JP4727752B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a multifunction machine.

  Conventionally, when an error such as a paper jam occurs in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine, a display device provided on the operation panel displays a guide indicating a procedure for canceling the error. What is known is known (for example, Patent Document 1). In this image forming apparatus, if an operator performs an operation according to a procedure for canceling an error displayed on the display device, an error occurring at that time can be eliminated.

JP 2005-208335 A

  However, in the image forming apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, a series of operations necessary to eliminate an error is displayed on the display device only for each operation. In other words, the operation before the operation currently displayed on the display device is not displayed on the display device when the current operation is displayed, and the operation after the operation currently displayed is not displayed on the display device. Is not displayed until the display of is complete. Therefore, when performing a series of operations according to the error cancellation procedure, it is difficult for the operator to know how many processes have been completed so far, or how many more processes must be performed before the error can be resolved. It is difficult to grasp the progress of

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an image that allows the operator to easily grasp the progress of the operation when the operator performs an operation according to the operation guide displayed on the display device. An object is to provide a forming apparatus.

The invention according to claim 1 is a display means for displaying operation guidance for the operator;
As the operation guidance, comprising a display control means for displaying an operation procedure composed of a plurality of operations on the display means by sequentially switching a screen showing each operation for a certain time every operation.
The display control means causes the display means to display the stage of the operation procedure of each operation on the display means when each screen showing each operation constituting the operation procedure is displayed, and it is necessary to execute each operation according to the operation procedure. An image showing the location where an error has occurred and an operation that must be performed to eliminate the error and that shows an operation corresponding to the stage of display are displayed in the screen showing each operation. Then, the display of the stage in the operation procedure of each operation is displayed in a reduced image of all the screens indicating the respective operations in the currently displayed screen, and among the reduced images, The reduced image corresponding to the screen indicating the operation that must be performed to eliminate the error is displayed differently from the reduced image of the screen indicating the previous and subsequent operations. An image forming apparatus performed.

In this configuration, when the display control means causes the display means to display an operation procedure composed of a plurality of operations in order for each operation, the stage in the operation procedure for the operation being displayed is also displayed. Can easily grasp the progress of the operation by visually recognizing the stage displayed on the display means.

The invention according to claim 2 is the image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the display control unit wants the operator to perform the number of all the operations constituting the operation procedure and the present time. By displaying which operation is the first operation among all the operations, further steps are displayed for the steps in the operation procedure of each operation.

  In this configuration, when displaying the steps in the operation procedure of each operation on the display means, the number of all operations that make up the operation procedure and the number of operations that the operator wants to perform at the present time are all operations. Since it is displayed, the operator can specifically grasp the total number of operations when performing a series of operations according to the operation procedure, and can clearly understand what number operation is currently being performed.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when an operation procedure composed of a plurality of operations is displayed on the display means in order for each operation, the stage in the operation procedure for the displayed operation is also displayed. Therefore, the operator can easily grasp the progress of the operation by visually recognizing the displayed stage.

According to the invention described in claim 2 , when performing a series of operations according to the operation procedure, the operator specifically grasps the total number of operations and clearly understands what number operation is currently being performed. be able to.

1 is a schematic side view mainly showing a configuration of a multifunction machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the multifunction machine shown in FIG. 1. 6 is a flowchart illustrating screen display switching control of the display unit when an operation error occurs by the multifunction peripheral. It is a figure which shows the example of the display screen which shows during copying operation. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen when a paper jam operation error occurs. It is a transition diagram of the screen display of a display part. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of screen display switching control of the display unit when an operation error occurs by the multifunction peripheral. It is a transition diagram of the screen display of a display part.

  Hereinafter, a multifunction peripheral according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described as an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic side view mainly showing a configuration of a multifunction machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. The multifunction machine 1 includes a main body 200, a paper post-processing section 300 disposed on the paper carry-out side, for example, the left side of the main body 200, an operation section 400 for a user to input various operation commands and the like, The document reading unit 500 is disposed at the top of the unit 200, and the document feeding unit 600 is disposed at the top of the document reading unit 500.

  The operation unit 400 includes a display unit 410 made up of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like, and an operation key unit 430 for inputting an operation instruction from the operator. The operation key unit 430 includes a start key, a numeric keypad, and the like.

  The document feeding unit 60 includes a document placement unit 601, a paper feed roller 602, a document transport unit 603, and a document discharge unit 604, and the document reading unit 500 includes a scanner 501. The paper feed roller 602 feeds the required number of documents set on the document placement unit 601 one by one, and the document transport unit 603 sequentially transports the fed document to the reading position of the scanner 501. The scanner 501 sequentially reads images of the conveyed document, and the read document is discharged to the document discharge unit 604.

  The main body 200 includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes 201, a plurality of paper feed rollers 202, a transfer roller 203, a photosensitive drum 204, an exposure device 206, a developing device 207, a fixing roller 208, a discharge port 209, a discharge tray 210, and the like. Prepare.

  The photosensitive drum 204 is uniformly charged by a charging device (not shown) while rotating in the direction of the arrow. The exposure device 206 scans the photosensitive drum 204 with laser light modulated in accordance with the image data of the document read by the document reading unit 500, and forms an electrostatic latent image for each color on the drum surface. The developing device 207 supplies a black developer to the photosensitive drum 204 to form a toner image.

  On the other hand, the paper feed roller 202 draws the print paper from the paper feed cassette 201 in which the print paper is stored and feeds the print paper to the transfer roller 203. The transfer roller 203 transfers the toner image on the photosensitive drum 204 to the conveyed printing paper, and the fixing roller 208 heats and fixes the transferred toner image on the printing paper. Thereafter, the printing paper is carried into the paper post-processing unit 300 from the discharge port 209 of the main body unit 200. The printing paper is also discharged to the discharge tray 210 as necessary.

  The paper post-processing unit 300 includes a carry-in port 301, a print paper carrying unit 302, a carry-out port 303, a stack tray 304, and the like. The printing paper conveyance unit 302 sequentially conveys the printing paper carried into the carry-in port 301 from the discharge port 209 and finally discharges the printing paper from the carry-out port 303 to the stack tray 304. The stack tray 304 is configured to be movable up and down in the direction of the arrow in accordance with the number of print sheets stacked from the carry-out port 303.

  FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the MFP shown in FIG. The multifunction device 1 includes a scanner unit 11, an image processing unit 21, a printer unit 31, an operation unit 400, a control unit 51, a network I / F (interface) unit 71, and an HDD (hard disk drive) 74.

  The scanner unit 11 includes an exposure lamp 12 and a CCD (charge coupled device) 13 that constitute the scanner 501 shown in FIG. The scanner unit 11 irradiates the document with the exposure lamp 12 and receives the reflected light with the CCD 13, thereby reading an image from the document and outputting image data corresponding to the read image to the image processing unit 21.

  The image processing unit 21 includes a correction unit 22, an image processing unit 23, and an image memory 24. The image processing unit 21 processes the read image data by the correction unit 22 and the image processing unit 23 as necessary, and stores the processed image data in the image memory 24 or outputs the processed image data to the printer unit 31. The correction unit 22 performs predetermined correction processing such as level correction and γ correction on the read image data. The image processing unit 23 performs various types of processing such as image data compression or expansion processing and enlargement or reduction processing.

  The printer unit 31 is an image composed of a paper transport unit 32 composed of the paper feed cassette 201 and paper feed roller 202 shown in FIG. 1, the photoconductive drum 204, the exposure device 206 and the development device 207 shown in FIG. The image forming apparatus includes a forming unit 33, a transfer unit 34 including the transfer roller 203 shown in FIG. 1, and a fixing unit 35 including the fixing roller 208 shown in FIG. The printer unit 31 prints an image on recording paper using the document data read by the scanner unit 11. Specifically, the paper transport unit 32 transports the recording paper to the image forming unit 33, the image forming unit 33 forms a toner image corresponding to the image data, and the transfer unit 34 transfers the toner image to the recording paper. The fixing unit 35 fixes the toner image on the recording paper to form an image.

  The network I / F unit 71 uses a network interface (10 / 100Base-TX) or the like, and controls transmission / reception of various data to / from an external device via the LAN. The HDD 74 stores image data read by the scanner unit 11, an output format set for the image data, and the like.

  The operation unit 400 includes a display unit 410 and an operation key unit 430 shown in FIG. The display unit 410 includes a touch panel unit that combines a touch panel and an LCD. The display unit 410 displays various operation screens and allows the operator to input execution commands for various functions by touching the display surface (displayed operation keys). The operation key unit 430 includes a start key, a numeric keypad, and the like as described above.

  The control unit 51 includes a CPU 52 and a display image data storage unit 53. The CPU 52 controls the operation of the multifunction device 1. The display image data storage unit 53 stores various still image data and moving image data to be displayed on the display unit 410.

  The CPU 52 includes an operation control unit 521, an error detection unit 522, and a display control unit 523. The operation control unit 521 controls operation of each unit (the scanner unit 11, the image processing unit 21, the printer unit 31, etc.) of the multifunction machine 1. The error detection unit 522 detects an operation error of each unit during the operation of the multifunction device 1. The operation error is, for example, a paper conveyance path connecting the paper feed cassette 201 to the discharge tray 210, a paper jam in the document conveyance unit 603 of the document feeding unit 600, or a failure in the image forming unit 33, the transfer unit 34, or the like. An abnormal stop, etc.

  The display control unit 523 controls the operation of the display unit 410. The display control unit 523 displays an operation guidance screen for the operator. For example, when the operation error is detected by the error detection unit 522, the display control unit 523 reads out and reproduces necessary moving image data from the display image data storage unit 53, or performs a necessary operation from the display image data storage unit 53. Still image data is read, and a screen showing an operation procedure for canceling an operation error in animation, a guidance screen for receiving input of instructions for each function such as a copy function, and the like are displayed on the display unit 410.

  The determination unit 524 determines whether or not the operation for canceling the operation error has been completed based on a signal from a sensor provided in each unit of the multifunction device 1 or the like.

  Next, screen display switching control of the display unit 410 when an operation error occurs by the multifunction device 1 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing screen display switching control of the display unit 410 when an operation error occurs by the multifunction device 1, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen showing that a copying operation is in progress, and FIG. 5 is when a paper jam operation error occurs FIG. 6 is a transition diagram of screen display of the display unit 410. FIG.

  In the multifunction device 1, when the operation control unit 521 causes each unit to perform an operation based on an operation instruction or the like input from the operator by the operation unit 400, for example, the operation control unit 521 includes the scanner unit 11, the image When the processing unit 21 and the printer unit 31 are performing a copy operation, the display control unit 523 causes the display unit 410 to display a display screen indicating that the copy operation is being performed as illustrated in FIG. 4 (S1). Hereinafter, a case where a copy operation is performed will be described as an example.

  If the error detection unit 522 detects, for example, a paper jam operation error during the copying operation (YES in S2), the display control unit 523 eliminates the paper jam operation error from the display image data storage unit 53. The data indicating the operation procedure for reading is read out, and the data is reproduced and displayed on the display unit 410 (S3).

  At this time, on the display unit 410, for example, as shown in FIGS. 6 (1) to (8), each screen showing a series of operations for performing an operation procedure for eliminating a paper jam operation error is sequentially displayed for a certain period of time. The video is displayed as an animation. The display control unit 523 displays an animation of opening the main body cover in (2) of FIG. 6 and displays an animation of removing the paper from the cassette in (5) and (6) of FIG. Thus, the operator can visually and intuitively grasp the operation that must be performed to eliminate the operation error. The display control unit 523 repeats the display from (1) in FIG. 6 when the display in (8) in FIG. 6 is finished. As a result, the operator can easily grasp the first operation to the last operation necessary for clearing the paper jam by visually recognizing the display screen of the display unit 410. Yes.

  Here, the screen shown in FIG. 6A first displayed by the display control unit 523 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 5, the display unit 410 displays a paper jam occurrence location (FIG. 5A), the appearance of the multifunction device 1 at the present time (FIG. 5B), and a series of operations to be performed by the operator. A description (c in FIG. 5) is displayed on the display unit 523. The display portion of the operation commentary by this character is displayed in a display format different from the other commentary portions by the shaded display or the like indicating the operation to be performed by the operator at this time. In addition, the display control unit 523 displays all the operations for performing the operation procedure necessary for eliminating the operation error of the paper jam on the display screen (d in FIG. 5).

  Further, the display control unit 523 indicates the total number of operations in the operation procedure for eliminating the operation error of the paper jam and the number of operations among all the operations described above. Display on the screen. For example, as in this embodiment, if the total number of operations in the operation procedure for eliminating the operation error of the paper jam is 8, and the currently displayed operation is the first operation, the display control unit 523 Is displayed as “01/08” as shown in e of FIG. Due to the presence of this display, if the operator visually recognizes the display screen of the display unit 410, there are eight operations to be performed from now on in order to clear the paper jam, and the first operation is currently displayed on the screen. Can be easily recognized. Note that the total number of operations in the operation procedure for eliminating the operation error of the paper jam, and the display format of the number of the currently displayed operation among all the operations are “01/08”. It is not limited to the numerical display such as, and other expression formats may be used. For example, the total number of operations in the operation procedure and the number of all the operations currently displayed may be displayed as a graphic image or the like.

  The display control unit 523 displays the screens of FIGS. 6 (1) to 6 (8) on the display unit 410, and displays them on the display unit 410 in the display portion of all the operations (d in FIG. 5). The part corresponding to the current screen is displayed differently from the previous and subsequent operations (S4). For example, as shown in FIG. 6 (1), when the first screen is displayed, the first display in the display portion of all the operations is reversed and displayed (shaded display, Display in a different color or the like may be used, and an expression form for making the display different from other display parts is not limited). Accordingly, the first display portion is displayed on the display unit 410 so as to stand out from the other seven display portions.

  The display color changing process by the display control unit 523 is, for example, (1) preparing two types of graphics having different colors indicating the same content screen, and displaying the screen upon completion of the operation (display image of different colors). (The display image data is stored in the display image data storage unit 53). (2) Upon completion of the operation, the code for managing the screen color is rewritten and the screen is displayed (the display control unit 523 reads out from the display image data storage unit 53). Data is processed and played back).

  When the determination unit 524 determines that all operations constituting the operation procedure have been completed by the operator (YES in S5), the display control unit 523 ends the display process on the display unit 410.

  Through the display control as described above, the operator can visually confirm the part d and part e in FIG. 5 on the display screen of the display unit 410, and perform operations among a plurality of operations that make up the operation procedure for eliminating the operation error. Thus, it is possible to accurately grasp how far the operation has been completed, what number operation has been performed, and how many operations can be completed to complete all operations. In a conventional multifunction device, an operation guide for eliminating an operation error is displayed on the display unit for the operator, but only a guide for each operation is available even when a plurality of operations must be performed. Since it was not displayed on the screen, it was difficult for the operator to grasp the progress status of the operation error solving operation. However, according to the above embodiment, such a problem in the conventional multifunction peripheral is solved.

  Next, a second embodiment of the screen display switching control of the display unit 410 when an operation error occurs by the multifunction device 1 will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the screen display switching control of the display unit 410 when an operation error occurs by the multifunction device 1. In FIG. 7, the same processes as those shown in FIG.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, when the screens of FIGS. 6 (1) to 6 (8) are displayed on the display unit 410, the display unit 410 in the entire operation display part (see d in FIG. 5). Although the part corresponding to the screen displayed on the screen is displayed differently from the previous and subsequent operations (S4 in FIG. 3), in the second embodiment, the display control unit 523 receives the operation procedure from the determination unit 524. (S11), and a screen showing the operation determined to be completed by the determination unit 524 in the above-described all operation display portion (see d in FIG. 5). The corresponding part is displayed as a color different from other operations (S12).

  For example, according to the guidance (FIG. 8) “1. Open the main body cover and remove any paper” displayed on the display unit 410, the determination unit determines that the operator has opened the main body cover and removed the paper. If 524 is determined, the display control unit 523 displays on the display unit 410 the first to third display parts indicating the operations already completed by the operator in the above-mentioned all operation display parts, as shown in FIG. Regardless of the displayed screen, the display is displayed in a color different from the fourth to eighth display portions indicating other operations. Thereby, if the operator visually recognizes the display screen of the display unit 40, the operation displayed in a different display color can be recognized as already completed. It can be clearly distinguished. In addition, the operator can easily grasp the progress of the operation (up to which stage the operation has been completed in a series of operations necessary to eliminate the operation error).

  The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the operation procedure for eliminating the operation error of the paper jam has been described by taking the screen display switching control when the display control unit 523 displays the display unit 410 as an example. The screen display switching control when the display control unit 523 causes the display unit 410 to display an operation procedure for eliminating an abnormal stop due to a failure of the image forming unit 33, the transfer unit 34, or the like may be used. Further, the display unit 410 is not limited to the operation procedure for eliminating the operation error, and the display control unit 523 displays an operation procedure for guiding other operations (for example, how to replenish the paper in the paper cassette). It can also be applied to the case where it is performed.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the structure and process of the multifunctional device 1 are shown in FIG. 1 thru | or FIG. 8, these are only examples, and the meaning which limits the structure and process of the multifunctional device 1 which concerns on this invention to these. is not.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is described as the multifunction machine 1, but the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to the multifunction machine.

1 MFP 51 Control Unit 510 Display Unit 523 Display Control Unit

Claims (2)

Display means for displaying operation guidance for the operator;
As the operation guidance, comprising a display control means for displaying an operation procedure composed of a plurality of operations on the display means by sequentially switching a screen showing each operation for a certain time every operation.
The display control means causes the display means to display the stage of the operation procedure of each operation on the display means when each screen showing each operation constituting the operation procedure is displayed, and it is necessary to execute each operation according to the operation procedure. An image showing the location where an error has occurred and an operation that must be performed to eliminate the error and that shows an operation corresponding to the stage of display are displayed in the screen showing each operation. Then, the display of the stage in the operation procedure of each operation is displayed in a reduced image of all the screens indicating the respective operations in the currently displayed screen, and among the reduced images, The reduced image corresponding to the screen indicating the operation that must be performed to eliminate the error is displayed differently from the reduced image of the screen indicating the previous and subsequent operations. The image forming apparatus performed. The display control means displays the number of all operations constituting the operation procedure and the number of operations among all the operations that the operator wants to perform at the present time, thereby displaying each operation. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further displaying a step in the operation procedure.

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