JP2752999B2 - Page printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a page printer such as a laser printer having a multi-stage paper discharge device.

[Conventional technology]

In a page printer such as a laser printer, video data is created for each page in a memory based on character code data and image data transferred from a host such as a personal computer or a word processor, and the data is used to generate electronic data. An image is formed by a photographic method and printed on paper.

When a multi-stage paper discharge device having a plurality of stack bins or a plurality of paper discharge units is provided, the print paper is discharged to a stack bin or a paper discharge unit designated by the host.

Also, a page printer having a multi-copy function,
One page of video data can be printed on a plurality of sheets, and each of the printed sheets is also discharged to the same stack bin or discharge unit designated by the host for the data.

The discharge from the host can be specified for each data of at least one page.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

Therefore, when it is desired to print a plurality of sheets for each page by using such a multi-copy function to create a plurality of copies of a document, it is assumed that a conventional page printer specifies a stack bin to be discharged for each page from a host. However, since a plurality of sheets of print paper on the same page are discharged to the same stack bin, it is necessary to sort the sheets one by one and collate them later.

Therefore, when the number of pages and the number of copies increase, there is a problem that it takes a lot of trouble and time to collate them.

Therefore, it is conceivable to repeatedly send the data of the same page from the host as many times as necessary by changing only the designation of the output bin without using the multi-copy function, but the load on the host increases. This is disadvantageous in that wasteful time is wasted and the printing speed is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and enables efficient multi-copying without imposing an extra burden on a host, and automatically collates and discharges a required number of print sheets. The purpose is to:

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an automatic collation mode setting means B in a page printer P having a multi-stage paper ejection device A, as shown in a functional block diagram in FIG.
When the automatic collating mode is set by the means B, the data of the same page from the host is repeatedly used to sequentially print the set number of sheets of paper, and each of the printed sheets is set in the multi-stage discharge device A. If the automatic collation mode is not set, the control for discharging one sheet at a time in each bin is repeated using the data of the same page from the host to sequentially print on the set number of sheets of paper. And a control means C for controlling discharge of the paper to a bin designated by the host of the multi-stage paper discharge device A.

(Operation)

When the automatic collation mode is set by the automatic collation mode setting means B, the controller C repeatedly uses the data of the same page from the host. Then, control is performed such that printing is sequentially performed on a set number of sheets, and each of the printed sheets is sequentially discharged one by one to each bin of the multi-stage discharge device A.

Therefore, by setting the automatic collation mode, the host can automatically print the specified number of sheets of paper for each page without sending the same page data multiple times without changing the output bin specification. You can sort them out into bottles and collate them.

Accordingly, printing can be performed efficiently without imposing an extra burden on the host, and it is not necessary to manually perform a collation operation after printing.

On the other hand, when the automatic collation mode is not set by the automatic collation mode setting means B, the control means C repeatedly prints the set number of sheets of paper by repeatedly using the same page data from the host. Thereafter, control is performed to discharge each of the printed sheets to a bin specified by the host of the multi-stage sheet discharging apparatus A.

Therefore, by not setting the automatic collation mode,
This is convenient because when the required number of different documents or the like are printed for each page, they are automatically sorted.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 2 is a sectional view schematically showing an internal mechanism of the laser printer according to one embodiment of the present invention.

This laser printer comprises a laser printer main body 1 and a table (including a double-sided unit) 2. The main body 1 is provided with two upper and lower paper feed trays (cassettes) 3, 4 detachably. A multi-stage paper discharge device (hereinafter, referred to as a "sorter") 8 having a base stacker 7 for large-volume paper discharge is provided.

Further, the main body 1 includes a photosensitive drum 9, a charging unit 10, an optical writing unit 11, a developing unit 12, a transfer unit 13, and a fixing unit 14, which constitute an operation unit of a printer engine described later, and a number of transport rollers. Discharge transport section consisting of paper guide plate and transport path switching claw 22
15, a power supply unit 16, a board for a printer controller 17, and an engine driver 18 are provided.

On the other hand, the table 2 is provided with a large-volume paper feed tray 5, and has a reversing unit 19 for double-sided printing and a reversing paper feeding unit including a number of conveyance rollers, a paper guide plate, and conveyance path switching claws 23 and the like.
20 is provided.

When a print sequence is started by a command from the printer controller 17, paper feeding is started from any one of the upper paper feed tray 3, the lower paper feed tray 4, or the large paper feed tray 5, and the paper is started. And the paper is temporarily stopped while the leading edge of the paper is held between the pair of registration rollers 21.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 9 rotates in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG.
The surface charged by the charging unit 10 is irradiated with a laser beam modulated according to video data by the optical writing unit 11 while being main-scanned in the drum axis direction, and is exposed to form a latent image. .

The developed paper is developed with toner in a developing unit 12, transferred to paper fed at a predetermined timing in a transfer unit 13, and the print paper heated and fixed in a fixing unit 14 is transferred to a sorter 8 through a paper discharge conveyance unit 15. The sheet is transported and discharged to the designated stack bin.

When double-sided printing is selected, after printing on one side (front side) is completed, first, the sheet is turned over to the reversing section 19 in the table 2.
Send to

Then, the sheet fed to the reversing section 19 is reversed in the conveying direction and conveyed to the reversing sheet feeding section 20 to be made to stand by, sent to the main body 1 at a predetermined timing, and the other side (back side) in the same manner as described above. ), And is conveyed to the sorter 8 through the paper discharge conveyance section 15, and discharged to the designated stack bin in the same manner as described above.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer controller of the laser printer.

The printer controller 17 has a host interface 31 for connecting to a host as an external interface,
A cartridge interface 33 for connecting to the font cartridge 32 as an internal interface, a panel interface 34 for connecting to the operation panel 50, and an engine interface 36 for connecting to the printer engine 35.
And

In addition, CPU37, ROM38, RAM40 as a controller unit,
It includes a data control unit 41, an address control unit 42, and a video control unit 43.

The host interface 31 is an interface for connecting to a host such as an office computer, a personal computer, a word processor, a data processing device, and an image processing device. Various types of parallel interfaces or serial interfaces are provided in accordance with the connected host. Ace is selected.

The host interface 31 receives various data such as character codes, control codes and control commands from the host, and transmits control information such as printer status to the host.

The font cartridge 32 is mounted on a font cartridge slot (not shown) as a cartridge in which font data of various fonts are stored in a ROM.

Further, the respective components in the printer controller 17 are mutually connected by bus lines including an address bus, a control bus, and a data bus.

The CPU 37 is a general-purpose 16-bit or 32-bit microcomputer including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an I / O, and the like, and controls the overall control of the printer controller.

The ROM 38 is a read-only memory, and stores various programs for controlling the CPU 37, resident fonts, and the like.

RAM 40 is a large-capacity random access memory,
As shown in FIG. 4, it is used for an input buffer 401, a page buffer 402, a video buffer 403, a font file 404 and the like, and also for a system memory used by the CPU 37.

The data control unit 41 is used when creating video data in the video buffer 403 based on the data of the page buffer 402.

The address control unit 42 controls a DMA (Direct Memory Access) address for creating video data in the video buffer 403 based on the data of the page buffer 402.
It comprises an address control section and a video address control section for sequentially outputting video data generated in the video buffer 403 in synchronization with a video clock (WCLK).

The video control unit 43 converts the parallel video data into serial video data and outputs it to the printer engine 35 when the video data created in the video buffer 403 is read, for example, by 32 bits, which is a processing unit of the CPU 37. .

The printer engine 35 includes a photosensitive drum 9 shown in FIG. 2 and its surroundings, an image forming unit including the optical writing unit 11 and the like, and a mechanical unit including a paper transport unit such as the registration roller pair 21 and its control unit. Consisting of the engine driver 18
The engine driver 18 controls the sequence operation of the image forming unit and the sheet conveying unit and the video modulation signal to the optical writing unit 11 according to the command and the video data from the printer controller 17.

The engine driver 18 also controls the sequence of the sorter 8, and also functions as the control means C shown in FIG.

Next, each processing operation will be specifically described according to the configuration of various buffers and files on the RAM 40.

When data (character code, control code, control command) is transferred from the host to the RAM 40, the data is first temporarily stored and held in the input buffer 401,
The data processing speed in the laser printer and the data transmission speed from the host are adjusted.

Next, the data held in the input buffer 401 is taken out, and the data such as the character type, font type, print position (X, Y coordinates) and the like on each page are added to the data in the page buffer 402. Page layout information and data to which an information block described later is added.

Next, when the data in the page unit is stored in the page buffer 402, the layout of the video data in the page unit to be created in the video buffer 403 is determined based on the control code and the print position information, and further determined. According to the layout, fonts corresponding to the character type and font type of each character described above by character code are collectively transferred from the font file 404 by DMA to create video data, and then output to the printer engine 35. I do.

Further, on the video buffer 403, a small memory area is secured in addition to the video data creation area (image area) as shown in FIG. 5A, and the area is designated as shown in FIG. The number of the fed paper tray and the discharged stacker (including the stack bin), the number of copies at the time of multi-copy, and the like are stored as page attribute information blocks.

Note that when performing normal printing, that is, printing on only one sheet of paper as shown in FIG. 6A based on one page of data from the host as shown in FIG. One page of video data and information blocks from the video buffer 403 and a print start command are output to the printer engine 35, and the memory area of the output video data and information blocks is used to create the next page of video data. To be able to release it as soon as the printing of one page is completed.

Further, when printing using the multi-copy function, that is, when printing on a plurality of sheets as shown in FIG. 7A based on one page of data from the host as shown in FIG. Since the video data and information blocks of the same page and the print start command are repeatedly output to the printer engine 35 until the set number is reached, the memory area of the video data and information blocks is released when the set number of prints is completed. Is done.

FIG. 8 is a layout diagram showing an example of the operation panel 50 of FIG.

The operation panel 50 includes an LCD display 51, a multi-copy key 52, an automatic collation mode key 53, and a reset key 54.
And a numeric keypad 55 including ten keys “0 to 9”.

It should be noted that various other keys and indicators may be provided, but are not shown because they are not directly related to the functions of this embodiment.

The LCD display 51 is, for example, a character display of 2 lines × 32 characters, and is capable of displaying a display corresponding to each key and various other messages.

The multi-copy key 52 is a key for setting a multi-copy mode. When this key is pressed, the number of copies of the same page (the number of copies at the time of automatic collation) can be designated.
Pressing displays the number on the LCD display 51, which is set as the number of prints.

The automatic collation mode key 53 is a key for setting an automatic collation mode. When this key 53 is pressed, "auto collation mode" is displayed on the LCD display 51, and the automatic collation mode is set.

The reset key 54 is a key for resetting the mode and the number of prints set by these keys. When the reset key 54 is pressed, the setting mode name and the number of prints displayed on the LCD display 51 disappear. Then, the process returns to the normal print mode for printing each page one by one.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the control processing by the engine driver of this embodiment.

This routine is started when the power is turned on, an initial setting and a status check are performed, and if there is no abnormality,
At step 1, it is determined whether or not multi-copying is performed.

If it is not a multi-copy, normal printing is executed. If it is a multi-copy, the number of copies N (the number of prints of the same page designated by the ten key 55 in FIG. 8) is read in step 2 and the stack bin number is read in step 3. Set n to “1”.

Next, in step 4, it is determined whether or not the automatic collation mode is set. If the automatic collation mode is selected, the stack bin number n is selected in step 5, and the stack bin number n is updated in step 6 to "n + 1". Then, go to Step 8.

If the automatic collation mode is not set, the stack bin specified by the host is selected in step 7.

Then, printing is executed in step 8, and the print paper is discharged to the selected stack bin 6 by controlling the sorter 8 shown in FIG.

Next, in step 9, the number of copies N is set to "N-1".
At step 10, it is determined whether or not the number of copies N is "0".

If the number of copies N is not "0", the routine returns to step 4 and repeats this routine until the number reaches "0". When the number reaches "0", the process proceeds to step 11 to determine whether or not there is data for the next page. Judge.

If there is data for the next page, the process returns to step 2 and the processing up to step 10 is repeated for the set number of copies. When there is no more data for the next page, all the processes in this routine are completed.

Therefore, for example, when a multi-copy of two pages of four sheets is executed in the automatic collation mode using a sorter having six stack bins, for example, two pages on the video buffer as shown in FIG. Of the video data, the first page of video data is sequentially printed out on four sheets of paper, and the respective printed sheets are stacked into the first to fourth stack bins as shown in FIG. The sheets are sequentially discharged one by one while switching.

Next, the video data of the second page is also printed out on four sheets in the same manner as the first page, and each printed sheet is sequentially discharged one by one while switching the stack bins from the first stack bin to the fourth stack bin. .

In this way, the set number of print papers is sequentially discharged to each stack bin of the sorter for each page, so that the print papers collated in the page order are obtained in each stack bin. The need for manual collation is eliminated, and the labor and time required for collation are eliminated.

When the automatic collation mode is not set, if the first page of the host is designated as the first stack bin and the second page is designated as the second stack bin, two pages as shown in FIG. Out of the video data of the first page, print out the video data of the first page on four sheets of paper,
The print paper is discharged to the first stack bin as shown in FIG.

Next, the video data of the second page is also printed out on four sheets in the same manner,
Discharge to stack bin.

Therefore, when different documents or the like for each page are to be printed by a required number of sheets, the sorting is automatically performed, which is convenient.

In this embodiment, the multi-copy and automatic collation modes and the number of copies at that time are set by the input operation from the operation panel 50 shown in FIG. 8, respectively. May be set.

Although the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a laser printer has been described, the present invention is applicable not only to other page printers such as an LED printer but also to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine and a facsimile. What you get.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the page printer of the present invention, by setting the automatic collation mode, the data of the same page from the host is repeatedly used and sequentially printed on the set number of sheets of paper. Since the paper is automatically collated and discharged to each bin of the multi-stage paper discharge device, the required number of documents can be efficiently printed without imposing an extra burden on the host. Therefore,
Wasted labor and time required for collating work after printing can be saved.

If the automatic collation mode is not set, the data of the same page from the host is used repeatedly and printed sequentially on the set number of sheets, and each print sheet is placed in the bin specified by the host of the multi-level output device. Since it is ejected, when different documents or the like for each page are to be printed by the required number of sheets, the documents are automatically sorted, which is very convenient.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a basic structure of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an outline of an internal mechanism of a laser printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration in the RAM 40 of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a memory area of the video buffer 403 of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a normal print. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of printing when the multi-copy function is used, FIG. 8 is a layout diagram showing an example of the operation panel 50 of FIG. 3, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing control processing by the engine driver of this embodiment. FIG. 10 is an explanatory view of a state of discharge of print paper by multi-copy in the automatic collation mode, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory view of a state of discharge of print paper by multi-copy not in the automatic collation mode. 1 Laser printer body 6 Stack bin 8 Sorter 17 Printer controller 18 Engine driver 35 Printer engine 37 CPU (microcomputer) 38 ROM (lead-on memory) 40 … RAM (random access memory) 50… Operation panel, 51… LCD display 52… Multi-copy key 53… Automatic collation mode key 54… Reset key 55… Numeric keypad

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An automatic collation mode setting means in a page printer provided with a multi-stage paper discharge device, and when the automatic collation mode is set by the means, data of the same page from a host is repeated. When the automatic collation mode is not set, the host is controlled to sequentially print the set number of sheets on each sheet and discharge each of the print sheets one by one to each bin of the multi-stage discharge device. Control means for sequentially printing data on a set number of sheets by repeatedly using the data of the same page from the printer, and discharging each of the printed sheets to a bin designated by the host of the multi-stage discharge device. A page printer.