JP4497593B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that executes printing upon receiving an ID designation for each sheet from the outside.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus, information on the entire state of the apparatus, such as a print preparation state, image formation, paper conveyance, etc., or information on the number of sheets being conveyed within the apparatus is only output to the outside.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional image forming apparatus, information regarding each sheet managed by the apparatus is not output to the outside, so that an external device or operator using the image forming apparatus can check the conveyance state and printing state of each sheet. The following problems occur because they cannot be grasped.
[0004]
When the printing operation by the image forming apparatus does not end normally, the external device that sends the image information to the image forming apparatus relates to individual sheets in order to print the same image again after the image forming apparatus returns to normal. Since the status of image formation completion and paper discharge completion is not known from the outside, the external device needs to hold the image information until a certain amount of time from the print instruction output to the image forming apparatus, and restrictions on the image data that can be held simultaneously It has become.
[0005]
In addition, when the image forming apparatus is connected to the network, the execution status of the print job cannot be grasped by the operator, so if an abnormality occurs in the image forming apparatus, actually go to the place where the image forming apparatus is installed. Otherwise, it cannot be confirmed whether or not its own print job has been completed normally. Therefore, if the print job is not normally completed, it is necessary to restart the image output from the location of the respective output device.
[0006]
Further, when a paper input / output device such as a large capacity paper feed deck or a sorter is connected to the image forming apparatus, an external control device that collectively manages these paper transport states in the image forming apparatus determines a certain standard ( For example, it is managed according to the timing from the print start instruction output), and it is not possible to accurately manage the delivery of paper between the apparatuses. In particular, it becomes very difficult to manage paper when the printing order in the image forming apparatus such as double-sided printing is different from the order of paper input / output.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet, wherein an ID is set for each sheet on which an image is printed, and printing is performed on the sheet for each set ID. A controller that manages the operation; a detection unit that detects a conveyance position of each of the plurality of sheets existing in the image forming apparatus during image formation on the plurality of sheets; and the conveyance of the plurality of sheets detected by the detection unit Based on the position, for each ID of the plurality of sheets existing in the image forming apparatus, the status data includes a predetermined number of bits and associates each bit with the transport position of the sheet transported in the image forming apparatus. Status generating means for generating the paper, and the controller is configured to display a paper transport position corresponding to each ID of the plurality of papers generated by the status generating means. By ORing all status data, and generates one status data for grasping all transport position of the plurality of sheets existing in the image forming apparatus.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer to which the present invention can be applied. In FIG. 1, 101 is a photosensitive drum which is an electrostatic carrier, 102 is a semiconductor laser as a light source, 103 is a rotating polygon mirror which is rotated by a scanner motor 104, 105 is irradiated from the semiconductor laser 102, and the photosensitive drum 101 It is a laser beam that scans the top.
[0009]
Reference numeral 106 denotes a charging roller for uniformly charging the surface of the photosensitive drum 101, and reference numeral 107 denotes a developing unit for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 101 with toner. Reference numeral 108 denotes a transfer roller for transferring the toner image developed by the developing unit 107 to a predetermined recording sheet, and 109 denotes a fixing unit for fusing the toner transferred to the recording sheet by heat.
[0010]
110 is a cassette feed roller that feeds paper from a cassette having a function of identifying the size of the recording paper by one rotation and sends it to the conveyance path, and 111 is a manual feed that does not have a function of identifying the size of the recording paper This is a manual paper feed roller that feeds the paper from the paper port to the transport path. 112 is an optional cassette paper feed roller that is detachable and has the function of identifying the size of the recording paper, and feeds the recording paper to the transport path. 113 is a detachable recording paper from the envelope feeder that can only load envelopes one by one. It is a paper feed roller of an envelope feeder that is fed into a transport path. Reference numerals 114 and 115 denote conveyance rollers for conveying the recording paper fed from the cassette or the optional cassette.
[0011]
116 is a pre-feed sensor for detecting the leading and trailing edges of the fed paper, 117 is a pre-transfer roller for feeding the conveyed paper to the photosensitive drum 101, and 118 is a photosensitive member for the fed paper. This is a top sensor for synchronizing the image writing (recording / printing) to the drum 101 and the sheet conveyance and measuring the length of the fed sheet in the conveyance direction. Reference numeral 119 denotes a paper discharge sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the paper after fixing, and 120 denotes a discharge roller for discharging the paper after fixing to the outside of the apparatus.
[0012]
121 is a flapper that switches the destination of the printed paper (discharge tray or removable double-sided unit), 122 is a transport roller for transporting the paper transported to the removable double-sided unit to the reversing unit, and 123 is the reversing unit A reversing sensor 124 detects the leading edge / rear edge of the sheet conveyed to the sheet, 124 is a refeed roller for reversing the sheet by sequentially operating forward / reverse rotation and feeding the sheet to the sheet refeeding section. .
[0013]
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a circuit configuration of a control system for controlling such a mechanism unit. In FIG. 2, 201 is a printer controller for expanding image code data sent from an external device such as a host computer (not shown) into bit data necessary for printer printing, reading printer internal information, and displaying it. is there.
[0014]
A printer engine control unit 202 controls the operation of each unit of the printer engine in accordance with an instruction from the printer controller 201 and notifies the printer controller 201 of printer internal information. 203 is a paper transport control unit that drives / stops motors / rollers and the like for transporting recording paper in accordance with instructions from the printer engine control unit 202. 204 is a printer engine that controls each high-voltage output in each process such as charging, development, and transfer This is a high-pressure control unit that is performed in accordance with instructions from the control unit 202. An optical system control unit 205 controls driving / stopping of the scanner motor 104 and lighting of the laser beam in accordance with instructions from the engine control unit 202. A fixing device control unit 207 drives / stops energization of the fixing heater in accordance with an instruction from the printer engine control unit 202.
[0015]
208 is a detachable option cassette control unit that drives / stops the drive system in accordance with an instruction from the printer engine control unit 202, and notifies the printer engine control unit 202 of the paper presence / absence status and paper size information.
[0016]
A control unit 209 of the detachable duplex unit performs sheet reversal and paper refeeding operations according to instructions from the printer engine control unit 202 and notifies the engine control unit 202 of the state.
[0017]
210 is a control unit of the removable envelope feeder, which drives / stops the drive system according to an instruction from the printer engine control unit 202 and notifies the printer engine control unit 202 of the paper presence / absence state.
[0018]
Between the printer controller 201 and the engine control unit 202, the printer controller 201 and the engine control unit 202 perform 16-bit serial communication with each other, and the engine control unit 202 responds to 16-bit command data transmitted by the printer controller 201. Returns 16-bit status data as internal information according to the received command. Also, a process of performing an operation according to the command content is performed.
[0019]
Further, the printer controller 201 and the engine control unit 202 manage printing operations with different IDs for each sheet. The ID is designated to the engine control unit 202 for each print instruction from the printer controller 201.
[0020]
Fig. 3 shows the status structure for managing IDs. The “ID status during registration” in FIG. 3 is composed of 16 bits with the first bit as MSB and the 16th bit as LSB. Of the 16 bits, the first bit 1 is “0”, bit 16 is parity, and the remaining 14 bits are assigned to IDs 1 to 14.
[0021]
When the engine controller 202 is assigned an ID from the printer controller 201, the bit corresponding to the ID number is set to "1", the printing operation corresponding to the ID number is completed, and the discharge operation is completed on a discharge tray (not shown). To set the bit corresponding to the ID to "0". Therefore, the state where the bit corresponding to each ID is “1” indicates the ID registered in the engine control unit 202 during or after the printing operation, and the state where the bit is “0” is designated by the printer controller 201. Indicates a possible ID. The printer controller 201 can easily grasp and manage the printing status of the printer by referring to the ID status during registration.
[0022]
In the present embodiment, the paper management method based on the ID of the single printer has been described. However, as shown in FIG. 4, a paper feed unit and a paper discharge unit are connected to the printer, and the printer controller 201 indicates the paper status for each unit. It becomes more effective when managing. In addition to the printer main unit, paper statuses for the paper feed unit and paper discharge unit are provided, and each status has an ID, and as shown in FIG. It is possible to grasp and manage the paper state of the entire printer system.
[0023]
(Second Embodiment)
The image forming apparatus described in the present embodiment describes a method for managing the IDs of the first and second sides in the double-sided printing with the same ID. In the present embodiment, a status (hereinafter referred to as a double-sided paper feed request ID status) indicating an ID that can be designated is provided on the second side of double-sided printing. The status configuration is shown in FIG.
[0024]
The engine control unit 202 sets the ID bit corresponding to the double-sided paper feed request ID status to "1" when the first paper discharge port is designated as the double-sided unit, and again feeds from the double-sided unit with the same ID. Clear this bit to "0" when specified. Therefore, the printer controller 201 grasps and manages the sheet conveyance state during duplex printing by calculating the logical product or logical sum of the ID status during registration described in the first embodiment and the duplex paper feed request ID status. It becomes possible.
[0025]
(Third embodiment)
In the third embodiment, an error recovery process performed between the printer controller 201 and the engine control unit 202 will be described.
[0026]
FIG. 7 shows the contents of status information sent from the engine control unit 202 to the printer controller 201 in serial communication performed between the engine control unit 202 and the printer controller 201.
[0027]
The information of each ID is given a meaning of 1 or O in each bit of 16 bits of information. * 1 in the figure indicates that if the bit value related to the status information ID is 1, a print instruction is received after print reservation and the printer engine terminates vertical synchronization or terminates vertical synchronization and prints an image. Indicates that it has started. If the bit value related to this ID is 0, printing is not reserved, printing is reserved but no print instruction is given, printing is instructed but vertical synchronization is not performed, or This indicates that the vertical synchronization has been performed and the sheet has been discharged from the outside of the apparatus.
[0028]
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing of the engine control unit 202 regarding the ID status when a jam occurs.
[0029]
Upon receiving a print reservation (S801), the engine control unit 202 searches for an empty ID from the ID status (S802) and determines the ID (S803). Then, the paper feed process is started at a predetermined timing (S804, S805). When the timing at which the sheet is conveyed to a predetermined sheet feeding position is reached (S806), the sheet feeding is stopped (S807).
[0030]
Thereafter, after waiting for a print request (S808), when a print instruction is received from the printer controller 201, a normal print operation is executed (S809). Thereafter, when the start timing of the vertical synchronization process is reached (S810), the vertical synchronization process with the printer controller 201 is executed (S811), and the corresponding ID bit of the status information is set to 1 (S812).
[0031]
Thereafter, when a jam occurs for some reason and the engine is stopped (S813), the engine control unit 202 holds the status information related to the ID in the state at the time of the jam occurrence (S815). This status is held until a status clear instruction is received from the printer controller 201 (S816).
[0032]
FIG. 9 shows processing on the printer controller side. First, when data from the host computer is received (S901), the received data contents are analyzed and developed into image data (S902). Thereafter, a print reservation is made to the engine control unit 202 (S903). Next, when the development of the first page data (in the case of the first page processing) is completed, a print instruction is given to the engine control unit 202 (S904 to S906).
[0033]
When error information such as occurrence of a jam after the print instruction is received from the engine control unit 202 (S907), the error information is analyzed (S908), and the ID status information is read at that time (S909). As a result, an ID job whose bit is 1 is determined as a retransmission page (S910), and printing is performed again as a recovery process after jam processing (S911). If there is no abnormality in the printer engine and a request for a vertical synchronization signal is received from the engine control unit 201 (S912), the vertical synchronization signal and image data are output to the engine control unit (S913). These processes are repeated for all pages.
[0034]
Thereby, it is possible to provide an appropriate recovery process to the user.
[0035]
As the configuration of the status information, in addition to the configuration as shown in FIG. 7, more detailed location information may be represented by providing 16-bit information for each ID as shown in FIG.
[0036]
(Fourth embodiment)
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the position of the sheet during sheet conveyance in the printer. The conveyance path is the lower AC feeding path, the upper BC feeding path, the common CD feeding path, the DE image forming path, the FD FD ejection path, the EG duplex ejection path, the GH duplex reversal path, Divided into GI duplex transport path and IJ duplex transport path transport block.
[0037]
Now, as shown in the ID table of FIG. 12, four sheets of ID = 2, 3, 4, and 5 are being conveyed on the conveyance path. Sheet position table information is provided for each sheet, and the sheet position table indicates in which conveyance path the sheet is currently present. FIG. 12 shows a sheet position table with ID = 2, ID = 3, ID = 4, and ID = 5. That is, since the paper with ID = 2 reaches the FD paper discharge path after image formation, bit 5 (FD paper discharge path) in the paper position table is set to 1. Similarly, the paper with ID = 3 has the leading edge in the double-sided reverse path, so bit 7 is 1, and the paper with ID = 4 has the paper leading edge in the common paper feed path, so bit 3 is 1. For the paper with ID = 5, since the leading edge of the paper is in the lower paper feed path, bit 1 is set to 1, respectively. When the printer controller 201 requests the paper position status of the paper ID, the engine control unit 202 returns a paper position status corresponding to the paper ID. When the printer controller 201 acquires the paper position status corresponding to all the paper IDs and performs a logical sum, the printer controller 201 can grasp all the paper positions on the conveyance path.
[0038]
In this embodiment, the sheet position is expressed by the position of the leading edge of the sheet. However, if the sheet position table including the trailing edge of the sheet is created, more complete sheet position status information can be obtained.
[0039]
FIG. 13 shows the position of the sheet re-edited into information for each transport block. That is, it shows which ID sheet exists for each feeding path. In the example of FIG. 13, the lower paper feed path has ID = 5, the upper paper feed path has no paper, the common paper feed path has ID = 4, and the FD paper ejection path has ID = 2. This indicates that there is a sheet with ID = 3 on the double-sided reverse path. Also by this method, the printer controller 201 can grasp all the paper positions on the conveyance path.
[0040]
Further, in this embodiment, the information indicating which transport block the position of the front end of the paper is in is shown. However, if the transport path information including the rear end of the paper is generated, more complete paper position status information can be obtained. it can.
[0041]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily manage the printing state and conveyance state for each sheet from an external device, and it is possible to easily cope with the addition of a sheet input / output device.
[0042]
Also, the recovery operation is facilitated when a paper jam occurs.
[0043]
In addition, by managing printing information and conveyance information with the same ID for the same sheet regardless of the printing surface, it is easy to manage sheet conveyance from an external device.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a printer to which the present invention can be applied.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a printer.
FIG. 3 is a data structure diagram of ID management information.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration when an input / output option device is attached to the printer.
FIG. 5 is a data structure diagram of ID management information.
FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of double-sided paper feed request information.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the contents of each bit of ID status information.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing during printing on the engine control unit side.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating processing during printing on the printer controller side.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the contents of each bit of ID status information.
FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a paper conveyance state in the printer.
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an ID table for each sheet indicating a sheet position.
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a table for each conveyance unit indicating a sheet position.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 201 Printer controller 202 Engine control part 203 Paper conveyance control part 204 High voltage | pressure control part 205 Optical control part 207 Fixing device control part 208 Option cassette control part 209 Duplex unit control part

Claims (3)

In an image forming apparatus that forms an image on paper,
A controller that sets an ID for each sheet on which an image is printed, and manages a printing operation on the sheet for each set ID;
Detecting means for detecting respective transport positions of a plurality of sheets existing in the image forming apparatus during image formation on a plurality of sheets;
Based on the transport positions of the plurality of sheets detected by the detection means, each ID of the plurality of sheets existing in the image forming apparatus is composed of a predetermined number of bits, and each bit is transported into the image forming apparatus. Status generating means for generating status data associated with the paper transport position ,
The controller performs a logical OR operation on all the status data indicating the paper transport positions corresponding to the IDs of the plurality of sheets generated by the status generation unit , so that a plurality of sheets existing in the image forming apparatus can be obtained. An image forming apparatus that generates one status data for grasping all conveyance positions.   Along with the execution of image formation, the detection unit detects a change in the transport position of the plurality of sheets in the image forming apparatus, and the status generation unit detects each ID of the plurality of sheets based on the detection result of the detection unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the status data is updated every time. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the status generation unit changes bit information corresponding to the transport position detected by the detection unit in the status data .

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