JPH01295272A - Paper ejecting system in image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To pile up sheets on a paper eject tray in right order even in either one-sided printing or double-sided printing by selectively using the turning-over part of a double-sided printer even in paper ejecting operation. CONSTITUTION:In the case of one-sided printing, sheets are carried to a sorter 8 through a carrying part for ejecting paper 15. When double-sided printing is selected, the sheet whose one side has been printed is fed to the turning-over part 19 in a table 2. After the direction of the sheet is reversed, the sheet is carried to a turned-over paper feeding part 20 and awaited. Then, it is fed to a main body 1 at a prescribed timing, and an image is printed on the other side. Afterward, it is again fed to the turning-over part 19 in the table 2 to reverse the carrying direction, and is carried to the sorter 8 through the carrying part 15. In the sorter 8, the sheet is ejected to a stacking bin 6 designated by the sorter 8 with its face upward under a mode where stacking or sorting is selected. As a result, printing sheets are sequentially piled up with its back facing upward, and are ejected in a sort mode with their pages collated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a paper ejecting method in an image forming apparatus that has a double-sided printing device and forms an image on one or both sides of a sheet on a page-by-page basis and then ejects the paper.

In general, in image forming devices that form images on a page-by-page basis, such as page printers such as laser printers and electrophotographic copying machines, paper on which images have been formed are printed face-down (printed side facing down) or face-up (printed side facing down). upward)
Paper is ejected using this method.

However, in the case of the face-down method, when printing on one side, the paper is ejected with the printed side facing down and stacked in page order, but when printing on both sides, the paper is ejected with the back side printed later facing down. The pages are stacked on top of each other, so the page order is 2.1.4- from the bottom.

3.6,5. It ended up looking like this, and I had to rearrange it later.

On the other hand, in the case of the face-up method, when printing on both sides, the paper is stacked with the back side facing up, so the pages are ejected in the same order starting from the bottom, but when printing on one side, the printed side is facing up. Since the pages are piled up one after the other, the page order becomes reversed, and there is a problem in that the pages must be rearranged in the same order.

Purpose This invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to ensure that sheets are stacked in the correct order on the ejected paper I-ray in either single-sided printing or double-sided printing. .

Structure In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus that includes a duplex printing apparatus and that forms an image on one or both sides of paper page by page and then discharges the paper. By selectively using this function also when printing paper, the pages of discharged paper can be aligned.

Hereinafter, a detailed explanation will be given based on one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a laser printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This laser printer system consists of a laser printer body 1
and a table (including a double-sided printing device) 2, the main body 1
is equipped with two removable upper and lower paper feed trays (cassettes) 6 and 4, and a sorter (multi-stage paper discharge device) 8 equipped with a large number of stack bins 6 and a base stacker 7 for discharging large quantities of paper on the upper part.
Equipped with

Furthermore, the main body 1 includes a photoreceptor drum 9, which constitutes an image forming section of a printer engine, which will be described later. Charging section 10, optical writing section 1
1. Developing section 12. A transfer section 13, a fixing section 14, a large number of conveyance rollers, a paper guide plate, and a conveyance path switching claw 22A! F
A power supply section 1, a board for a printer controller 1 to a roller 17, an engine driver 18, and the like are provided.

On the other hand, the table 2 is equipped with a tray 5 for feeding a large amount of paper, and inside there is a reversing unit 19 for double-sided printing and a reversing paper feeding unit, which includes a large number of transport rollers, a paper guy I, a plate, a transport path switching claw 23, etc. 20.

When the printer controller 1 - printer 1 - sequence is started by a command from the roller 17, -4 - paper feed tray RO, non-feed paper 1 - lay 4 . Alternatively, paper feeding is started from a selected one of the large quantity paper feeds 1 to 5, and the paper is temporarily stopped with the leading edge of the paper being held between the register I/roller pair 21.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 9 rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIG.
(It is irradiated and exposed while performing main scanning in the ram axis direction to form a latent image.

It is developed with 1 hener in the developing section 12, and the thickness transfer section 1
In step 3, the image is transferred to paper fed at a predetermined timing,
In the case of single-sided printing, the printed paper heat-fixed in the fixing section 14 is conveyed to the sorter 8 through the conveyance path shown in FIG.

Then, the sorter 8 discharges the sheets face down into a designated stack bin 6 of the sorter 8 according to the selected mode of stacking or sorting.

Therefore, the printed sheets are stacked one after another with the printed side facing down, and in the So I mode, the sheets are ejected in the same page order.

Further, in the case of normal paper ejection, the base stacker 7 is selected and the paper is ejected thereto face down.

When double-sided printing is selected, the paper is printed as shown in Figure 1 (B).
It is transported along a transport route as shown in .

That is, after one side (front side) printing is completed, the paper is first sent to the reversing section 1 in the table 2.

Then, the sheet fed into the reversing section 19 is reversed in its conveying direction, conveyed to the reversing sheet feeding section 20, kept on standby, fed into the main body 1 at a predetermined timing, and then transferred to the other side (back side) in the same manner as described above. ), the pudding 1 to the paper are fed into the reversing section 19 in the table 2 again.

Then, the conveyance direction is reversed and the sheet is conveyed to the sorter 8 through the first general feed section 15 for sheet discharge, and as described above, in the sorter 8, depending on the selected mode of stacking or sorting, the sheet is transferred to the designated stack bin 6 of the sorter 8. Paper is ejected face up.

Therefore, the papers from Print 1 are stacked one after another with the back sides facing "-", and in the sort mode, the sheets are discharged in the same page order.

Next, the configuration of the printer controller 1-roller 17, which is the control section of this laser printer, will be explained with reference to FIG.

The printer controller 17 has a host 1-interface 31 for connecting to the host as an external interface.
and a car 1 heritage interface 3 for connecting with font cars 1 to 32 as internal interfaces.
3 and control 1 - a panel interface 34 for connection to a control panel 50 and an engine interface 36 for connection to a printer engine 35.

In addition, CPU57. ROM38
．． RAM 40 and data control unit 41. Address control section 4
2. It is equipped with four video control units.

The host interface 31 is an interface for connecting to a host such as an office computer, a personal computer, a word processor, a data processing device 2, an image processing device, etc., and various parallel interfaces or serial interfaces are selected depending on the host 1- to be connected. Ru.

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

The font cartridge 32 also includes phonographs of various typefaces.
- The data is stored in the ROM and is installed in a phono 1-car 1-ridge slot (not shown).

Furthermore, each part within the printer controller 1-roller 17 is interconnected by a path line consisting of an address bus, a control bus, and a data bus.

The CPU 37 is a general-purpose 16-bit 1~ or 32-bit 1~ microcomputer consisting of a CPU, ROM, RA, M, and ■/○, etc., and is in charge of overall control of the entire printer.

Therefore, this CPU 37 uses the paper ejecting method according to the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to control the engine driver by sending necessary commands to the engine driver.

RO1vI38 beam-1 only memory, cr'
Various programs for controlling U27, resident phone I
-, etc. are stored.

The RAM 40 is a large capacity random access memory, and as shown in FIG. 4, input buffers 401. Page buffer 402. Video buffer 403. It is used for the font file 404, etc., and is also used for the system memory used by the CPU 37, etc.

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

The address control unit 42 controls DMA (Direct Memory Acc) when creating video data in the video buffer 403 based on data in the page buffer 402.
ess) a DMA address control unit that controls the address;
It is composed of a video address control section and the like for synchronizing the video data created in the video buffer 403 with the video clock (WCLK) and outputting it next time around j.

The video control unit 4 is configured such that the video data created in the video buffer 403 is processed by the CPU 37, for example, in three units.
When 2 bits are read out, the parallel video data is converted to serial video data and output to the printer engine 35.

The printer engine 35 includes a mechanical section including the photoconductor drum 9 shown in FIG. 2, various parts around it, an image forming section including an optical letter sending section 11, and a paper conveying section such as a registration roller 21, and its control system. The engine driver 18 performs sequence control of the mechanism section according to commands and video data from the roller 17 of the printer controller 1.

Next, the respective processing operations will be specifically explained according to the configurations of various buffers and files on the RAM 40 shown in FIG.

When data is transferred to RAM40 from host l-,
First, the data is temporarily stored and held in the in-pra mill buffer 401 to adjust the data processing speed at the printer and the data transmission speed from the host.

Next, the data held in the input buffer 401 is extracted and stored in the page buffer 402, including the character type, font type, and print position on the page (X) for each character.

Stores data to which page layout information such as Y coordinate) is added.

Next, when the data in units of pages is stored in the page buffer 402, the printing position on the page for each character of the above layout information in units of pages is specified in the video buffer 403, and the specified printing position is Position 1 above
Character type for each character.

Fonts corresponding to the font type are collectively transferred from the phono 1 file 404 by DMA to create video data, and then sent to the printer engine 35.

Next, the configuration of the control panel 50 shown in FIG. 3 will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

This control panel 50 includes an LCD display 51, an online/offline selection key 52, a form feed key 53. Mode Sera 1-Key 54. P9
2-sheet copy number setting key 55. It is provided with a key for setting the number of pages of print 1 to paper 5, a reset key 57, and a numeric keypad 58 consisting of 10 keys "0 to 9".

Note that various other keys and indicators may also be provided, but they are not shown in the drawings because they are not directly related to the operation of this embodiment.

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

The online/offline selection key 52 is used to alternately switch the printer between an online state and an offline state, and is electrically connected to or released from the host 1.

When the form feed key 53 is pressed, R shown in FIG.
If video data is stored in the video buffer 403 of AM40J-, the video data is printed out.

When the mode set key 54 is pressed, the mode I to setting state is entered. At this time, enter the mode name of one of the four modes: single-sided stacking mode, 2-sided sorting mode, double-sided stacking mode, and double-sided sorting mode using the numeric keypad. The information can be displayed on the display 51 by pressing any of the four keys "1 to 4" in the display 58.

Then, when the mode set key 54 is pressed again when the desired mode is displayed, that display mode is set.

When the number of copies setting key 55 is pressed, the number of copies of the print paper can be specified, and when the numeric keypad 58 is pressed at this time, the number is displayed on the display 51, and the number of copies setting key 5 is pressed again.
When you press 5, the number displayed at that time is set as the number of copies of print paper.

By pressing the page number setting key 56, it becomes possible to set the total number of pages of the paper to be printed from print 1 in advance.If you press the numeric keypad 58 at this time, the number will be displayed on the display 51, and the page number setting key will be pressed again. When you press 55, the number currently displayed is set as the total number of pages.

Note that this page number setting key 56 is set to the back side when the total number of pages is an odd number during double-sided printing where one page is equivalent to two pages on both sides of the paper, that is, when the last page is print 1- with only the front side. On the other hand, printing on blank paper results in wasted time, so this is used when trying to prevent this.

When the reset key 57 is pressed, the characters or numbers displayed on the display 51 by the numeric keypad 58, such as setting mode 1 to name, print I/paper number of copies, and page number, are canceled, that is, returned to the initial state.

Next, control processing by operating the control panel 50 will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

This routine starts from 1 when the power is turned on, first sets the printer offline by pressing the online/offline selection key 52, and then determines whether or not data remains in the printer.

If it is determined that there is data remaining in the printer, the data is outputted from the printer by pressing form fee 1 to key 53, or if it is determined that there is no data remaining in the printer, it is left as is. Next, by inputting the mode set key 54 and the numeric keypad 58 or the reset key 57, the mode is set to ``Cera 1'' or canceled.

At this time, if the mode is canceled and data remains in the printer, that data will be automatically printed from 1 to 1.
Thereafter, by pressing the online/offline selection key 52, the online setting is set.

If the mode is set, then it is determined whether there is any print 1 paper remaining in the stack bin 6 or the paper discharge tray of the pace stacker 7 shown in FIG.

-1- If it is determined that there is a print paper remaining in the paper discharge tray 1, a warning to that effect, that is, an error display, is displayed on the display 51 until the print paper is removed, and a warning is displayed when the print paper is removed. After the is released,
When the number of copies setting key 55 is pressed, the number of copies of each page is set in the stacking mode, and the total number is set in the sorting mode.

Next, it is determined whether the mode is one-sided or not, and if it is determined that it is one-sided mode 1~, it is left as is, and if it is determined that it is not one-sided mode, the page number setting key 5 is pressed to deal with the odd number of pages when printing on both sides. After setting the total number of pages to be printed, press the online/offline selection key 52.
is pressed to end the on-line service lever routine.

Next, control processing in the single-sided stacking mode according to this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In this routine, when the operation of each switch on the control panel 50 is completed, the screen goes to star 1, firstly the single-sided stacking mode is set, and then the number of copies of each page is set.

After that, data reception from the host is started, and at the same time, the paper discharge I-ray is initialized, that is, the paper is set to be discharged to the lowest stack bin of the stack bin 6 of the sorter 8 shown in FIG. .

Next, page data is created and printed out based on the received data, and the printed paper is discharged face down into the stack bin-L.

Next, it is determined whether all the numbers have been counted. Then, if it is determined that all the numbers have been completed, the next step is to decide whether to cancel the current mode or not.
That is, it is determined whether or not this print mode has been canceled midway through, or whether or not the print I mode should be canceled because there is no more received data.

Then, if it is determined that the current mode has not been canceled, the stack bin 6, which is the paper output tray, is updated, that is, it is set to output paper to the second stack bin, and the process returns to video data creation, and this routine is repeated. .

Further, if it is determined that the current mode is to be canceled, the process is terminated.

Next, control processing in the single-sided sorting mode according to this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

This routine starts when each switch on the control panel 50 has been operated, and first sets the single-sided sorting mode, and then sets the total number.

Thereafter, data reception from the host is started, and at the same time, the paper discharge tray is initialized and the paper is discharged to the lowest stack bin.

Next, page data is created and printed out based on the received data, and the printed paper is discharged face down onto a stack bin.

Next, it is determined whether all the numbers have been counted. Then, if it is determined that all the sheets have not been completed, the stack bin, which is the paper output tray, is updated and set to output the paper to the stack bin in the first and second rows, and then returns to Print 1-Ara 1- and repeats this routine. Do it repeatedly.

Further, if it is determined that the total number has been completed, it is determined whether or not to cancel the current mode. Then, if it is determined that the current mode has not been canceled, the process returns to the initialization of the lay for paper discharge 1, sets the paper to be discharged to the stack bin above the -rise, and repeats this routine.

Further, if it is determined that the current mode is to be canceled, the process is terminated.

Next, control processing in the double-sided stacking mode according to this embodiment will be explained with reference to flowchart 1 in FIG.

This routine starts when each switch on the control panel 50 has been operated, and first the double-sided stacking mode is set to Sera 1 - then the number of copies of each page and the total number of pages are set.

After that, it starts receiving data from the host and initializes the paper output tray at the same time.

Next, page data is created based on the received data and printed on the surface of the paper, after which the paper is reversed and fed via the reversal unit 19 in the table 2 shown in FIG.

This time, after printing is performed on the back side of the paper, the sheet is reversed in the reversing section in the table 2, and then the paper is discharged with the back side facing up in the stack bin 6.

Next, it is determined whether all the numbers have been counted. If it is determined that all the numbers have not been completed, the process returns to printing on the front surface of the next sheet, and this routine is repeated.

Further, if it is determined that all the numbers are completed and mixed, it is then determined whether or not to cancel the current mode.

If it is determined that the current mode has not been canceled, the stack bin serving as the paper ejection tray is updated to the next higher bin, the process returns to the step of creating video data, and this routine is repeated.

If it is determined that the current mode is to be canceled, then it is determined whether or not the last page remains in the machine.

If it is determined that the final page does not remain, the process is continued, and if it is determined that the final page remains, the final page of print 1 to paper is ejected and the process is terminated.

Next, the control processing in the double-sided sorting mode according to this embodiment will be explained with reference to flowcharts 1 to 1 in FIG. 10.

In this routine, when the operation of each switch on the control panel 50- is completed, the double-sided sorting mode I~ is first set to the cellar l, and then the total number and the total page number are set.

Thereafter, it starts receiving data from the host, and at the same time initializes the paper discharge 1-ray.

Next, page data is created based on the received data and printed on the surface of the paper, and then the paper is reversed and fed via the reversal unit 19 in the table 2 shown in FIG.

Next, after printing on the back side of the paper, it is again inverted in the reversing section in the table 2 and then placed in the stack bin 6.
Place the paper face up with the back side up.

Next, it is determined whether all the numbers have been counted. If it is determined that all the sheets have not been printed, the stack bin serving as the paper discharge tray is updated to the next higher bin, the process returns to printing on the front surface, and this routine is repeated.

Furthermore, if it is determined that the total number has been completed, it is then determined whether or not to cancel the current mode.

If it is determined that the current mode has not been canceled, the process returns to the initialization of the paper discharge tray, and this routine is repeated.

If it is determined that the current mode is canceled, it is then determined whether the last page remains in the machine.

If it is determined that the last page does not remain, the process is continued; if it is determined that the last page remains, the print paper of the last page is ejected and the process is terminated.

In this way, the paper ejection method in this printer system has been explained using one specific example, but there is also a printer system such as the one shown in FIG. This invention can also be applied to printer systems designed to print paper.

In that case, in the single-sided print mode, as shown in (A), when the paper is transported to printer 1, the paper is placed in the reversing unit 19 in table 2 to reverse the transport direction, and then the paper is transported for ejection. The paper is discharged face-down through the section 15 into the stack bin 6 of the sorter 8 or the paper discharge tray of the base stacker 7.

In addition, in duplex print mode, the paper transport path (
As shown in b), after printing on one side (front side) is completed, the paper is first fed into the reversing section 19 in the table 2.

Then, the paper fed into the reversing section 19 is reversed in its conveying direction, conveyed to the reversing paper feeding section 20 and kept on standby, and then fed into the main body 1 at a predetermined timing to print on the other side (back side). The paper is discharged face up through the paper discharge conveying section 15 to the stack bin 6 of the sorter 8 or the paper discharge tray of the pace stacker 7.

In this way, the pages will be ejected in the same order.

In other words, in any case, by ejecting paper face-down to single-sided print mode 1 and face-up in duplex print mode 1 to mode I, the paper is ejected in page order on the lay to paper ejection 1 in any mode. Pudding 1 - Paper will now be loaded.

It goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to image forming apparatuses other than laser printers, such as various page printers and electrophotographic copying machines, as well as image forming apparatuses that are not equipped with a sorter.

As explained above, according to this invention, the pages are ejected in the same order no matter what paper ejection mode is used, so the user does not have to rearrange the page order later. It disappears.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a paper conveyance path in a laser printer system as an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of the laser printer system. FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the video data creation procedure in the RAM 40 of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a layout diagram showing an example of the control panel 50 of FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is the diagram of FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control processing in the single-sided stacking mode according to this embodiment. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the control processing in the single-sided sorting mode according to this embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the control processing in the double-sided stacking mode according to this embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the control processing in the double-sided sorting mode according to this embodiment. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a paper conveyance path when this invention is applied to another laser printer system, 1. Laser printer main body 2. Table (including double-sided printing device) 6. Stack bin 7. Pace stacker 8.
Sorter (multi-stage paper ejection device) 15... Paper ejection transport section 17... Printer controller 18... Engine driver )38...
・ROM (read only memory) 40...RAM
(Random access memory) 50...Control 1~Roll panel

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus that has a duplex printing device and forms an image on one or both sides of paper page by page and then discharges the paper, the reversing portion of the duplex printing device is selectively activated also when discharging the paper. A paper ejection method that is characterized by aligning the pages of ejected paper when used.