JPH0388669A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To sort recording paper in every job even without consciousness of a spot for discharge paper in a host side by selectably providing a data dividing means, in which a data from a host is divided and recorded in every job, and a paper discharge means of the recording paper. CONSTITUTION:Character or picture information from a host computer 11 is fed to a controller 13 through a host interface 27 with picture image information created by this character or picture information and fed to an engine 15, and paper can Le sorted and discharged to any of the plurality of paper discharge means while printing the paper. In this constitution, a data from the host computer 11 is divided to perform record (print) processing in each time a job is generated simultaneously with the data successively selected to a paper discharge tray in every job generation by a command from the controller 13, and the predetermined paper discharge tray of the paper is assigned.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer that has a plurality of paper ejection means and records data from a host.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, when a printer with multiple paper output trays is placed on a network and used by multiple users, a command from the host sends a printer to one of the multiple paper output trays.
By specifying one, the #l: paper location is distinguished for each job.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above printer, one of multiple paper output trays is specified by a command from the host, so if the paper output tray is not specified by a command, a large number of sheets recorded by all users will be stored in one paper output tray. Since the sheets are ejected, it is inconvenient to classify these sheets by user. Further, when specifying a paper ejection tray by a command from the host, the host side must grasp the state of the paper ejection tray in the printer, which is inconvenient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printer that can automatically switch the paper discharging means for discharging paper every time a job changes, thereby eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printer that has a plurality of paper ejection means, records data from a host on a paper, and ejects the paper to one of the plurality of paper ejection means.
As shown in FIG. 1, data dividing means 1 divides and records data from the host for each job, and switching means 2 automatically switches the paper ejecting means each time a job changes. This is something I prepared for.

[For production]

Data from the host is divided and recorded for each job by data dividing means 1, and the paper ejecting means for ejecting paper is automatically switched by switching means 2 every time the job changes.

〔Example〕

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment is an example of a laser printer, and the host computer 11 sends out character information or image information. The host interface 12 is R5-232C.

A Centronics interface or the like is used to send character information or image information from the host computer 11 to the controller 13. The controller 13 receives text information or image information sent from the host computer 11 via the host interface 12, and generates image information based on the text information or image information. This picture image information is sent to engine A5 via LPVI (laser printer video interface) 14, and engine 15 prints the picture image information on paper.

FIG. 8 shows a hardware structure of the controller I3.

The controller 13 is the CPU 21. Program ROM22
, IIA A.23, font ROM24, non-volatile RA
M25, scaling processing unit 26, host interface 27
, operation panel 28, option interface 29,
It is composed of a video control unit 30, an engine interface 31, a CPU bus 32 connecting these, and LPVI] and 4.

The CPU 21 is a central processing unit that centrally controls the entire controller 13, and a general-purpose 16-bit or 32-bit CPU is used. Program ROM22 is C
Microcode for controlling PU21 is stored. The RAM 23 is a large capacity random access memory and is mainly used for the following purposes.

(a) System memory (b) Input buffer (c) Page buffer (d) Font file (e) Macro file (f) Image file (g) Print control file (h) Video buffer Figure 2 shows the data of this controller 13. The flow of processing and the relationship between each memory are shown.

Information sent from the host computer 11 is sent to the input buffer 3 via the host interface 27.
It is stored in 4. The data in the input buffer 34 is taken out by the data processing section 35 and registered in the respective memory areas 36 to 40 according to the type of data. In this case, information on print sequence control (designation of paper transport path, designation of number of prints, etc.) is registered in the print control file 40, and page layout information (
Information such as the relationship between print data and print position) is registered in the page buffer 39, and image information is stored in the image file 3.
8, downloaded fonts are registered in the font file 37, and overlay information etc. are registered in the macro file 36. The image information processing section 4I develops the contents of the image file 38, font file 37, and font ROM 24 into the video buffer 42 according to the contents of the page buffer 39. When the printing data for one page is completed in the video buffer 42, the print control unit 4
3 is L according to the contents of the print control file 40.
The engine 15 is started via the PV 114. When the engine 15 reaches an image recording timing, the video buffer 42 sends the expanded video data to the engine 15 via the LPV 114. Engine 15 is LPV11
Print the video data from 4 on printing paper.

The font ROM 24 stores font data for converting character information sent from the host computer 11 via the host interface 27 into image information. The nonvolatile RAM 25 stores information for controlling the printer operating state after the power is turned on, and mainly stores information on the following items.

(a) Print direction (b) Font (c) Character size (d) Line spacing (e) Paper feed slot (f) Paper output slot (g) Host interface The scaling processing unit 26 converts image information into the engine This is an enlargement/reduction processing unit for converting to match the 15th standard.

The host interface 27 is connected to the host computer 11
This is an interface for connecting the controller 13 and the Centronics compliant parallel and R5-2320.
Prepare two things and select them by mode set. The option interface 29 is an interface for supplying fonts and programs from the outside, and can handle two IC cards 33. The IC card 33 is a commercially available one, and depending on the type of data to be stored, it can be a font card, a program card, or a font/program storage card, and they are physically the same.

The video control unit 30 connects the CPU bus 3 to the video buffer 42.
Image data stored in a width of 2 (16 bits or 32 bits) is converted into serial data and sent to the engine 15 via the LPVI 14. Engine interface 31
detects the state of the engine 15 using bidirectional serial signals via the LPV I 1.4, and controls the engine 15 by sending commands.

FIG. 6 shows the configuration of the engine 15.

The main body 50 of the engine 15 includes a photosensitive drum 51. Charging corona discharger 52. Laser exposure device 53. Developing device 54. Transferring corona discharger 552 Interposition corona discharger 56. Cleaning device 57. It is composed of a fixing device 58.

The paper feed cassettes 59 and 60 are directly attached to the engine body 50 and can normally accommodate 100 to 200 sheets of paper.

The inverter 6I connects the paper ejection path to the upper paper ejection tray 62. Mailbox 632 Duplex printing unit 64. Selectively switch to one of the large-volume paper discharge units 65. In addition, each unit 63, 64, 65 other than the upper paper discharge tray 62 can be supplied with sheets whose front and back are reversed, and sheets whose front and back are not reversed can also be supplied. By using this function, face u
p, face down Wandering paper can be selected for paper output.

The mailbox 63 has a plurality of paper output trays 63a and 63b.
, 63C, . A paper whose front and back sides have been reversed by an inverter 61 is temporarily docked in a paper feed unit 66 in a double-sided printing unit 64, and this paper is then fed and printed by an engine main body 50, thereby performing double-sided printing. The mass paper feed unit 67 can store approximately 2,000 sheets of paper, and the mass paper discharge unit 65 can discharge approximately 2,000 sheets of paper. If the number of sheets stored in the large-volume paper discharge unit 65 is made larger than the number of paper sheets stored in the large-volume paper feed unit 67, all the sheets fed from the large-volume paper feed unit 67 can be collected by the large-volume paper discharge unit 65. printer table 6
8 is a table on which the engine 15 and others are placed, and the inside thereof is used as a storage space 69 for the controller 13.

In the engine body 50, a photosensitive drum 51 is rotationally driven by a motor during recording, and a charging corona discharger 5
2, and is uniformly charged by the laser exposure device 53.
Exposure of data from PV 114 forms an electrostatic latent image of the data. This electrostatic latent image is transferred to the developing device 5.
4, and the paper feed device [59, 60, 66, 6
7, the paper is fed to the registration roller 70. This paper is sent out by the registration roller 70 in accordance with the data on the photoreceptor drum 51, the data on the photoreceptor drum 51 is transferred by the transfer corona discharger 55, and the paper is transferred from the photoreceptor drum 51 by the separation corona discharger 56. separated. Furthermore.

Data is fixed on this paper by a fixing device 58, and the paper is transferred to an upper paper output tray 62 via a reversing device 61. mailbox 6
32 double-sided printing unit 64. The sheets are discharged to one of the bulk sheet discharge units I/65.

3 and 4 show a part of the processing flow of the controller 13, and FIG. 5 shows the discharge l/rays 63a, 63b,
63c... is a diagram for explaining the switching operation.

In this embodiment, the paper output trays 63a and 63 are changed for each job by a command from the host I.11 or a deep switch.
A case where the mode is set to switch between b, 63c, and so on will be explained.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, when the controller 13 (CPU 21) turns on the power, the controller 13 (CPU 21) outputs paper output trays 63a, 63b, 63c, . . .
Specify the default paper output tray and wait for the job to occur. When a job occurs, host 1
1, data is input to the input buffer 34 via the host interface 27. In FIG. 5, 1' indicates a state in which data is being input to the input buffer 34.
, the state in which nothing enters the input buffer 34 is O.
′ indicates the status of the job.

The controller 13 is provided with a counter that manages changes in data input to the input buffer 34 (changes in 1 and 0) over time, and this counter starts counting the time from O when data input to the input buffer 34 stops. start. Controller 13 is input buffer 3
If the input of data to the input buffer 34 starts again before the counter measures Δ seconds after the input of data to the input buffer 4 stops, it is assumed that the job has not changed and is recorded (
Print) Continue processing. Furthermore, even if the counter counts Δ seconds after the input of data to the input buffer 34 stops, if no data is input to the input buffer 34, the controller 13 assumes that the job is finished and sends the paper to the paper output tray. Outputs the switching command and outputs the paper output tray 63.
Switch the designation of a, 63b, 63c...

Normally, the time when the input buffer 34 is in the state "O" within one job is the time when the input buffer 34 is in the state "0" at the boundary between jobs.
Since Δ is minute compared to the time required for Δ, it is possible to detect the end of a job using Δ as a reference in seconds. here,
The value of Δt is set in consideration of time factors of software and hardware within the printer. As a result, the controller 13 releases the paper output tray 63a,
63b, 63c, . . . are sequentially switched to designate the recording paper as the paper output tray from which the recording paper is to be discharged, and the recording (printing) process and paper discharge are performed as described above, and the paper is transferred to the paper discharge tray 63a for each job. , 63b, 63c, and so on. In this case, the controller 13 specifies the default paper output tray for the first job after the power is turned on, and specifies the default paper output tray 63a for the second and subsequent jobs.

63b, 63c, etc. are designated in sequence.

In this embodiment, the controller I3 sequentially switches the paper output trays 63a, 63b, 63c, etc. each time a job occurs and designates the paper output tray as the output tray from which the paper should be output. 63a, 6
There is no need to be conscious of 3b, 63c, etc., and it becomes possible to automatically change the paper ejection location every time the job changes. Furthermore, when the printer is used by multiple users, such as a printer on a network, it is possible to prevent the output results from becoming cluttered.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in a printer that has a plurality of paper ejection means, records data from a host on a paper, and ejects the paper to one of the plurality of paper ejection means, the data from the host is The printer is equipped with a data dividing means that divides and records each job, and a switching means that automatically switches the paper ejecting means that ejects the recording paper every time the job changes.
The paper ejecting method for ejecting paper can be automatically switched each time a job changes, making it possible to sort recording paper by job without having to be aware of the paper ejecting location on the host side. This can prevent output results from becoming cluttered when used by multiple users.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the flow of data processing of a controller and the relationship with each memory in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams in the same embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a part of the processing flow of the controller, FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the switching operation of the paper ejection tray in the same embodiment, FIG. 8 and 8 are block diagrams showing the same embodiment. 1... Data division means, 2... Switching means. Medo illusion

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printer that has a plurality of paper ejection means, records data from a host on paper, and ejects the paper to one of the plurality of paper ejection means, the data from the host is divided and recorded for each job. A printer comprising a data dividing means and a switching means for automatically switching a paper ejecting means for ejecting paper every time a job changes.