit 504, and a feature extraction unit 505. The data management unit 50 operates every time the transmission timing of the predetermined feature extraction data 107 is reached. Then, at each transmission timing, the data transmission unit 504 performs a process of transmitting the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103. However, the data management unit 50 does not always perform the transmission process every time the feature extraction data 107 is transmitted. The data management unit 50 determines whether to transmit the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103 each time the transmission timing is reached, and if it is determined not to transmit, the data management unit 50 does not perform the transmission process. On the other hand, if the data management unit 50 determines that the data is to be transmitted, the data management unit 50 performs a transmission process.

For example, if the feature extraction data 107 to be transmitted does not change from the content previously transmitted, it is not necessary to perform the transmission process. Further, even if the job has never been executed by the image forming apparatus 102 between the time when the feature extraction data 107 was transmitted last time and the time when the feature extraction data 107 is transmitted this time, it is not necessary to perform the transmission process. In such a case, the data transmission determination unit 503 determines that the transmission process is not performed. When the data management unit 50 determines that it is not necessary to transmit the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103, the data management unit 50 does not transmit the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103. Therefore, the processing load of the image forming apparatus 102 can be reduced.

The data receiving unit 501 communicates with the reader control unit 340 or the printer control unit 350, and receives the sensor measurement value from the sensor group 341 of the reader unit 240 or the sensor group 351 of the printer unit 200. The storage capacity of the memory 343 of the reader unit 240 and the memory 353 of the printer unit 200 is often the minimum necessary capacity, and it is difficult to accumulate a large number of sensor measurement values. Therefore, the data receiving unit 501 stores the sensor measurement values received periodically as internal data 322 in the storage device 32. The timing determination unit 502 determines whether it is time to transmit the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103. The image forming apparatus 102 of the present embodiment periodically transmits the feature extraction data 107 to the analyzer 105 via the server 103 at regular intervals in a normal state. The timing determination unit 502 determines whether or not the current transmission timing has been reached based on whether or not a certain time has elapsed from the previous transmission timing.

As described above, the data transmission determination unit 503 determines whether to transmit the feature extraction data 107 when the transmission timing of the feature extraction data 107 comes. The data transmission unit 504 controls data transmission. The feature extraction unit 505 stores the feature extraction data 107 generated by performing a feature extraction process for extracting a feature amount from the received internal data on the internal data 322 received by the data reception unit 501 in the storage device 32. do.

Next, the printer control unit 350 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 (B). When the CPU 352 executes the program 321, the functions of the data management unit 52 and the device control unit 53 of the printer control unit 350 are realized. The data management unit 52 manages the sensor measurement values measured by the sensor group 351 mounted inside the printer unit 200. The data acquisition unit 521 acquires the sensor measurement value measured by the sensor group 351 at a predetermined acquisition timing. The data acquisition unit 521 outputs a data acquisition request to the sensor group of each unit of the printer unit 200 described above at a predetermined timing defined for each sensor, and acquires a sensor measurement value from each sensor. The output timing (predetermined timing) of the data acquisition request may be, for example, every fixed time at intervals of several msec to several sec, or is the timing before and after the job is executed according to the instruction of the user or the maintenance inspector 106. You may. The timing determination unit 522 determines whether or not the predetermined timing has been reached.

The data transmission determination unit 523 determines whether to transmit the sensor measurement value, which is the data acquired by the data acquisition unit 521, to the system control unit 30. When the data transmission unit 524 determines that the data transmission determination unit 523 transmits, the data transmission unit 524 transmits the sensor measurement value to the system control unit 30. The data transmission determination unit 523 determines whether or not the sensor measurement value has been acquired, and if it is determined that the predetermined amount has been acquired, it is determined that the acquired sensor measurement values are collectively transmitted to the system control unit 30. The predetermined amount is set to an arbitrary value within the range that can be stored in the memory 353 of the printer control unit 350. Further, the predetermined amount may be set based on the amount of data used for the feature extraction process executed by the system control unit 30. For example, the predetermined amount may be set to the amount of data used for the feature extraction process, or may be set to be larger than the amount of data. As described above, since the data transmission unit 534 collectively transmits the sensor measurement values to the system control unit 30, the number of transmissions of the sensor measurement values can be reduced as compared with the case where the sensor measurement values are transmitted each time. As a result, the communication load on the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 can be reduced.

The above is an example of the functional configuration of the printer control unit 350. Regarding the functional configuration of the reader control unit 340, the device controlled by the device control unit 53 becomes the reading unit 249 of the reader unit and the reader image processing unit 247. Further, the sensor measurement value acquired by the data acquisition unit 521 becomes the sensor group 341 provided in the reader unit. The other functional configurations of the reader control unit 340 are the same as those of the printer control unit 350.

Next, the sensor measurement data will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of sensor measurement data. FIG. 6A shows a first example of sensor measurement data. The sensor measurement data is data based on internal data acquired from the sensor group 351 by the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350. A plurality of sensor measurement data are stored in the memory 353. The printer control unit 350 converts the sensor measurement data into a text format and transmits it to the system control unit 30. As shown in FIG. 6A, the sensor measurement data has items of data item 601 and priority 602 and sensor measurement value 603 (603A, 603B, 603C ...). Further, a data ID is associated with the data item 601. The printer control unit 350 manages the data item 601 and the data ID. Priority 602 indicates the priority of the corresponding data item 601. Details of the priority 602 will be described later.

The sensor measurement value 603 is a measurement value of each sensor of the sensor group, and is associated with the time when the sensor measurement data is acquired. The sensor measurement values 603A, 603B, and 603C in the example of FIG. 6 are measurement values at intervals of 15 minutes, respectively, and the sensor measurement values are sequentially recorded after the sensor measurement value 603C. Since the time is associated with each sensor measurement value, the time indicated by the sensor measurement value can be recognized. For example, in the sensor measurement data of FIG. 6A, the sensor measurement value is 603A, and the fixing portion temperature at the acquired time “2020/01/01/01: 11:00” is “250 ° C”. It has been recorded. Further, in the sensor measurement data at the same time, it is recorded that the sensor measurement value is 603 A and the fixing belt motor rotation speed is "2013 rpm". Similarly, it is recorded that the transfer roller mileage at the same time is "3.5 m" and the voltage acquired from the concentration detection sensor 220 is "980". The voltage is recorded as a concentration value quantized to 10 bits (0 to 1023). As described above, the measured values of each sensor at "2020/01/01/01: 01:00" are recorded.

The priority 602 will be described. Priority 602 indicates the priority of the internal data 322 (data item 601). The smaller the value of the priority 602, the higher the priority. In the case of the example of FIG. 6A, when the priority 602 is "1", it indicates that the priority is the highest, and when the priority 602 is "2", it indicates that the priority is low. The expression method of the priority 602 is not limited to the example of FIG. 6A. As the data item 601 having a high priority, for example, there is a data item such as a fixing temperature that directly leads to a failure such that the image forming apparatus is stopped when an abnormal value is obtained. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the value of the priority 602 in which the data item 601 corresponds to the “fixing portion temperature” is “1”.

On the other hand, as the data item 601 having a low priority, there is a data item of a defect that does not directly lead to a failure in which the image forming apparatus cannot be used even if the sensor measurement value is an abnormal value. As such a defect, for example, there is an abnormality of the measured value by the toner density sensor (an abnormality indicating deterioration of the image quality of the printed matter). If the toner concentration becomes abnormal, the image formed on the recording material becomes lighter or darker. However, such a defect is not an abnormality in which the image forming apparatus cannot be used immediately. Therefore, the priority of the data item 601 of the above-mentioned defect is low. In the example of FIG. 6A, the value of the priority 602 corresponding to the data item 601 of the toner concentration sensor is “2”. Further, in the feature extraction process performed by the system control unit 30, the priority may be set low for the data item 601 of the sensor measurement value having a missing value in the sensor measurement value as the original data.

The information of the priority 602 is used to determine which sensor measurement value information is to be deleted when it becomes necessary to delete the sensor measurement value information. For example, the memory 343 of the reader unit 240 and the memory 353 of the printer unit 200 often have the minimum necessary storage capacity from the viewpoint of hardware cost and the like. Therefore, the CPU 342 transmits the information of the sensor measurement value stored in the memory 343 to the system control unit 30 before the capacity is insufficient due to the large amount of the memory 343 used. The same applies to the memory 353.

On the other hand, the reader control unit 340, the printer control unit 350, and the system control unit 30 perform not only data management processing but also job processing such as image formation job control and device control related to job control. Then, the load of job processing may become high. There is a possibility that the timing when the load of job processing becomes high and the timing when the sensor measurement value information is transmitted / received overlap, and the transmission / reception of the sensor measurement value information fails. As described above, the information of the sensor measurement value is accumulated in the memory 343 of the reader unit 240 and the memory 353 of the printer unit 200. Therefore, when the transmission / reception of the sensor measurement value information fails, the sensor measurement value information to be transmitted remains stored in the memory 343, 353, or the like. In this case, there is a high possibility that the memory capacity will be insufficient.

When the memory capacity is insufficient, the sensor measurement value information cannot be stored in the memory. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the CPU 342 and the CPU 352 delete a part of the sensor measurement value information stored in the memory in order to avoid the memory capacity shortage. The information of the priority 602 is used to determine which sensor measurement value information is to be deleted. For example, the sensor measurement value information (internal data 322) of the data item having the priority 602 value of "2" is the sensor measurement value information (internal data 322) of the data item having the priority 602 value of "1". It will be deleted with higher priority. That is, the CPU 342 and the CPU 352 delete the information of the sensor measurement value having a low priority among the information of the plurality of sensor measurement values stored in the memory. For example, the CPU 342 and the CPU 352 may delete the information of the sensor measurement value having the lowest priority among the plurality of priorities in order. Further, the CPU 342 and the CPU 352 may delete the information of the sensor measurement value having a priority lower than the predetermined priority reference.

FIG. 6B shows a second example of sensor measurement data. In the sensor measurement data of FIG. 6B, the information of the sensor measurement value (information of the transfer roller mileage and the toner concentration sensor) in which the value of the priority 602 is "2" is deleted. Therefore, the amount of information of the sensor measurement data of FIG. 6B is smaller than the amount of information of the sensor measurement data of FIG. 6A. As a result, the amount of information of the data stored in the memory can be reduced, so that the memory capacity shortage is suppressed. Therefore, the reader control unit 340 and the printer control unit 350 can continue to acquire the sensor measurement value. The above shows an example of the sensor measurement data related to the printer unit 200, but the same applies to the sensor measurement data related to the reader unit 240. For example, the formats of both are the same, and the specific contents of the sensor measurement values are different.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the related table and the feature extraction data 107. FIG. 7A is a diagram showing an example of a related table. The related table has items of data item 701, data acquisition source 702, data type 703, feature extraction process 704, discrimination process 705, and prediction request ID 706. The data item 701 shows the internal data 322 and corresponds to the data item 601 in FIG. The measured value (sensor measured value or count value) received from the reader unit 240 or the printer unit 200 is managed by the data item 701. The data acquisition source 702 indicates from which part of the image forming apparatus 102 each measured value is acquired. The data type 703 indicates the data attribute for each data item 701. In the example of FIG. 7, the measured value is represented as an attribute of either a count value or a sensor measured value.

The feature extraction process 704 represents the type of feature extraction process defined for extracting the features of each data for each data item 701. The feature extraction process is executed by the feature extraction unit 505. The discrimination process 705 indicates the type of the discrimination process performed by the analyzer 105 in order to generate maintenance information, and is managed in association with the original data item of the feature extraction data used for the discrimination process. The prediction request ID 706 is a number associated with the determination process required for carrying out the maintenance content requested by the user or the maintenance inspector 106 and the periodic maintenance. The analyzer 105 determines which discrimination process is to be performed based on the number indicated by the prediction request ID 706. For example, when the analysis device 105 receives the prediction request ID “3” from the image forming device 102, the analysis device 105 performs the discrimination process based on the information of the transfer roller mileage transmitted from the image forming device 102 to the server 103. Further, the analyzer 105 performs a discrimination process for obtaining the dispersion rate using the feature extraction data 107 that has been subjected to the histogram processing, and generates maintenance information. The analyzer 105 may autonomously and periodically generate a prediction request ID.

FIG. 7B is a diagram showing an example of feature extraction data 107. The data item 707 is the same as the data item 701 in FIG. 7 (A). The data item 707 is associated with the processing results 708A, 708B, and 708C for each data item. Each processing result 708 (708A, 708B, 708C ...) Is a processing result obtained by performing the feature extraction processing. Each processing result is recorded in association with the generation time of the original data in which the feature extraction processing was performed. For example, as a processing result corresponding to the fixing portion temperature of the data item 707, the maximum value calculation processing of the sensor data of the fixing portion temperature within a certain period from the time "2020/01/01/00: 00: 00" is performed. The resulting value y (= 80) is recorded. The above time is the time when the sensor measurement value of the fixing portion temperature is generated. Further, as a processing result corresponding to the transfer roller mileage of the data item 707, the sensor measurement value corresponding to the time "2020/01/01/00: 00: 00" was processed into a histogram according to a predetermined rule. The result x (= 80) is recorded. The result x (= 80) indicates that the sensor measurement value at the above time was the classification group “80” for histogram processing.

The image forming apparatus 102 converts the feature extraction data 107 as shown in FIG. 7B into a text format and transmits the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103. The feature extraction data 107 may be compressed and transmitted to the server 103. The management method of the feature extraction data 107 is not limited to the above-mentioned command, and may be managed in an extended form.

Next, the entire processing flow of the system 10 will be described. FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing the overall processing flow of the system 10. The image forming apparatus 102 determines whether it is the timing to acquire the internal data 322 (S801). When the image forming apparatus 102 determines that it is the timing to acquire the internal data 322, the image forming apparatus 102 acquires the internal data 322 such as the sensor measurement value (S802). At this time, the system control unit 30 receives the sensor measurement values transmitted by the reader unit 240 and the printer unit 200, and stores the received sensor measurement values as internal data 322 in the storage device 32.

The image forming apparatus 102 performs a feature extraction process associated with the internal data 322 on the internal data 322 to generate the feature extraction data 107 (S803). Then, the image forming apparatus 102 determines whether to transmit the feature extraction data 107 generated in S803 to the server 103 based on the change in the operating state in the period from the previous transmission timing to the current transmission timing (S804). .. The image forming apparatus 102 transmits the feature extraction data 107 to be transmitted to the server 103 based on the determination result of S804 (S805). At this time, the image forming apparatus 102 may transmit all of the plurality of data included in the feature extraction data 107 generated in S803 to the server 103, or extract at least one data from the plurality of data. And may be transmitted to the server 103. Further, in S805, the image forming apparatus 102 transmits the log data 323 together with the feature extraction data 107 to the server 103.

When the server 103 receives the feature extraction data 107 from the image forming apparatus 102, the server 103 updates the accumulated feature extraction data by adding the received feature extraction data 107 to the past feature extraction data (S806). The server 103 acquires the feature extraction data 107 from each of the plurality of image forming devices 102, and performs the processing of S806 for each of the plurality of image forming devices 102.

The analyzer 105 performs a prediction determination process (S807). The prediction determination process is a process for determining whether or not it is the timing (timing for predicting the maintenance time) for generating information related to the maintenance of the image forming apparatus 102. When the analyzer 105 determines that it is the timing to predict the maintenance time in S807, the analyzer 105 transmits a request to acquire the prediction data necessary for the prediction to the server 103 (S808). The server 103 transmits the feature extraction data 107 and the log data 323 as prediction data in response to the received request (S809). The analyzer 105 executes a prediction process associated with each data from the received prediction data (S810). When the analyzer 105 determines that it is necessary to notify the user or the maintenance inspector 106 of the state of the image forming apparatus 102 based on the result of the prediction process of S810, the analyzer 105 performs the notification process (S811).

The image forming apparatus 102, the server 103, and the analyzer 105 repeat the above-mentioned series of processes. The processes of S807 and S808 performed by the analyzer 105 in FIG. 8 and the processes of S801 to S806 may be performed asynchronously. Hereinafter, details of each of the above-mentioned processes S801 to S811 will be described.

Next, the process of acquiring the sensor measurement value in the image forming apparatus 102 will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of the sensor measurement value acquisition process. Each process in the flowchart of FIG. 9 is a process corresponding to S801 and S802 of FIG. 8, and is a process in which the reader unit 240 and the printer unit 200 are the main executioners. Each process of FIG. 9 is realized by executing the program 321 by the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350 and the CPU 342 of the reader control unit 340. Hereinafter, each process in the flowchart of FIG. 9 will be described as a process executed by the printer control unit 350, but the same applies to the process executed by the reader control unit 340.

The CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350 executes a process related to a print job (S901). The process of S901 is executed by the image forming apparatus 102 detecting the print instruction. In S901, the CPU 352 mainly controls the processes related to image formation of the photoconductor 201, the exposure device 203, the developer 204, and the like of the printer unit 200 according to the printing operation. The processing from step S902 to step S907 described later and the print job processing in step S901 operate asynchronously. That is, each process from S902 to step S907 may be executed during the print job process, and each process from S902 to step S907 may be executed while the job is idle. When the reader control unit 340 executes each process of the flowchart of FIG. 9, the processes of the reading unit 249 of the reader unit 240 and the reader image processing unit 247 are controlled according to the reading operation.

The CPU 352 determines whether it is the acquisition timing of the sensor measurement value (S902). The acquisition timing may be at regular time intervals of several msec to several sec, or may be timing before and after the job is executed according to the instruction of the user or the maintenance inspector 106. Further, the acquisition timing may be different for each sensor of the sensor group 351. When the CPU 352 determines No in S902, it is not the data acquisition timing, so the CPU 352 returns the flow to S902 and waits until the acquisition timing is reached. On the other hand, when the CPU 352 determines Yes in S902, the CPU 352 advances the flow to S903.

The CPU 352 acquires sensor measurement values from a plurality of sensors constituting the sensor group 351 at the timing of Yes in S902 (S903). The CPU 352 acquires, for example, a sensor measurement value as shown in FIG. 6A, and stores the acquired sensor measurement value in the memory 353. The memory 353 stores the sensor measurement value for each priority and acquisition time corresponding to the data item. Then, the CPU 352 determines whether or not a predetermined amount of the sensor measurement value has been acquired (S904). As described above, the predetermined amount may be set to the amount of data that can be stored in the memory 353 of the printer control unit 350, or set based on the amount of data used for the feature extraction process executed by the system control unit 30. May be done. When the CPU 352 determines No in S904, the CPU 352 returns the flow to S902. On the other hand, if the CPU 352 determines Yes in S904, the CPU 352 advances the flow to S905.

The CPU 352 collectively transmits a plurality of sensor measurement values stored in the memory 353 to the system control unit 30 (S905). In the process of S905, CPU-to-CPU communication is performed between the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 and the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350. When each process of the flowchart of FIG. 9 is performed by the reader control unit 340, CPU-to-CPU communication is performed between the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 and the CPU 342 of the reader control unit 340. As described above, the CPU 352 collectively transmits a predetermined amount of sensor measurement values stored in the memory 353. Therefore, the number of transmissions of the sensor measurement value in S905 is smaller than the number of acquisitions of the sensor measurement value in S903. In other words, the transmission interval of the sensor measurement value is longer than the acquisition interval of the sensor measurement value. Therefore, regarding the data management process of the sensor measurement value, the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 does not have to perform the data management process in finer time units than the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350, so that the load is low.

The details of the data transmission process of S905 will be described. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of data transmission processing. The CPU 352 prepares transmission data in a predetermined buffer (S1001). Generally, an integrated circuit such as a UART is used for communication between CPUs. In addition, a FIFO buffer for accumulating transmission / reception data is used for UART serial communication. The CPU 352 performs the processing of S1001 by accumulating the transmission data in the FIFO buffer. In the present embodiment, since the plurality of sensor measurement values are collected and stored in the FIFO buffer as transmission data, the FIFO buffer can be efficiently used up. Therefore, the CPU load required for data transmission can be reduced as compared with the case where the sensor measurement values are transmitted one by one.

Then, the CPU 352 executes the transmission trigger of the serial communication, so that the data is transmitted (S1002). By performing the process of storing the transmission data in the FIFO buffer by the DMA controller, it is possible to transmit more data without the intervention of the CPU 352. As described above, the load on the CPU 352 can be reduced and efficient data transmission processing can be realized by collectively transmitting the sensor measurement values.

As shown in FIG. 9, the CPU 352 determines whether or not the data transmission has failed (S906). For example, the CPU 352 can determine that the data transmission has failed when there is no successful reception response from the CPU 301. The determination method of S906 may be any method. As a case where data transmission fails, it is assumed that the high load timing of the job processing of the image forming apparatus 102 executed asynchronously and the timing of data transmission overlap. In the present embodiment, the CPU load is distributed by causing the CPU 301 to execute the feature extraction process and the CPU 352 (or the CPU 342) to execute the sensor measurement value acquisition process. As a result, it is possible to prevent the CPU from becoming overloaded due to conflicts with job processing and the like, making it impossible to acquire desired sensor measurement values.

As described above, data transmission from the CPU 352 to the CPU 301 may fail. For example, when the system control unit 30 processes a plurality of jobs such as image reading, image formation, and fax reception in parallel, the CPU 301 may not be able to receive the data transmitted by the CPU 352. In this case, the data transmission fails. When the CPU 352 determines that the data transmission has failed, it determines Yes in S906 and advances the flow to S907.

When the CPU 352 determines Yes in S906, the CPU 352 deletes a part of the sensor measurement value stored in the memory 353 (S907). When data transmission fails, it is preferable that the sensor measurement value is retained until the next transmission timing. However, as described above, the memory 353 often has the minimum required storage capacity, and if many sensor measurement values are stored in the memory 353, the storage capacity of the memory 353 may be insufficient. There is. Therefore, in S907, the CPU 352 deletes the data of the sensor measurement value having a low priority. For example, as described above, the CPU 352 may delete the sensor measurement value of the data item having the priority “2” in FIG. 6A. In this case, the sensor measurement value of the data item having the priority "2" is deleted from the sensor measurement data stored in the memory 353, and the sensor measurement data is changed to the data as shown in FIG. 6 (B). To. This reduces the amount of memory 353 used. After executing the process of S907, the CPU 352 advances the flow to S908.

When the CPU 352 determines in S906 that the data transmission is successful, it is not necessary to store the sensor measurement value in the memory 353, so that it is not necessary to execute the process of S907. Therefore, in this case, the CPU 352 advances the flow to S908. Then, the CPU 352 determines whether to continue the processing of the flowchart of FIG. 9 (S908). The determination standard of S908 may be any standard. For example, when the power of the image forming apparatus 102 is turned off, the CPU 352 may determine that the processing of the flowchart of FIG. 9 is not continued. When the CPU 352 determines No in S908, the CPU 352 returns the flow to S901. On the other hand, when the CPU 352 determines Yes in S908, the CPU 352 ends the processing of the flowchart of FIG.

Each process of the flowchart of FIG. 9 is a process of acquiring a sensor measurement value and transmitting the sensor measurement value to the system control unit 30, and does not include a feature extraction process. Then, the flowchart of FIG. 9 is executed by the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350. Since the CPU 352 does not execute the feature extraction process having a high calculation load, the load on the CPU 352 can be reduced and the amount of the memory 353 used can be reduced. This point is the same for the reader control unit 340.

Next, the feature extraction process in the image forming apparatus 102 and the data transmission process to the server 103 will be described. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the flow of the feature extraction process and the data transmission process to the server 103. Each process of the flowchart of FIG. 11 corresponds to each process of S803 to S805 of FIG. 8, and is realized by the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 executing the program 321.

First, the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30 executes control related to the print job (S1101). For example, the process of S1101 is executed when the image forming apparatus 102 detects a job execution instruction. In this case, the CPU 301 comprehensively controls jobs such as an image reading scan job, an image forming print job, and fax transmission / reception. In the flowchart of FIG. 11, the job control process of S1001 operates asynchronously with each process of S1002 to S1007. That is, each process of S1002 to S1007 may be executed during print job control, and each process of S1002 to S1007 may be executed during idle without a job.

Next, the CPU 301 determines whether or not the sensor measurement value data has been received from the CPU 352 of the printer unit 200 or the CPU 342 of the reader unit 240 (S1102). As described above, when the load is high, the CPU 301 may not be able to receive the sensor measurement value data transmitted by the CPU 352 (or CPU 342). In this case, the CPU 301 returns the flow to S1102 and waits until the high load state is released and the sensor measurement value data can be received. On the other hand, when the CPU 301 receives the data of the sensor measurement value, it determines Yes in S1102 and advances the flow to S1103.

Next, the CPU 301 stores the received sensor measurement value as internal data 322 in the storage device 32 (S1103). The internal data 322 is associated with the related table as shown in FIG. 7A and stored in the storage device 32. Then, the CPU 301 determines whether the data transmission timing has come (S1104). When the predetermined time is reached, the CPU 301 may determine S1104 based on the change in the operating state during the period from the previous transmission timing to the current transmission timing. When the CPU 301 determines No in S1104, the flow is returned to S1102 because it is not the data transmission timing. On the other hand, if the CPU 301 determines Yes in S1104, the CPU 301 advances the flow to S1105. Then, the CPU 301 executes a feature extraction process for generating feature extraction data (S1105). The feature extraction process will be described later.

After executing the feature extraction process of S1105, the CPU 301 determines whether data transmission to the server 103 is unnecessary (S1106). The CPU 301 determines that data transmission is unnecessary, for example, when the feature extraction data 107 has not changed from the content previously transmitted, or when the job has never been executed by the image forming apparatus 102 since the previous transmission. judge. When the CPU 301 determines No in S1106, data transmission is required, so the generated feature extraction data 107 is transmitted to the server 103 (S1107). On the other hand, when the CPU 301 determines Yes in S1106, the data transmission is unnecessary, so that the flow proceeds to S1108 without executing the process of S1107.

The CPU 301 determines whether to continue each process of the flowchart of FIG. 11 after the process of S1107 is executed or when it is determined to be Yes in S1106 (S1108). The determination standard of S1108 may be any standard, but may be the same determination standard as S908 of FIG. When the CPU 301 determines No in S1108, the CPU 301 returns the flow to S1101. On the other hand, when the CPU 301 determines Yes in S1108, the CPU 301 ends the processing of the flowchart of FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 11, the CPU 301 performs the feature extraction process when the data transmission timing comes, but the feature extraction process may be performed at a timing different from the data transmission timing.

Next, the feature extraction process of S1105 will be described. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of the feature extraction process. The feature extraction process also corresponds to S803 in FIG. The CPU 301 refers to the internal data 322 stored in the storage device 32, and determines whether or not the internal data 322 has been updated during the period from the timing of the previous feature extraction process to the timing of the current feature extraction process. (S1201). When the CPU 301 determines No in S1201, since there is no data to be newly generated, the processing of the flowchart of FIG. 12 is terminated. On the other hand, when the CPU 301 determines Yes in S1201, the CPU 301 advances the flow to S1202.

When the CPU 301 determines that the internal data 322 has been updated, the CPU 301 extracts the updated data during the period from the timing of the previous feature extraction process to the timing of the current feature extraction process (S1202). Then, the CPU 301 refers to the internal data 322 of FIG. 7A and selects the corresponding feature extraction process for each data item (S1203). The CPU 301 determines whether or not there is data (internal data 322) necessary for executing the selected feature extraction process (S1204). For example, the CPU 301 executes a feature extraction process by applying a maximum value calculation process, a moving average process, or the like. In order to execute the maximum value calculation process and the moving average process, not only the updated internal data 322 but also a certain number of internal data 322 are required for a certain period before the update. It is assumed that a certain period and a certain number are set in advance for each data item 701 in FIG. 7 (A).

When the internal data 322 used for the feature extraction process is not stored in the memory 302, the CPU 301 determines No in S1204. In this case, the CPU 301 determines that it is not necessary to generate the feature extraction data, and ends the process of the flowchart of FIG. On the other hand, when the CPU 301 determines Yes in S1204, the CPU 301 acquires the value of the data item of the internal data 322 corresponding to the feature extraction process (S1205). Then, the CPU 301 performs a feature extraction process to which a maximum value calculation process, a moving average process, and the like are applied for each updated internal data 322 using the acquired value, and generates a feature extraction data 107 (S1206).

By executing the feature extraction process of FIG. 12, it is controlled whether or not new feature extraction data 107 is generated according to the number of stored internal data 322 and the selected feature extraction process. As a result, the amount and timing of data transmission / reception between the image forming apparatus 102 and the server 103 can be changed for each data. Each process in the flowchart of FIG. 11 does not include the sensor measurement value acquisition process. Since each process in the flowchart of FIG. 11 is executed by the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30, the CPU 301 does not execute the sensor measurement value acquisition process. As described above, the sensor measurement value acquisition process is performed in small time units such as intervals of several msec to several sec, so that the load on the CPU 301 is reduced.

Next, the prediction process and the notification process executed by the CPU 402 of the analyzer 105 will be described. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of prediction processing and notification processing. The prediction process is a process for detecting a sign of failure of the image forming apparatus 102. Each process of the flowchart of FIG. 13 corresponds to S808, S809, S810 and S811 of FIG. First, the CPU 402 determines whether it is the timing to perform the prediction process (S1301). As for the timing of performing the prediction process, the period or time is predetermined for each prediction process. Alternatively, the timing of performing the prediction process may be the timing at which the user or the maintenance inspector 106 requests maintenance for the image forming apparatus 102 by using the image forming apparatus 102. The prediction process is performed based on the prediction request ID 706 in the related table of FIG. 7A. A discrimination process 705 is associated and managed with the prediction request ID 706, and the discrimination process 705 corresponding to the prediction request ID 706 is executed.

When the CPU 402 determines No in S1301, it is not the timing to perform the prediction process, so the process of the flowchart of FIG. 13 is terminated. On the other hand, when the CPU 402 determines Yes in S1301, the CPU 402 advances the flow to S1302. Next, the CPU 402 acquires a prediction request ID for determining which of the plurality of types of prediction processing is to be performed (S1302). For example, it is assumed that the maintenance inspector 106 gives an instruction to the analyzer 105 to confirm the state of the fixing belt of the image forming apparatus 102 by using the portable terminal held by the maintenance inspector 106. In this case, the prediction request ID "2" is transmitted to the analyzer 105. As a result, the analyzer 105 acquires the prediction request ID.

The CPU 402 acquires feature extraction data 107 for a period required to perform prediction processing corresponding to the acquired prediction request ID (S1303). At this time, the CPU 402 acquires the log data 323 together with the feature extraction data 107. Then, the CPU 402 executes the prediction process based on the acquired feature extraction data 107 and log data 323 (S1304). For example, when the acquired request ID is "2", the CPU 402 performs a process of obtaining the dispersion rate of the feature extraction data for which the histogram processing is performed on the "fixing belt motor rotation speed", and an abnormality (anomaly) ( Determine if there is an error) or a sign. Further, the CPU 402 determines whether or not there is a sign of abnormality by performing an inclination analysis process on the feature extraction data on which the moving average process has been performed on the “transfer roller mileage”.

Then, after the prediction process is performed, the CPU 402 determines whether the user or the maintenance inspector 106 needs to be notified based on the result of the prediction process (prediction result) (S1305). For example, when the prediction result indicates that the image forming apparatus 102 has a sign of an error, the CPU 402 may determine Yes in S1305 as the notification is necessary. When the CPU 402 determines in S1305 as No, that is, when it is determined that the notification is unnecessary, the CPU 402 ends the processing of the flowchart of FIG. On the other hand, when the CPU 402 determines Yes in S1305, the CPU 402 generates a notification content indicating a prediction result (S1306). Then, the CPU 402 notifies the maintenance inspector 106 of the generated notification content (S1307). For example, the content of the notification is notified to the mobile terminal owned by the maintenance inspector 106.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of various data and prediction results. FIG. 14A is an example of internal data 322 acquired from various sensor groups in the image forming apparatus 102. In the internal data 322, various sensor measurement values and counter values at time T are managed for each item. FIG. 14A is a diagram showing the rotational acceleration data of the fixing belt motor at time T as an example of the internal data 322, with the horizontal axis representing the time and the vertical axis representing the rotational acceleration. FIG. 14B is a diagram showing the result of performing a histogram processing on the data of the rotational acceleration of the fixing belt motor. By performing the histogram processing on the above data, the reduction of the total amount of data is reduced while maintaining the information on the appearance frequency of the sensor measurement values.

FIG. 14C is a diagram showing the contents and results of the discrimination process. FIG. 14C is a diagram showing the result of discrimination processing using the variance ratio of the histogram based on the feature extraction data 107 subjected to the histogram conversion processing as shown in FIG. 14B. The discrimination process is performed by the CPU 402 of the analyzer 105. “Normal” in FIG. 14C shows an example of the result of the discrimination process of the predetermined image forming apparatus 102, and since the dispersion rate is equal to or higher than the predetermined value, the CPU 402 uses the predetermined image forming apparatus 102. Judge as normal. On the other hand, “at the time of abnormality sign” in FIG. 14C shows an example of the result of the discrimination processing of the other image forming apparatus 102, and since the dispersion rate is less than a predetermined value, the CPU 402 is the other image forming apparatus. Detects a sign of 102 abnormality.

The CPU 402 of the analyzer 105 may perform a determination process for determining whether or not there is a sign of the above by using a method other than the variance ratio of the histogram of the feature extraction data 107 that has been subjected to the histogram conversion process. For example, the CPU 402 of the analyzer 105 may perform the discrimination process using the average, skewness, kurtosis, and the like.

FIG. 14D is a diagram showing an example of the result of the discrimination process when the spectralization process is applied as the feature extraction process. By performing the spectralization processing on the internal data 322, it is possible to reduce the total amount of data while maintaining the information for each frequency component of the sensor measurement value. The CPU 402 of the analyzer 105 analyzes the period of the spectrum based on the cumulative result of the feature extraction data 107 that has been spectralized by the time when the discrimination process is performed, and performs the discrimination process. “Normal” in FIG. 14D shows an example of the result of the discrimination process of the predetermined image forming apparatus 102, and since the waveform cycle is within the predetermined cycle, the CPU 402 uses the predetermined image forming apparatus 102. Judge as normal. On the other hand, the “abnormality sign time” in FIG. 14D shows an example of the result of the discrimination processing of the other image forming apparatus 102, and since the waveform cycle is longer than the predetermined cycle, the CPU 402 is the other image forming apparatus. Detects a sign of 102 abnormality.

FIG. 14E is a diagram showing an example of the result of the discrimination process when the moving average process is applied as the feature extraction process. By applying the moving average process as the feature extraction process, it is possible to grasp the tendency of the sensor measurement value and reduce the measurement error with a small amount of data. The CPU 402 of the analyzer 105 analyzes the inclination of the moving averaging based on the cumulative result of the feature extraction data 107 that has been subjected to the moving averaging process by the time when the discrimination process is performed, and performs the discrimination process. “Normal” in FIG. 14E shows an example of the result of the discrimination process of the predetermined image forming apparatus 102, and since the inclination of the waveform is not more than a predetermined degree, the CPU 402 uses the predetermined image forming apparatus 102. Judge as normal. On the other hand, “at the time of abnormality sign” in FIG. 14E shows an example of the result of the discrimination processing of the other image forming apparatus 102, and since the inclination of the waveform is larger than a predetermined degree, the CPU 402 is the other image forming apparatus. Detects a sign of 102 abnormality.

As described above, the measurement value acquisition process is performed by the CPU 342 of the reader control unit 340 and the CPU 352 of the printer control unit 350, and the feature extraction process is performed by the CPU 301 of the system control unit 30. As a result, the load of the measurement value acquisition process and the feature extraction process for detecting the sign of abnormality of the image forming apparatus 102 can be distributed to different CPUs. Therefore, while performing the process of detecting the sign of the abnormality of the image forming apparatus 102, the influence on the job processing such as printing and copying, which is the original role of the image forming apparatus 102, is reduced. As a result, it is possible to suppress a decrease in printing productivity.

Further, as described above, priority is assigned to the data item of the internal data 322. Then, even if data transmission / reception between CPUs fails due to job conflict or the like, the measured value data of the data item having a low priority is deleted. As a result, even if the above load balancing is achieved by a plurality of CPUs, even if the CPUs are still in a high load state, important measured values with high priority can be maintained.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist thereof. The present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of each of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or storage medium, and one or more processors of the computer of the system or device implements the program. It can also be realized by the process of reading and executing. The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

10 System 30 System control unit 102 Image forming device 103 Server 105 Analytical device 301 CPU
340 Reader control unit 341 Sensor group 342 CPU
350 Printer control unit 351 Sensor group 352 CPU
402 CPU

Claims (12)

It is an image forming device
A first control means that acquires internal data indicating the internal state of the image forming apparatus and transmits the acquired internal data.
A second control means that receives the internal data from the first control means and extracts a feature amount used for detecting a sign of abnormality of the image forming apparatus based on the received internal data.
An image forming apparatus comprising. The first control means determines whether or not a predetermined amount of the internal data has been acquired when it is time to transmit the internal data, and if it is determined that a predetermined amount of the internal data has been acquired, the predetermined amount of the internal data is determined. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the internal data is collectively transmitted to the second control means. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined amount is set based on the amount of data used in the process for extracting the feature amount. Further provided with a transmission means for transmitting data indicating the feature amount to an external device that detects a sign of the abnormality.
The transmission means is data indicating the feature amount when the data indicating the feature amount has not changed since the last transmission, or when the job has not been executed since the data indicating the feature amount was transmitted last time. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the image is not transmitted to the external device. When the second control means fails to receive the internal data, the first control means is one of the plurality of internal data based on the priority information associated with the plurality of internal data. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the part is deleted. The first control means is characterized in that it preferentially deletes internal data indicating deterioration of image quality of printed matter of the image forming apparatus over internal data indicating that the image forming apparatus is stopped. The image forming apparatus according to 5. The second control means does not perform the process of extracting the feature amount when the internal data is not changed or the internal data used for the process of extracting the feature amount is not stored in the memory. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the first control means controls image formation or image reading. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the second control means comprehensively controls the overall operation of the image forming apparatus. A system equipped with an image forming device and an external device.
The image forming apparatus is
A first control means that acquires internal data indicating the internal state of the image forming apparatus and transmits the acquired internal data.
A second control means that receives the internal data from the first control means and extracts a feature amount used for detecting a sign of abnormality of the image forming apparatus based on the received internal data.
A transmission means for transmitting data indicating the feature amount to the external device is provided.
The external device is
A system characterized by comprising an analysis means for detecting a sign of abnormality of the image forming apparatus based on data indicating the feature amount. It is a control method of the image forming apparatus.
The first control means acquires internal data indicating the internal state of the image forming apparatus, transmits the acquired internal data, and transmits the acquired internal data.
The second control means receives the internal data from the first control means, and extracts a feature amount used for detecting a sign of abnormality of the image forming apparatus based on the received internal data.
A control method for an image forming apparatus. A program for causing a computer to execute each means of the image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

Images