JP4369414B2 - Image forming apparatus and saddle stitch control program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a saddle stitching processing function and a saddle stitch control program.

  In an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, or a multifunction peripheral, after a predetermined document image is formed on a sheet, the sheet is automatically subjected to a saddle stitching process (staple process), a middle folding process, or the like. Some have a post-processing device (finisher) for performing post-processing (finishing processing).

  The post-processing device is provided with a saddle stitching unit that enables bookbinding finishing. For example, the post-processing device sequentially performs a saddle stitching process and a middle folding process on a sheet conveyed from the image forming apparatus main body (hereinafter referred to as a saddle stitching process). In addition, the saddle stitch folding is referred to as saddle stitch folding), and the sheet bundle folded in the saddle stitch is discharged to a discharge tray.

  Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, the saddle stitching unit performs printing so that the cover page is at the bottom and stacks the printed material, and finally performs valley folding on the printed material and staples it at the center. (For example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  By the way, when the saddle stitching unit is not a valley fold but a mountain fold, if a driver of a model that supports a mountain fold saddle stitch post-processing device is used, a printed matter intended by the user can be obtained without problems as shown in FIG. be able to.

JP-A-6-276374 JP 2004-153574 A

  However, as shown in FIG. 8, when booklet printing is performed using a driver other than a model that supports the mountain folding saddle stitch post-processing device, the job pages are created in the order of the valley folded booklet, Since it is folded in a mountain, the order of the pages of the obtained printed matter is not correct, and there is a problem that the printed matter intended by the user cannot be produced.

  Therefore, in view of the conventional problems as described above, an object of the present invention is to perform booklet printing using a driver other than a model that supports the mountain-folded saddle stitch post-processing device, and a user in which the page order is correctly arranged. Is to obtain the intended printed matter.

  Other objects of the present invention and specific advantages obtained by the present invention will become more apparent from the description of embodiments described below.

  In the present invention, the problem is solved by generating a job in which pages are arranged in the order of a mountain folded booklet as shown in FIG.

  That is, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an image forming unit that forms a document image on a sheet, a saddle stitching processing unit that binds sheets received from the image forming unit at the center in the receiving direction, and the sheet. And a folding unit that folds the mountain at the center in the receiving direction and a control unit that controls these operations. When the control unit receives a job, the received job If the received job is not a mountain-folded book sorted job, the output of the first copy is stopped and the image data of all pages of the received job is stored in the storage means. The image data is temporarily stored and sorted in the reverse order, and then read out from the storage means to print the image data.

  The present invention includes an image forming unit that forms a document image on a sheet, a saddle stitching processing unit that binds sheets received from the image forming unit in the center in the receiving direction, and a state in which the sheets are stacked. A saddle stitching control program executed by a computer constituting the control unit in an image forming apparatus comprising a center folding processing unit that folds a mountain at the center in the receiving direction and a control unit that controls these operations. Is received, it is determined whether or not the received job is a job that has been mountain-folded book sorted. If the received job is not a job that has been mountain-folded book sorted, output of the first copy is stopped and received The image data of all the pages of the completed job is temporarily stored in the storage means and sorted in the reverse order, and then read out from the storage means to print the image data. That.

  According to the present invention, both a model that supports a mountain-folded saddle stitching post-processing device and a model that does not support a mountain-folded saddle stitching post-processing device, and a model that does not support a mountain-folded saddle stitching post-processing device. The driver is used by both models in common, and the user can perform saddle stitch printing without being aware of the type of driver and the page order in the job.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the following examples, and can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  The present invention is applied to, for example, an image forming apparatus 1 configured as shown in FIG.

  The image forming apparatus 1 includes a main body unit 10 including an image forming unit 100, a document feeding unit 200 and a document reading unit 300 installed above the main body unit 10, and a paper feeding unit installed below the main body unit 10. 400, a post-processing unit 500 installed on one side of the main unit 10, an operation display unit 600 installed on the front unit of the main unit 10, and a detection unit 700 described later.

  Here, the main body unit 10 and the post-processing unit 500 may be separate or integrated, but the post-processing unit 500 can be provided as an optional post-processing device by being separated.

  The document reading unit 300 reads a document and generates image data corresponding to the document. The document reading unit 300 includes a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) sensor that generates image data from an optically acquired document image, a scanner 301 including an exposure lamp, and the like, and a contact glass 302 and a contact glass 303 on the upper surface thereof. And. The document reading unit 300 scans a document placed on the contact glass 302 or a document conveyed by the document feeding unit 200 so as to be in contact with the contact glass 303. Output to.

  The document feeding unit 200 feeds a document to the document reading unit 300. The document feeding unit 200 includes a document placement unit 201, a carry-in drive unit 202 including a carry-in roller, a conveyance roller 203, a discharge roller 204, a paper discharge table 205, and a document detection switch 206 that detects the presence or absence of a document. Thus, the originals placed on the original placement unit 201 are automatically conveyed one by one in contact with the contact glass 303 and discharged onto the paper discharge tray 205 after exposure scanning of the originals. Further, the document feeding unit 200 is configured to be retractable, and when the upper surface of the contact glass 302 is lifted upward, the document to be read, for example, a book that is opened in a spread state, is opened on the upper surface of the contact glass 302. Etc. can be placed.

  The paper feeding unit 400 feeds paper to the image forming unit 100. The paper feed unit 400 is a manual paper feed including paper feed cassettes 401 and 402 that store sheets of various sizes (recording paper), a manual feed tray 4031 configured to be openable and closable at one side of the main body unit 10, and the like. Part 403 is provided. The paper feed unit 400 includes a transport path 404 that transports paper from the paper feed cassettes 401 and 402 to the image forming unit 100, and a transport path 405 that transports paper from the manual paper feed unit 403 to the image forming unit 100. . Each of the paper feed cassettes 401 and 402 and the manual paper feed unit 403 includes pickup rollers 406, 407, and 408 for taking out the stored paper, and paper feed rollers 409, 410, and 411 for feeding the paper one by one to the transport path. I have.

  The transport path 404 includes transport rollers 412 and 413 for transporting paper, and registration rollers 414 for waiting the transported paper in front of the image forming unit 100. Further, the transport path 405 joins the transport path 404 on the upstream side of the registration rollers 414.

  The image forming unit 100 performs predetermined image formation (printing) on the paper conveyed by the paper supply unit 400. The image forming unit 100 includes a photosensitive drum 101 rotatably supported in the direction of an arrow shown in FIG. 1, a charging unit 102 disposed around the photosensitive drum 101, a developing unit 103, a cleaning unit 104, and laser scanning. A unit 105, a transfer roller 106, and a fixing roller 107 are provided.

  The charging unit 102 uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 to a predetermined potential. The laser scanning unit 105 irradiates the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 with a laser beam based on image data transmitted from an image storage unit 30 described later, and forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 101. . The developing unit 103 makes the image (original image) appear by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image. The transfer roller 106 is for transferring the toner image that has been manifested on the photosensitive drum 101 to the sheet while the conveyed sheet is pressed against the photosensitive drum 101. The fixing roller 107 fixes the toner image transferred to the paper. The fixing roller 107 includes a heat roller and a pressure roller (not shown). The toner on the paper is melted by the heat of the heat roller, and the pressure is applied by the pressure roller to fix the toner on the paper. The cleaning unit 104 cleans the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 after the transfer of the image onto the paper is completed.

  A paper discharge unit 108 is provided on the upper portion of the main body 10, and the paper conveyed from the fixing roller 107 is discharged to the paper discharge unit 108 by the discharge roller 109. The sheet conveyed from the fixing roller 107 is discharged to the post-processing unit 500 by the discharge roller 110. The paper transport direction can be switched between the discharge roller 109 side and the discharge roller 110 side by the discharge branch guide 111.

  The operation display unit 600 is for inputting a predetermined instruction in accordance with a user operation. The operation display unit 600 displays a start key 601 for a user to input a print execution instruction, a numeric keypad 602 for inputting the number of copies to be printed, operation guide information for inputting various copying operation settings, and the like. In addition, a liquid crystal display for displaying various operation buttons such as a punch setting button, a saddle stitch setting button, and a half-fold setting button for inputting post-processing settings such as punch processing, saddle stitching processing, and half-folding processing ( LCD 603 or the like.

  The operation display unit 600 displays predetermined information. The operation display unit 600 displays predetermined information (for example, a message text) for notifying that an overflow state, which will be described later, is present on the display 603 or the like.

  The post-processing unit 500 performs post-processing such as stapling and folding processing on the paper that has been printed by the main body unit 10. The post-processing unit 500 includes a punch processing unit 501 that performs punch processing on the paper that has been carried (discharged) to the post-processing unit 500 by the discharge roller 110, and an intermediate roller 502 that conveys the carried-in paper downstream. From the main tray 504 that can be moved up and down by the lifting mechanism 503 to adjust the position to the reference position suitable for discharging the sheet bundle, the sub-tray 505 disposed on the one side surface of the post-processing unit 500, and the punch processing unit 501 A discharge roller 506 that discharges the conveyed sheet to the main tray 504, a discharge roller 507 that discharges the sheet conveyed from the punch processing unit 501 to the sub-tray 505, and the conveyance direction of the sheet from the intermediate roller 502 are the main tray 504 side. And branching to switch to either the sub-tray 505 side or the staple processing unit 510 side described later Id 508 and 509, further, the staple processing unit 510, folding processing unit 520, a sheet bundle discharge tray 530, and the sensor unit 540.

  The staple processing unit 510 performs a staple process such as a saddle stitch process on a sheet conveyed via the intermediate roller 502. The staple processing unit 510 is provided so as to protrude and retract with respect to the upper surface of the binding receiving base 511 and the binding receiving base 511 for temporarily stocking the conveyed paper as a bundle of sheets. A stopper 512 that temporarily stops the conveyance of the sheet that has been carried in, and a stapler 513 that performs a binding process on the sheet bundle on the binding tray 511 are provided.

  The paper that has been carried into the binding tray 511 stops when its leading end collides with the stopper 512. Subsequently, the loaded paper also collides with the stopper 512 and stops. In this way, a predetermined number of sheets are sequentially stacked on the binding tray 511 to form a sheet bundle. Then, the stapler 513 performs saddle stitching processing on the bundle of sheets in the center of the sheet bundle in the transport direction. Note that the staple processing unit 510 is configured to be capable of performing a front end binding process in which the stapler 513 performs stapling at the front end of the sheet bundle in the transport direction. In this case, the binding tray 511 on which the sheet bundle is placed moves relative to the stapler 513 in parallel with the transport direction of the sheet bundle (the binding tray 511 moves relative to the stapler 513). Positioning for performing the saddle stitching or the leading edge binding may be performed. After the binding process is performed in this way, the sheet bundle is conveyed to the middle folding processing unit 520.

  The half-folding processing unit 520 performs a half-folding process on the sheet bundle subjected to the stapling process by the staple processing unit 510 by a mountain fold, and discharges the sheet bundle to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530. The sheet bundle discharge tray 530 is a box-shaped tray configured to be able to stack and store (store) the sheet bundle discharged from the center folding processing unit 520. The sensor unit 540 is a sensor group including a sensor that detects the presence or absence of a sheet bundle discharged to the center folding processing unit 520, a sensor that detects the operation of each unit of the center folding processing unit 520, and the like.

  Here, FIG. 2 shows an enlarged detailed view of the half-folding processing unit 520, the sheet bundle discharge tray 530, and the sensor unit 540. As shown in FIG. 2, the half-folding processing unit 520 includes a half-fold receiving base 521 that temporarily stocks the conveyed sheet bundle, and the middle folding processing unit 520 that conveys the sheet bundle conveyed from the staple processing unit 510. A conveyance roller 522 to be carried in, a stopper 523 for temporarily stopping the conveyance of the sheet bundle carried on the center folding receiving base 521, a folding blade 524 for bending the sheet bundle, and a folding blade 524. A blade motor 525 to be driven, a folding roller 526 for pinching a sheet bundle folded by the folding blade 524, and a sheet bundle conveyed from the folding roller 526 toward the sheet bundle discharge tray 530. Discharge path 527 and a discharge roller 5 for discharging the sheet bundle conveyed through the discharge path 527 to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 It is equipped with a 8.

  The sheet bundle conveyed from the staple processing unit 510 is carried onto the half-fold receiving base 521, and the conveyance is stopped when the leading end of the sheet bundle in the conveyance direction collides with the stopper 523. The stopper 523 can move in parallel to the conveyance direction of the sheet bundle with respect to the center folding receiving base 521 (in the arrow direction indicated by reference numeral 5231), and thereby the sheet bundle moves relative to the folding blade 524. Then, the folding position of the sheet bundle is adjusted.

  A slit 5211 is formed at a substantially central portion of the center folding receiving base 521, and a folding blade 524 is provided below the center folding receiving base 521 corresponding to the slit 5211. The folding blade 524 is provided so as to protrude and retract in the arrow direction indicated by reference numeral 5241 (substantially perpendicular to the middle folding receiver 521) with respect to the middle folding receiver 521. The folding roller 526 is provided at a position facing the folding blade 524 with the center folding tray 521 interposed therebetween. The folding blade 524 is projected by the blade motor 525 from the sheet stacking surface of the center folding tray 521 so that the sheet bundle stopped on the center folding tray 521 is folded together with the folding blade 524. It moves between the folding rollers 526 while being sandwiched between the rollers 526. As a result, the sheet bundle is bent (bent). The sheet bundle with the bending wrinkles is conveyed to the discharge path 527 by the folding roller 526. On the other hand, after the folding blade 524 protrudes to a predetermined position, it is pulled out from between the folding rollers 526 by the blade motor 525 and returned to the original position before the projection. The sheet bundle carried into the discharge path 527 is discharged to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 by the discharge roller 528. The sheet bundle discharged to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 is sequentially stacked on the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 in a folded state as indicated by the sheet bundle 531.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the sensor unit 540 includes a discharge sensor 541 that detects the presence or absence of a paper bundle discharged to the paper bundle discharge tray 530, a paper sensor 542 that detects the presence or absence of a paper bundle in the paper bundle discharge tray 530, A position sensor 543 for detecting the position of the stopper 523 with respect to the folding receiving base 521 and a carry-in sensor 544 for detecting the presence or absence of a sheet bundle conveyed to the middle folding receiving base 521 are provided.

  The discharge sensor 541 is provided in the vicinity of the discharge roller 528 in the discharge path 527, and includes, for example, a light source that emits light crossing the discharge path 527 and a light receiving element that receives light emitted from the light source. . When a sheet bundle is conveyed between the light source and the light receiving element, the light emitted from the light source is blocked by the sheet bundle, and after the sheet bundle passes downstream, the light is emitted from the light source. The received light is again received by the light receiving element. Using this fact, the presence / absence of a sheet bundle discharged to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 is detected.

  The sheet sensor 542 is provided on the upper surface side (bottom) of the sheet bundle discharge tray 530, for example, and similarly to the discharge sensor 541, for example, a light source that emits light crossing the sheet bundle discharge tray 530, and the light source And a light receiving element that receives the emitted light. When a sheet bundle is discharged between the light source and the light receiving element, the light emitted from the light source is blocked by the sheet bundle, and when the sheet bundle is removed, the light emitted from the light source. Is again received by the light receiving element. Using this fact, the presence / absence of a sheet bundle in the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 is detected. Detection signals output from the sensor unit 540 (sensors 541 to 544) are input to the control unit 20 described later.

  When only the punching process is performed on the paper discharged from the main body unit 10 to the post-processing unit 500, the paper is sequentially carried from the main body unit 10 to the post-processing unit 500, and the punch processing unit 501 performs the processing. After punching the sheet, the sheet may be discharged to the main tray 504 or the sub-tray 505 via the intermediate roller 502. Further, in the case of performing the stapling process or the half-folding process after performing the punching process, after sequentially performing the punching process on the sheets sequentially carried into the post-processing unit 500, the stapling processing unit 510 and the half-folding process are performed. It is good also as a structure which conveys to the process part 520 and performs a predetermined post-process in each process part. Further, stapling or folding may be performed without performing punching.

  Here, a schematic hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 is shown in a block diagram of FIG.

  The image forming apparatus 1 includes a control unit 20 centered on a CPU that controls operation of the entire apparatus. The control unit 20 includes a printer controller 50, an image forming unit 100 including a laser scanning unit 105 and a fixing roller 107, a document feeding unit 200 including a document placement unit 201 and a conveyance roller 203, a scanner 301, and a contact glass 302. A document reading unit 300 including a sheet feeding cassette 401 and 402, a sheet feeding unit 400 including conveyance paths 404 and 405, a post-processing unit 500 including a staple processing unit 510 and a middle folding processing unit 520, a start key 601 and the like. An operation display unit 600 including a display 603, a detection unit 700 including a sensor unit 540 such as a discharge sensor 541, an image storage unit 30, an image processing unit 40, and the like are connected.

  The image storage unit 30 is a memory that temporarily stores image data of a document read by the document reading unit 300 and image data transmitted from an external device via a network I / F unit (not shown).

  The image processing unit 40 performs various image processing on the image data. The image processing unit 40, for example, performs image processing for consolidating a plurality of document images on one sheet, that is, enlargement / reduction processing for enlarging or reducing the image size of the document image, or arranging a plurality of document images on one sheet. Perform layout processing. For example, the image processing unit 40 reduces each of four A4 size original images to B5 size, and places the reduced four B5 size original images on both the front and back sides of the A3 size paper (B5 size size). Image processing is performed such that two document images are arranged on one side).

  As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 20 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) 20A that stores a control program of the image forming apparatus 1, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 20B that temporarily stores data, a control program, and the like. The microcomputer 20C, which is read from the ROM 20A and executed, controls the entire apparatus according to predetermined instruction information input from the operation display unit 600 or the like and detection signals from various sensors provided in various places of the apparatus. Is what you do. The control unit 20 includes a number calculation unit 21, a number setting unit 22, a number setting unit 23, a weight value setting unit 24, a determination unit 26, a display control unit 27, a post-processing drive control unit 28, and a post-processing information setting unit 29. ing.

  The number calculation unit 21 calculates (identifies) the required number of sheets for collecting and printing the document images obtained from the document based on the number information of the document read by the document reading unit 300. is there. The number-of-sheets calculation unit 21 calculates the number of sheets constituting the weekly magazine when, for example, printing a weekly magazine using a plurality of originals (performing weekly magazine binding). In this case, since the manuscript image is printed on the left and right pages and both sides of the weekly magazine, four manuscripts are used for one sheet. Accordingly, the number calculating unit 21 uses an arithmetic expression such as S = (M + 3) / 4 (the calculated S value is rounded down after the decimal point) where the number of documents is “M” and the number of sheets is “S”. To calculate the number of sheets. Note that information relating to the arithmetic expression is preset in the number calculating unit 21.

  In addition, when the number of originals read by the original reading unit 300 is larger than a predetermined number, the number calculating unit 21 transmits information indicating that the number of originals is over to the display control unit 27. For example, in the above-mentioned weekly magazine binding, if the upper limit value of the number of sheets that can be stapled or folded at once (for a bundle of sheets) is 16, for example, printing is performed on these 16 sheets. The number of original images (number of originals) is 64 (64 = 16 × 4; four originals are required for one sheet), so the number of originals read is larger than 64. In this case, the number calculation unit 21 transmits information indicating that the document number is over to the display control unit 27.

  The sheet number setting unit 22 sets information (number of “S”) on the number of sheets calculated by the sheet number calculating unit 21. For example, after the number calculation unit 21 calculates that the number of sheets is five, the number setting unit 22 sets information regarding the five sheets. As will be described later, the number setting unit 22 prints a predetermined number of copies on the sheet bundle when the value of the number of sheet bundles set in the number setting unit 23 is counted down to zero. When the processing is completed, the setting of the information on the number of sheets set in the number setting unit 22 is cancelled.

  The number of copies setting unit 23 sets information on the number of copies (number of copies to be printed) “B” for the sheet bundle composed of the number of sheets calculated by the number of sheets calculating unit 21 in response to an input by pressing the numeric keypad 602 or the like on the operation display unit 600. Is what you do. Further, every time the discharge sensor 541 detects the discharge of the sheet bundle to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530, the copy number setting section 23 reduces the number of copies set in the copy setting section 23 to the initial value. There are so-called countdowns. For example, if the number of copies is set to 10 copies in the copy number setting unit 23, for example, 10, 9, 8, 7... "Is subtracted and the countdown is performed to an initial value, for example, a value of zero.

  Note that a configuration may be adopted in which the discharge of a predetermined number of sheet bundles is counted by counting up instead of counting down as described above. In this case, for example, if the number of copies is set to 10, each time a sheet bundle is discharged, the number is incremented from “1” to “10”, such as 1, 2, 3, 4,. Also good.

  The weight value setting unit 24 sets, for each sheet bundle, a weight value corresponding to each sheet number (each sheet bundle having different binding numbers) based on the information of each sheet number “S” calculated by the sheet number calculating unit 21. To do (weighting). For example, when a bundle of sheets with different binding numbers is mixed and discharged to the sheet bundle discharge tray 530, the maximum integrated value at which the sheet bundle discharge tray 530 overflows is 100 (100%), for example. The value setting unit 24 has a weight value of 2 (2%) and a sheet number “S” of 6 to 10 when the sheet number “S” of the sheet bundle calculated by the sheet number calculation unit 21 is 1 to 5. In the case of sheets, when the weight value is 3 (3%), and when the number of sheets “S” is 11 to 16, the weight value is 5 (5%), and weighting is performed according to the number of sheets. .

  In the control unit 20 of the image forming apparatus 1, a personal computer (PC) 70 as an operation terminal is connected to the printer controller 50 via a printer cable or a network cable.

  In the copying operation in the image forming apparatus 1, image data read by the document reading unit 300 is taken into the image storage unit 30 via the control unit 20, and an instruction from the printer controller 50 and an operation display unit 600 are used. In accordance with the instruction and the control program stored in the ROM 20A, the control unit 20 operates the image forming apparatus main body to perform image formation. Further, the post-processing unit 500 operates in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 20, and the above-described binding processing and folding processing by mountain folding are performed.

  That is, when the control unit 20 in the image forming apparatus 1 receives a job as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 (step S1), first, as shown in FIG. It is determined whether or not (step S2).

  If the determination result in step S2 is “NO”, that is, if the job is not a mountain-folded book sort job, specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, the valley fold generated by the driver in the personal computer 70 as the operation terminal. In the case of a job for printing booklet-sorted image data, output of the first copy is stopped (step S3).

  Then, the page of the job sorted by the valley fold booklet is drawn, and the process of saving the image data in the image storage unit 30 is repeated for the number of pages, and the image data of all pages of the job sorted by the valley fold booklet is obtained. Once stored in the image storage unit 30 (step S4).

  Next, by executing the mountain fold booklet sort (reverse order sort) on the image data of all pages of the valley-folded booklet-sorted job stored in the image storage unit 30 (step S5), as shown in FIG. A job in which pages are arranged in the order of the mountain-fold booklet is generated, and then image data is read from the image storage unit 30 and printed (step S6).

  If the determination result in step S2 is “YES”, that is, as shown in FIG. 7, the job is a mountain-folded book sort job, printing is immediately performed (step S6).

  That is, in this image forming apparatus 1, image data of all pages of the valley-folded booklet-sorted job generated by the driver in the personal computer 70 that is the operation terminal is temporarily stored in the image storage unit 30 and then reverse order sorting is executed. As a result, a job in which pages are arranged in the order of the mountain folded booklet as shown in FIG. 7 is generated, and thereafter, the image data is read from the image storage unit 30 and printed. Thus, even if a job generated by the driver and sorted by the valley fold booklet is transmitted, the mountain fold booklet sort can be performed inside the image forming apparatus 1.

  Further, it is determined whether or not a booklet is specified (step S7). If the determination result is “NO”, that is, if the booklet is not specified, the job is immediately terminated, and the determination result is “YES”. That is, when the booklet is designated, the mountain folding and saddle stitching process is executed (step S8), and the job process is terminated.

  Therefore, both models that support mountain-folded saddle stitching post-processing devices and models that do not support mountain-folded saddle stitching post-processing devices are used. The user can perform saddle stitch printing without being aware of the type of driver and the page order in the job.

1 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing an internal configuration of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is an enlarged detail view of a half-fold processing unit, a sheet bundle discharge tray, and a sensor unit in the image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a control unit in the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a control unit in the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows typically the function of the conventional valley folding saddle stitch post-processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows typically the function of the mountain folding saddle stitch post-processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows typically the result of having executed the job by which the valley fold booklet sort was performed using drivers other than the model which supports a mountain folding saddle stitch post-processing apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 10 Main-body part 20 Control part 20A ROM
20B RAM
20C Microcomputer 21 Number calculation section 22 Number setting section 23 Number setting section 24 Weight value setting section 26 Discrimination section 27 Display control section 28 Post-processing drive control section 29 Post-processing information setting section 40 Image processing section 50 Printer controller 70 Personal computer 100 Image forming unit 300 Document reading unit 500 Post processing unit 510 Staple processing unit 520 Middle folding processing unit 524 Folding blade 525 Blade motor 526 Folding roller 527 Discharging path 528 Discharging roller 530 Paper bundle discharging tray 531 Paper bundle 540 Sensor unit 541 Discharging sensor 542 Paper sensor 600 Operation display section 601 Start key 602 Numeric keypad

Claims (6)

An image forming unit for forming a document image on paper;
A saddle stitching processing unit that binds sheets received from the image forming unit in a stacked state in a stacked state;
A half-fold processing section that folds the paper at the center in the receiving direction with the paper loaded,
A control unit for controlling these operations,
When receiving the job, the control unit determines whether or not the received job is a job that has been subjected to mountain-fold book sorting. An image forming apparatus, wherein output is stopped, image data of all pages of a received job is temporarily stored in a storage unit, sorted in reverse order, and then read from the storage unit to print image data.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the received job is a mountain-folded book sorted job, the control unit immediately performs printing.   The control unit further determines whether or not a booklet has been designated, and if the booklet has been designated, executes the saddle stitching and saddle stitching process. 2. The image forming apparatus according to item 1. An image forming unit that forms a document image on paper, a saddle stitching processing unit that binds sheets received from the image forming unit in the center in the receiving direction, and a center in the receiving direction in which the sheets are stacked. A saddle stitching control program executed by a computer constituting the control unit in an image forming apparatus including a half-folding processing unit for mountain folding and a control unit for controlling these operations,
When the job is received, it is determined whether or not the received job is a job that has been subjected to mountain-fold book sorting. A saddle stitching control program which temporarily stores image data of all pages of a received job in a storage unit, sorts in reverse order, and then reads the image data from the storage unit and prints the image data.   5. The saddle stitching control program according to claim 4, wherein when the received job is a mountain-folded book sorted job, printing is performed immediately. The control unit further determines whether or not a booklet has been specified, and if the booklet has been specified, executes the saddle stitching and saddle stitching process. The saddle stitching control program according to item 1.

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