JPH04168447A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correct the unevenness in individual characteristics of photosensitive drums and obtain a printing of high quality by determining the using condition of a corresponding photosensitive drum on the basis of the information stored in a drum side memory part and a device side memory part. CONSTITUTION:A control part 2 inputs the identification number of a printer device and the date of use start of an OPC drum to a memory part 12 on the basis of the information of a device IC memory part 20 and a time mechanism 15. The control part 2 receives the serial number of the drum from the memory part 12, calculates the rotating time of an OPC motor 4, and stores this value in a memory part 16. According to the change of drums, the values are stored in memory parts 17, 18.... Thus, when an exchanging work of drum is conducted, the memory parts 12, 13, 16, 16, 18 can individually control the drums every exchange. As the individual management of drums can be precisely conducted, thus, the characteristics of the individual drums can be corrected to provide a printing of high quality.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a printing device, and particularly relates to a printing device using a photosensitive drum. ,
In particular, so-called electrophotographic printing devices, which use a racer beam to project characters and figures onto a photosensitive drum (OPC drum) and transfer the toner onto paper, etc., have recently become faster and higher quality. is required to be changed.

Electrophotographic printing equipment processes exposure, latent image, development, transfer,
It is a well-known fact that retention consists of five processes. If the performance of even one of these five processes is poor, the quality of the printing device, etc. will deteriorate, and the printing device, etc. will not be able to meet its purpose. Of particular importance is the development process. In recent years, the mechanisms that maintain the developing process have become more compact, and customers often replace the ○PC drum.

In the prior art, this OPC drum had to be replaced after tens of thousands of pages to ensure print quality.

A configuration for replacing the OPC drum 1 in the conventional printing apparatus shown in FIG. 2 at a convenient page will be explained. First, the control unit 2 controls the OPC drum 1 via the plow driver part 3 based on an operation command.
At the same time, the control section 2 sends a pulse signal with a constant period to the adder 5 in the PC drum 1 while the OPC motor 1 is rotating. Compare the speed.

The adder 5 is composed of a circuit that divides the frequency by, for example, 1024 pulse signals.

Therefore, after inputting 1024 pulse signals, the adder 5 outputs one pulse indicating a carry to the overflow circuit 6. When the overflow circuit 6 detects one pulse, it shapes the waveform of the one pulse and notifies the control unit 2 that there has been a carry. The control unit 2 writes the carry information to the storage unit 7, but before writing it to the storage unit 7, the control unit 2 reads the value of the storage unit 7 in advance and adds 1 to the value every time carry information arrives. and write it into the storage unit 7. Since the OPC drum 1 can be replaced by a customer or periodically by maintenance personnel as required, a battery 8 is mounted to maintain information in the adder 5. Similarly, a battery 9 is mounted in the storage section 7 as well.

The storage unit 7 compares the measured value 10 with the value in the storage unit 7 every time there is an overflow from the overflow circuit 6, and stores the fixed value 10.
When the value becomes the same as that of , a display is controlled on the panel section 11 to indicate that the OPC drum 1 has come for regular replacement. Further, in response to the operation command, the control section 2 notifies as a response signal that the PC drum 1 cannot be operated because it has come for periodic replacement.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned conventional printing device, when the ○PC drum 1 gets scratched, the customer frequently replaces it, and when the control unit 2 comes to regularly replace the oPC ram 1, several ○PC drums 1 have already been replaced. It has been replaced and cannot be managed accurately. In addition, as is well known, the PC drum 1 has individual variations in characteristics, and even when exposed to a certain amount of corona discharge and a certain amount of laser light, high-quality printing could not be achieved due to variations in potential.

[Means to solve the problem]

In a printing device or the like that forms and fixes a character/figure image on paper using toner or the like, a means for storing it in a photosensitive drum;
It is constituted by a pair of storage means corresponding to each photosensitive drum receiving the storage means, and controlling the potential of the drum and managing the photosensitive drums receiving the two storage means.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. ○PC
A storage unit 12 is mounted on the drum 1', and other PCs
The drum 1- portion is the same as the OPC drum 1 shown in FIG. The basic operation of the control section 2 is basically the same as that of the conventional technology, but the storage control section 13, the selection circuit 14, the clock mechanism 15 and the storage section 16, the storage section 17, the storage section 18,
The storage section 19 and the device ID storage section 20 are under the control of the control section 2, and only some operations are different, which will be explained below.

A storage section 12 in the OPC drum 1 stores information such as an identification number assigned to each printing device and the date on which the use of the PC drum 1- begins, based on instructions from the control section 2.

First, we will explain how to install a new ○PC drum 1'.The control section 2 stores information such as the identification number of the printing device and the start date of use of the OPC drum 1- in the device ID storage section 20 and the clock mechanism 1.
The information No. 5 is also input into the preference storage section 12.

Next, the control section 2 inputs the serial number of the OPC drum 1' from the storage section 12. Assuming that the serial number of the OPC drum 1' is 001, the control unit 2 will operate the OPC drum 1' in the same way as the conventional printing device shown in FIG. 2 based on the operation command.
The control unit 2 calculates the rotation time of the C motor 4 and stores the value in the storage unit 16 corresponding to the serial number 001.

(Serial number 002 has storage unit 17, serial number 0
03 has storage unit 18, and serial number 004 has storage unit 1.
9 will correspond to each. In the case of the printing device of this embodiment, a maximum of 20 storage units is possible, but for the sake of explanation, only 4 storage units are possible.
Only 1 piece. ) As described above, even if the OPC drum 1- is replaced, each replacement can be managed individually using the storage units 12 to 19, etc.

Next, to explain when OPC drum 1- is replaced, let us assume that ○PC drum 1- with serial number 001 is replaced.
To explain the case where OPC drum 1' with serial number 002 is replaced, the controller 2 recognizes from the storage unit 12 that the serial number has changed at the time of replacement, and then
For example, the storage section 17 corresponding to the drum 1- is controlled by the storage control 1.
3 and selection circuit 14 to select serial number 00.
The time at the time of replacement is written in the No. 2 OPC drum 1'. Similarly, the serial number 001 is set to ○PC in the memory unit 6.
Write the time when drum 1- was replaced. (The time is based on the information read by the control unit 2 from the clock M15.) The time at the time of this exchange is then serial number 00.
If the PC tram 1- of No. 2 is replaced and then replaced again with a new OPC drum 1- of serial number 001, for example, the control unit 2 will calculate the time at the time of the replacement by reading the value from the calculation mechanism 15. The time the OPC drum 1' with serial number 001 was removed is subtracted from the time it was installed to calculate the time it was removed. At that time, the open time is stored in the storage unit 16 as an OFF time, and furthermore, this value is sent back from the control unit 2 by a corresponding signal and is used as an OFF time in the development control.
In order to stabilize the potential of the PC drum 1-, that is, ○P
It is used as unique information of the OPC drum 1-, such as the voltage applied to the C drum 1' and the idling time for stabilizing the potential.

In the same way, even if a maximum of 20 ○PC drums 1- are replaced one after another, the control unit 2 can manage it, and according to the printing apparatus of the embodiment, even if a plurality of printing apparatuses are installed at the same location, ○ P
Since the serial number is managed for each C-drum 1-, printing devices can be easily distinguished.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the printing apparatus of the present invention enables accurate management of each OPC drum when the OPC drum is scratched or frequently replaced by a customer, and also allows for the maintenance of the PC drum. It is possible to provide high-quality printing in which variations in individual characteristics are corrected.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional printing apparatus. 1.1'...○PC drum, 2...Control unit, 3...Part of driver, 4...○
PC motor, 5... Adder, 6... Overflow circuit, 12゜16.17, 18.19...
...Storage unit, 8,9...Battery, 10...
...Fixed value, 11...Panel section, 13...
...Storage control unit, 14...Selection circuit, 15...
. . . Clock mechanism, 20 . . . Device ID storage unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A photosensitive drum on which a character/figure image for transfer to a print medium is formed and has a drum-side storage section is installed in a replaceable manner, and a plurality of device-side storage sections are provided corresponding to each photosensitive drum to be replaced. , storing information regarding the corresponding photosensitive drum in the drum-side storage section and the device-side storage section; and determining usage conditions for the corresponding photosensitive drum based on the information stored in the drum-side storage section and the device-side storage section. A printing device characterized in that it determines.