JP6458702B2 - Electronic apparatus and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for notifying job interruption.

  In recent years, there has been provided a function of notifying the end of a job by E-mail or the like from an image forming apparatus to a terminal apparatus using a communication protocol such as SMB or FTP. This function can be used when the user sets E-mail address information before starting the job. This function allows the user to know the end of the job and improves convenience.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an image forming system that performs data communication with a terminal device. In this system, when the wait control information from the terminal device is received together with the job, the wait control state is set at the start or end of the job, and message information is transmitted to the terminal device. Upon receiving the message information, the terminal device informs the user that the waiting control state at the start time or the end time has been set based on the message information.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-292850

  By the way, it is conceivable that not only the end or start of a job is notified to the user but also the user is notified of the job interruption when the job is interrupted by using the above-described conventional technique. Thereby, the user can cope with the interruption of the job.

  However, even if the user is notified of the job interruption, the user who has received the notification cannot always eliminate the cause of the job interruption. If the user is unable to resolve the cause of the job interruption, the user can only request the other person or administrator to resolve the cause of the interruption, and it takes a long time to resolve the interruption. As a result, the operating rate of the image forming apparatus decreases.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and when a job is interrupted, the cause of the interruption is notified to a user or an administrator who can resolve the cause of the job interruption. The purpose is to support the prompt resolution and prevent a decrease in the operating rate.

The electronic device according to one aspect of the present invention includes an interruption cause detection unit that detects a cause of interruption of a job when the job is interrupted, and a difficulty level of a coping method for eliminating the cause of interruption of the job. A notification destination storage unit that stores a user or an administrator who has issued an instruction to execute the job as a notification destination of the job interruption in association with the difficulty level, a communication unit connected to a network, and the cause of the interruption When the cause of the interruption of the job is detected by the detection unit, it is determined whether or not the cause of the interruption of the job is automatically released, and only when it is determined that the cause is not automatically released. Determining the difficulty level of the countermeasure for eliminating the cause of the job interruption, searching the notification destination storage unit for the job interruption notification corresponding to the difficulty level, and suspending the job addressed to the notification destination Create information And a control unit that transmits to the network a job interruption information from the communication unit of the control unit, upon execution of multiple jobs, by interrupting any of the job, the job by the suspension event detecting unit If the cause of the interruption is detected and it is determined that the cause of the interruption of the job is not automatically canceled, determine whether there is another job that is affected by the interruption of the job, When it is determined that there is another job to be interrupted, each user who has issued an instruction to execute the job and the other job and used as the notification destination searched from the notification destination storage unit A user who gives an instruction to execute a job earlier is selected with priority, and the selected user is stored in the notification destination storage unit as a notification destination of the interruption of the job. Size If it is further determined that the interruption notification is set, the interruption of the job is notified only to the selected user, and the interruption of the job is notified to users other than the selected user. Not .

An image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is an image forming apparatus in which the electronic apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 further includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium. The job relates to image formation by the image forming unit.

  According to the present invention, when a job is interrupted, a user or an administrator who can resolve the cause of the job interruption is accurately notified so that the cause of the interruption can be quickly resolved. Support and prevent a decline in availability.

1 is a front sectional view showing the structure of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a main configuration of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows notionally the difficulty data table which matched and memorize | stored the cause of interruption of a job, and the difficulty of the coping method for eliminating the interruption. It is a figure which shows the setting screen for setting the notification destination corresponding to difficulty level according to difficulty level. It is a figure which shows notionally the notification destination data table which memorize | stored the correlation of a difficulty level and "notify to an administrator" or "notify the principal" for every some user. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for selecting a user or an administrator as a job interruption notification destination and notifying the user or the administrator of the job interruption when the job is interrupted.

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

  FIG. 1 is a front sectional view showing the structure of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is a multifunction machine having a plurality of functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. The image forming apparatus 1 includes an operation unit 47, an image forming unit 120, a fixing device 13, a paper feeding unit 14, a transport unit 15, a document feeding unit 6, and an image reading unit (ISU). ) And the like.

  The operation unit 47 is operated by a user and receives an instruction to execute an image forming operation, an image reading operation, or the like.

  When the image forming apparatus 1 performs an image reading operation, the image reading unit 5 reads an image of a document fed by the document feeding unit 6 or a document placed on a contact glass (document placing glass) 161. Optically read to generate image data. Image data generated by the image reading unit 5 is stored in a built-in HDD or a computer connected to a network.

  When the image forming apparatus 1 performs an image forming operation, it is stored in the image data generated by the above image reading operation, image data received from a user terminal device such as a computer or smartphone connected to a network, or the built-in HDD. The image forming unit 120 forms a toner image on a recording paper P as a recording medium fed from the paper feeding unit 14 based on the image data and the like.

  The image forming unit 120 includes a magenta image forming unit 12M, a cyan image forming unit 12C, a yellow image forming unit 12Y, and a black image forming unit 12Bk. Each of the image forming units 12M, 12C, 12Y, and 12Bk exposes the surface of the photosensitive drum 122, the charging device that uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 122, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 122 to the surface. An exposure device (LSU; Laser scanning units) 123 that forms an electrostatic latent image, a developing device that develops an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 122 into a toner image, and a primary transfer roller 126 are provided. .

  When performing color printing, in each of the image forming units 12M, 12C, 12Y, and 12Bk, the surface of the photosensitive drum 122 is uniformly charged and then exposed, and the surface corresponds to an image of a color component of color. An electrostatic latent image is formed, and the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 122 is developed with toner of the color component to form a toner image on the photosensitive drum 122, and the toner image is transferred to the primary transfer roller 126. Thus, primary transfer is performed on the intermediate transfer belt 125 stretched around the driving roller 125A and the driven roller 125B.

  The intermediate transfer belt 125 is driven by a driving roller 125 </ b> A in a state where an image carrying surface on which a toner image is transferred is set on the outer circumferential surface thereof and in contact with the circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 122. The intermediate transfer belt 125 runs endlessly between the driving roller 125A and the driven roller 125B while being synchronized with each photosensitive drum 122.

  The toner images of the respective color components transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 125 are superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt 125 with the transfer timing adjusted to become a color toner image. The secondary transfer roller 210 is pressed by the driving roller 125A via the intermediate transfer belt 125 to form a nip portion N between the intermediate transfer belt 125. The recording paper P conveyed through the conveyance path 190 is sandwiched, and the color toner image formed on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 125 is secondarily transferred to the recording paper P. Thereafter, the fixing device 13 fixes the toner image on the recording paper P to the recording paper P by thermocompression bonding. The recording paper P on which the color image has been formed after completion of the fixing process is discharged to a discharge tray 151.

  The paper feed unit 14 includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes. When the size of the recording paper P is instructed by the operation of the operation unit 47 by the user, the pickup roller 145 of the paper feed cassette that stores the recording paper P of this size is driven to rotate, and the recording paper P is transported. It is transported to 15 transport paths 190.

  The transport unit 15 includes a transport path 190, a plurality of transport roller pairs disposed along the transport path 190, a registration roller pair disposed on the upstream side of the nip portion N in the transport direction of the recording paper, and a transport path 190. A discharge roller pair 159 disposed at the end of the recording medium is provided, and the recording paper is conveyed to the discharge tray 151 through the nip portion N and the fixing device 13.

  Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the main configuration of the image forming apparatus 1.

  The image forming apparatus 1 includes a control unit 60, an image reading unit 5, a document feeding unit 6, a fixing device 13, an image forming unit 120, an operation unit 47, an image memory 62, an HDD 63, a facsimile communication unit 64, a network interface unit 66, And a sensor group 68 and the like. In addition, the same number is attached | subjected to the same thing as the component demonstrated using FIG.

  The control unit 60 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM, a ROM, a dedicated hardware circuit, and the like. The control unit 60 includes a control unit 61.

  The control unit 61 includes an image reading unit 5, a document feeding unit 6, a fixing device 13, an image forming unit 120, an operation unit 47, an image memory 62, an HDD 63, a facsimile communication unit 64, a network interface unit 66, a sensor group 68, and the like. To control the entire image forming apparatus 1.

  The operation unit 47 includes various hard keys, a display unit 473 that displays operation guidance for a user, a touch panel provided on the display unit 473, and the like. The touch panel detects each touch operation on a plurality of touch keys displayed on the screen of the display unit 473. When a hard key or a touch key on the screen of the display unit 473 is operated, the operation unit 47 instructs the control unit 61 of the content of the input by this operation, for example, a numerical value or selection content.

  The facsimile communication unit 64 includes an unillustrated encoding / decoding unit, modulation / demodulation unit, and NCU (Network Control Unit), and performs facsimile communication using a public telephone line network.

  The network interface unit 66 is composed of a communication module such as a LAN board, and any of a plurality of terminal devices 67 such as a personal computer in a local area or the Internet via a network such as a LAN connected to the network interface unit 66. Various data communications are performed.

  The image memory 62 is an area for temporarily storing document image data read by the image reading unit 5 and temporarily storing data to be printed by the image forming unit 120.

  The HDD 63 is a large-capacity storage device that stores document images and the like read by the image reading unit 5.

  The sensor group 68 includes a plurality of sensors that detect various causes of the interruption when the job of the image forming apparatus 1 is interrupted, and the detection result of each sensor is output to the control unit 61. For example, each sensor detects a paper jam, a paper jam location, a paper out, a toner out, an abnormality in the image forming unit 120 or the fixing device 13 and the like as a cause of interruption of a job using a copy function or a printer function. Each sensor detects a paper jam, a paper jam location, a paper out, a toner out, an abnormality of the facsimile communication unit 64 as a cause of the job interruption as a cause of the job interruption using the facsimile function. In addition to what is detected by the sensor group 68, the cause of job interruption includes CPU runaway, memory error, abnormality of each operation mechanism, and the like. To detect.

  In such a configuration, the user can instruct a job using any of the facsimile communication function, the copy function, the printer function, and the scanner function by operating the operation unit 47. For example, when a job using the copy function is instructed by operation of the operation unit 47, the control unit 61 causes the image reading unit 5 and the document feeding unit 6 to read an image of the document, and the image forming unit 120 or the like. The image of the original is printed on recording paper. When a job using the facsimile function is instructed by the operation of the operation unit 47, the control unit 61 causes the image reading unit 5 and the document feeding unit 6 to read an image of the document, and the facsimile communication unit 64 transmits the public image. Image data indicating an image is transmitted to the other terminal through the telephone line network.

  Alternatively, it is possible to instruct execution of a job using any of the functions from the terminal device 67 such as a personal computer to the image forming apparatus 1 via the network. For example, print data can be transmitted from the terminal device 67 to the image forming apparatus 1 using a known communication protocol, and execution of a job using a printer function or a facsimile function can be instructed. The designated job is executed based on the print data.

  In addition, by using a communication protocol such as SMB or FTP, an E-mail or the like is transmitted from the network interface unit 66 to a server on the network to notify the user or administrator of the end or interruption of the job. Can do. When the user instructs the execution of the job, the notification to the user is input with E-mail address information destined for the user by the operation of the operation unit 47 or stored in advance in the HDD 63 or the like. The address information can be read and specified, or the address information can be transmitted from the terminal device 67 to the image forming apparatus 1 together with the print data and specified. Further, the notification to the administrator can be made by using the address information of the administrator stored in advance in the HDD 63 or the like.

  By the way, even if the user is notified of the job interruption when the job is interrupted, if the user who receives this notification cannot resolve the cause of the job interruption, the user There is no choice but to ask other people or managers to eliminate the cause, and it takes a long time to eliminate the interruption, and the operating rate of the image forming apparatus 1 is lowered.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, when a job is interrupted, a user or administrator who can solve the cause of the job interruption is specified, and the interruption of the job is notified to these users or administrators. As a result, the cause of the interruption of the job is promptly eliminated, and the reduction in the operation rate of the image forming apparatus 1 is prevented.

  Next, a processing procedure for identifying such a user or administrator and notifying job interruption will be described.

  In the present embodiment, generally, when a job is interrupted and the cause of the job interruption is detected by the sensor group 68, the difficulty level of the coping method for solving the cause of the job interruption is obtained. The job interruption notification destination corresponding to the job is selected, and the network interface unit 66 notifies the notification destination of the job interruption through the network. For this reason, if a notification destination corresponding to the difficulty level of the countermeasure for solving the cause of the job interruption is set in advance, the notification destination that has received the job interruption notification causes the job interruption cause. Can be eliminated.

  Here, in order to obtain the difficulty level of the coping method for eliminating the cause of job interruption, a difficulty level data table Da as shown in FIG. 3 is preset and stored in the HDD 63 or the like, for example. In the difficulty level data table Da, the difficulty level of the coping method for eliminating the cause is stored for each cause of the job interruption detected by the sensor group 68. For example, “fixing device paper jam” and “paper cassette paper jam” are set as causes of job interruption, and “medium” difficulty level is stored in association with “fixing device paper jam”. A difficulty level of “low” is stored in association with “paper jam in the paper feed cassette”. Also, “out of paper” and “out of toner” are set as the cause of job interruption, the difficulty level of “low” is stored in association with “out of paper”, and “medium” is associated with “out of toner”. "Is stored." In addition, “image formation unit abnormality”, “fixing device abnormality”, “facsimile communication unit abnormality”, although not shown, “CPU runaway”, “memory error”, etc. are set as the cause of job interruption. The difficulty level of “high” is stored in association with the cause of the interruption.

Further, the setting of the job interruption notification destination corresponding to the difficulty level is performed using a setting screen Ga as shown in FIG. For example, when an instruction for setting a job interruption notification destination according to the degree of difficulty is input from the user via the operation unit 47, the control unit 61 causes the display unit 473 to display the setting screen Ga. In this setting screen Ga, the difficulty level “low”, “medium”, and “high” of the countermeasures for eliminating the cause of the interruption of the job is displayed, and “notify the administrator” is associated with each difficulty level. And an image im2 indicating “notify the person”. “Notify administrator” indicates that the notification destination of job interruption is the administrator of the image forming apparatus 1. “Notify the person” indicates that the job interruption notification destination is the user who has instructed execution of the job. The image im1 is an image for receiving an instruction to set the notification destination to the administrator. The image im2 is an image for receiving an instruction to set a notification destination for the user.

  The setting screen Ga also displays a “set” image im3 for receiving an instruction to set a notification destination of each difficulty level designated by the user on the setting screen Ga.

  The user operates the operation unit 47 for each of the difficulty levels “low”, “medium”, and “high” to display an image im1 indicating “notify administrator” or an image im2 indicating “notify the principal”. Select and press to associate the difficulty level with “notify manager” or “notify the principal”. For example, the user presses either the image im1 or the image im2 displaying the desired notification destination for each difficulty level, and further presses the image im3. Thereby, the touch panel function provided in the display unit 473 allows the control unit 61 to accept the input of the notification destination associated with the pressed image im1 or image im2 for each difficulty level. Each notification destination indicated by the input is set as a job interruption notification destination. As shown in FIG. 5, the control unit 61 creates a notification destination data table Db indicating the correspondence between the difficulty level and “notify the administrator” or “notify the principal”, and stores the notification destination data table Db in the HDD 63. And so on.

  Further, the control unit 61 stores the correspondence between the difficulty level and “notify the administrator” or “notify the principal” for each of the plurality of users A, B, C,. A, B, C... Are identifiers made up of the names of the users.

  Therefore, when the cause of the job interruption is detected, the control unit 61 refers to the difficulty level data table Da to determine the difficulty level of the coping method for eliminating the detected cause of the job interruption, Subsequently, with reference to the notification destination data table Db, “notify the administrator” or “notify the person” as the notification destination corresponding to the determined difficulty level for the user who issued the job execution instruction. judge. In this embodiment, “notify the person” means a notification to the user who gives an instruction to execute the job.

  Next, when the job is interrupted, the difficulty data table Da and the notification destination data table Db are referred to, and a user or an administrator is selected as the notification destination of the job interruption, and the user or the manager manages the job interruption. The procedure up to notification to the person will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, it is assumed that the user operates the operation unit 47 to instruct execution of a job using any of the facsimile communication function, the copy function, the printer function, and the scanner function, and the job is executed ( Step S11). At this time, a plurality of jobs may be executed in parallel. For example, three jobs, reception by a facsimile communication function, image formation by a printer function, and reading of a document by a scanner function, can be executed in parallel.

  When the job is executed, the control unit 61 suspends the job, and the sensor group 68 detects the cause of the job interruption, or waits for the control unit 61 itself to detect the cause of the job interruption ( In step S12), it is determined whether or not the job has ended (step S13), the job is not interrupted ("No" in step S12), and when the job ends ("Yes" in step S13), The end of the job is notified to a predetermined notification destination (step S14). More specifically, when the address information of the user who has instructed the execution of the job is specified at the time of the job execution instruction, an E-mail addressed to this address information is created, and this E-mail is created. A message indicating the end of the job is written in “mail”, and this E-mail is transmitted from the network interface unit 66 to a server on the network. The user can receive the E-mail from the server through the network by the terminal device 67 and know the end of the job from the E-mail. If the user's address information is not specified in the job execution instruction, the process in FIG. 6 ends without performing step S14.

  In addition, the control unit 61 detects the cause of job interruption by the sensor group 68 before the job is finished (“No” in step S13), or detects the cause of job interruption by itself. It is determined that the job has been interrupted (“Yes” in step S12). Then, the control unit 61 determines whether or not the cause of the job interruption is automatically canceled (step S15). For example, when the color misregistration of the color image is detected by the sensor group 68 and the calibration is automatically started, the job is interrupted, but the cause of the interruption is resolved at the end of the calibration. The unit 61 determines that the cause of the job interruption is automatically canceled (step S15 “Yes” in FIG. 3), waits until the cause is resolved, and when the cause is resolved, The process is resumed, and the process returns to steps S12 and S13.

  If the control unit 61 determines that the cause of the job interruption is a paper jam or the like and is not automatically canceled (“No” in step S15), the control unit 61 refers to the difficulty level data table Da to interrupt the job. The difficulty level of the coping method for eliminating the cause is determined (step S16). That is, the control unit 61 sets the difficulty level of the handling method for eliminating the cause of the job interruption to be “low”, “medium”, or “high”.

  Subsequently, the control unit 61 refers to the notification destination data table Db to search for a user who has instructed execution of the interrupted job (step S21), and for the user, the difficulty level determined in step S16. It is determined which of “notify the administrator” and “notify the principal” is associated (step S22).

  If the control unit 61 determines that “notify the principal” is associated with the difficulty determined in step S16 for the user who has instructed the execution of the interrupted job (“notify the principal in step S22”). ]), It is determined whether or not the address information of the user who instructed the execution of the interrupted job is specified, that is, whether or not a job interrupt notification is set (step S23). Further, when the control unit 61 determines that a job interruption notification is set (“Yes” in step S23), the control unit 61 creates an E-mail addressed to the user's address information and stores the E-mail in the E-mail. A message indicating the interruption of the job is written, this E-mail is transmitted from the network interface unit 66 to the server on the network (step S24), and the processing of FIG. The user who has instructed the execution of the interrupted job can receive the E-mail from the server through the network by the terminal device 67, and know the interruption of the job from the E-mail. For this user, since the degree of difficulty of the coping method for eliminating the cause of job interruption in the notification destination data table Db is associated with “notify the person”, the coping method for this degree of difficulty is implemented. be able to. For this reason, the cause of the job interruption is quickly resolved by the user, and the reduction in the operation rate of the image forming apparatus 1 can be suppressed.

  In addition, the control unit 61 determines that “notify the administrator” is associated with the difficulty level determined in step S16 (“notify administrator” in step S22) or the job in step S23. If it is determined that no interruption notification is set (“No” in step S23), it is determined whether there is another job that is interrupted due to the interruption of the job (step S25). . For example, when multiple jobs using the copy function are executed sequentially in the order in which the job execution instructions are issued, and the first job among these jobs is interrupted, the first job is affected by the interruption. Since the other jobs in the next order following the current job are also interrupted, the control unit 61 determines that there is another job to be interrupted ("Yes" in step S25).

  And the control part 61 performs the process from step S21 also about this other job. That is, the control unit 61 refers to the notification destination data table Db to search for another user who has instructed execution of the other job to be interrupted (step S21 "), and determines this user in step S16. It is determined whether “notify the administrator” or “notify the principal” is associated with the difficulty level (step S22). If it is determined that “notify the principal” is associated (in step S22). "Yes"), it is further determined whether or not a job interruption notification is set (step S23), and if it is determined that the interruption notification is set ("Yes" in step S23), the other jobs Create an E-mail addressed to the address information of the user who instructed the execution of the job, write a message indicating job interruption to this E-mail, and then send this E-mail to the network. Sending from the work interface unit 66 to a server on the network (step S24), and ends the processing of FIG.

  Whether the control unit 61 determines that “notify the administrator” is associated with the difficulty level determined in step S16 for the user who has instructed execution of the other job to be interrupted (step S16). If it is determined in step S22 that “notify administrator” or the notification of interruption is not set (“No” in step S23), it is determined whether there is another job in the next order to be interrupted (step S23). S25).

  In other words, the control unit 61 sequentially selects the user who issued the job execution instruction earlier among the users of the interrupted job and all other jobs affected by the interruption of the job. Then, for this selected user, it is determined whether or not “notify the principal” is associated with the difficulty level determined in step S16. It is determined whether or not notification is set. If suspension notification is set, an E-mail addressed to the user's address information is created, and a message indicating job suspension is written. Send mail to a server on the network. Thereafter, the process of FIG. 6 is terminated.

  That is, the control unit 61 determines whether or not each of the other jobs that are managed by the control unit 61 is also interrupted due to the influence of the interrupted job. For example, a job data table storing job types that are affected by the cause of interruption is stored in advance in the HDD 63 for each type of interruption. Since the control unit 61 has already detected the cause of job interruption in step S12, the control unit 61 can determine whether the other job is affected by the cause of the interruption by referring to the job data table. It is. For example, if a recording paper jam (cause of interruption) occurs in the conveyance path 190 before and after the image forming unit 120 during execution of a job using the copy function, and the job is interrupted, the cause of the interruption is the image formation. This affects other jobs that perform the job, for example, jobs that use the printer function. Therefore, the job data table stores a copy function, a printer function, a facsimile function, and the like as a kind of job affected by the cause of the interruption of the recording paper jam in the conveyance path 190. ing.

  On the other hand, a job that uses the image reading unit 5 and uses the scanner function that does not use the image forming unit 120 and the conveyance path 190 is not affected by the jam of the recording paper. For this reason, the job data table does not store a job related to the scanner function or the like as a type of job affected by the cause of the interruption of the recording paper jam in the conveyance path 190.

Here, the control unit 61, among the other jobs that are to administer, as a job that is affected by the cause of the interruption occurring at this point, there is a job that has been stored in the job data tape b le (Yes in step S25), the process from step S21 is also performed for this other job.

  Note that the control unit 61, for any user, when “notify the administrator” is associated with the difficulty level determined in step S16 (“notify administrator” in step S21). Is notified of the interruption of the job (step S26).

  If no interruption notification is set (“No” in step S23) and it is determined that there is no job in the next order to be interrupted (“No” in step S25), the job interruption is determined. The administrator is selected as the notification destination, and the interruption of the job is notified to the administrator (step S26).

  When notifying the administrator of job suspension, the control unit 61 acquires the administrator's address information, creates an E-mail addressed to this address information, and suspends the job to this E-mail. Is written, and this E-mail is transmitted from the network interface unit 66 to the server on the network. The administrator can receive the E-mail from the server via the network by the terminal device 67 and read the E-mail message to know the job interruption.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the cause of job interruption is detected by the sensor group 68, the cause of job interruption detected by the sensor group 68 is resolved with reference to the difficulty level data table Da. The degree of difficulty of the coping method is being sought.

  Then, among the users of the interrupted job and all other jobs affected by the interruption of the job, the user who issued the job execution instruction earlier is preferentially selected and this selected For the user, with reference to the notification destination data table Db, it is determined that “notify the person” is associated with the difficulty level of the coping method for eliminating the cause of the job interruption, and further notification of interruption is made. If it is determined that it is set, an E-mail in which a message indicating job interruption is written is transmitted to the selected user. In addition, for any user, if “notify the principal” is not associated or if no interruption notification is set, an administrator is selected as the job interruption notification destination, and this administrator is notified. In contrast, an E-mail in which a message indicating job interruption is written is transmitted.

  Therefore, an E-mail in which a message indicating job interruption is written is received by a user or administrator who can solve the cause of the job interruption, and the cause of the interruption is promptly received by the user or administrator. Thus, the operating rate of the image forming apparatus 1 is prevented from being lowered.

  In the above embodiment, a color multifunction peripheral is used as an embodiment of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. However, this is only an example, and a monochrome multifunction peripheral or other electronic device such as a printer is used. Other image forming apparatuses such as a copying machine and a facsimile machine may be used.

  The configurations and processes of the above-described embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6 are merely embodiments of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the configurations and processes.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Apparatus main body 5 Image reading part 6 Document feeding part 13 Fixing apparatus 14 Paper feed part 15 Conveying part 47 Operation part 61 Control part 62 Image memory 63 HDD
66 Network interface unit 67 Terminal device 68 Sensor group 120 Image forming unit Da Difficulty level data table Db Notification destination data table Ga Setting screen

Claims (4)

An interruption cause detector for detecting the cause of interruption of the job when the job is interrupted;
The user or administrator who issued an instruction to execute the job as the notification destination of the job interruption is stored in association with the difficulty level, according to the difficulty level of the countermeasure method for eliminating the cause of the job interruption. A notification destination storage unit;
A communication unit connected to the network;
When the cause of the interruption of the job is detected by the interruption cause detection unit, it is determined whether or not the cause of the interruption of the job is to be automatically canceled, and it is determined that it is not to be automatically canceled Only, the degree of difficulty of the handling method for eliminating the cause of the interruption of the job is determined , the notification destination of the interruption of the job corresponding to the difficulty is searched from the notification destination storage unit, and the notification destination A job interrupt information is created, and the job interrupt information is transmitted from the communication unit to the network .
When executing a plurality of jobs, the control unit interrupts one of the jobs, the interruption cause detection unit detects the cause of the interruption of the job, and automatically cancels the cause of the interruption of the job. If it is determined that there is another job that is affected by the interruption of the job, and if there is another job to be interrupted, execution of the job and the other job is determined. Priority is given to each user who has issued an instruction to execute a job, and from among the users as the notification destination searched from the notification destination storage unit. If the selected user is determined to be stored in the notification destination storage unit as a notification destination of the job interruption, and the interruption notification is further set, the selected use is determined. For Only notifies an interruption of the job, it does not notify the interruption of the job to the user other than the selected user, an electronic apparatus. The control unit selects the administrator as the notification destination when none of the plurality of users who have issued instructions to execute the job and the other jobs is searched from the notification destination storage unit. The electronic device according to claim 1 . For each cause of the interruption of the job, a difficulty level storage unit that stores the difficulty level of the coping method for eliminating the cause,
Determining the control unit, when the cause of the interruption of the job is detected by the interruption cause detecting unit, the difficulty of Action for eliminating the cause of the interruption of the job by searching from the difficulty storage unit The electronic device according to claim 1 or 2 . The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
An image forming apparatus further comprising an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the job relates to image formation by the image forming unit.