JPH04301484A - Image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make sure easily of an emulation being currently set without confirming by printing actually and obtain excellent operability. CONSTITUTION:The present invention is applicable to various emulations. Various set values of image formation condition relating to image formation are stored in an E<2>PROM 99. One of the various emulations is designated by a control panel 100. The name of the designated emulation is displayed on a liquid crystal display of the control panel 100. The various set values of the image formation condition relating to the image formation corresponding to the designated emulation are read out from the E<2>PROM 99. A predetermined image is formed by the various set values of the read out image formation condition.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser printer that receives image data from an external device and prints a recorded image on paper based on the received data.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image forming apparatuses such as laser printers have been put into practical use, which receive image data from an external device and print a recorded image on paper based on the received data.

[0003] Image formation in such a laser printer is performed through various steps such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, peeling, cleaning, and fixing. In such an image forming apparatus, a charging device, an exposure device, a developing device, a transfer device, a peeling device, a cleaning device, etc. are sequentially arranged around the photosensitive drum, and a fixing device is further provided to receive paper from the peeling device. Executing each of the above image forming steps by driving each of the above devices according to the rotational movement of the body drum,
Images are formed on paper.

[0004] In such a laser printer, the control system includes an engine control circuit that controls each of the above devices to complete the image forming process, and an engine control circuit that controls the operation of this engine control circuit. The engine control circuit and the printer control circuit are connected to each other by sending and receiving commands and statuses. Further, the printer control circuit develops page-by-page image data supplied from an external device into bit image data (bitmap data), generates the data, and then outputs the generated data to the engine control circuit.

[0005] In such a laser printer, there are various setting items when printing, such as the font used, print direction, top margin, left margin, number of prints, paper cassette, and other items, and each emulation (various company) (according to each specification), each of those items is set to an arbitrary value.

[0006] Such a laser printer has a drawback in that it is not known which emulation is currently set, so it must be checked by actually printing it out.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned drawback that it is not known which emulation is currently set, so it is necessary to check by actually printing it out. To provide an image forming apparatus with good operability, in which the currently set emulation can be easily checked without the need to actually print it out to check.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The image forming apparatus of the present invention is compatible with various emulations and includes a storage means for storing various image forming conditions related to image formation, and an instruction means for instructing one of the various emulations. , a display means for displaying the emulation name instructed by the instruction means, a readout means for reading out various image forming conditions corresponding to the emulation instructed by the instruction means from the storage means, and a readout means for reading out various image forming conditions corresponding to the emulation instructed by the instruction means; It is composed of an image forming means that forms a predetermined image under various image forming conditions.

[0009]

[Operation] In the above configuration, the present invention is compatible with various emulations, stores various image forming conditions related to image formation in a storage means, instructs one of the various emulations with an instruction means, The designated emulation name is displayed, various image forming conditions regarding image formation corresponding to the designated emulation are read from the storage means, and predetermined image formation is performed under the various read image forming conditions. This is how it was done.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows an image forming apparatus according to the present invention,
For example, it shows the configuration of an image forming unit device as a laser printer.

That is, the laser printer 1 includes a laser optical system 12, a photosensitive drum 17, a charging device 18 consisting of a scorotron, a developing device 19, a transfer device 20 consisting of a corotron, a pre-exposure device 21 as a static eliminator, and a fixing device. In addition to process systems such as the device 37 and cleaning device 45,
Paper feed cassettes 22a, 22b, delivery roller 23a
, 23b , aligning roller pair 25 , conveyance guide 3
6, a gate 38, a pair of paper ejection rollers 39 and 42, and the like are provided.

The laser optical system 12 includes a semiconductor laser oscillator (not shown) that generates a laser beam, a collimator lens (not shown) that corrects the laser beam from this oscillator into parallel light, and a collimator lens (not shown) that converts the laser beam from this lens into a single beam. A polygon mirror (rotating mirror) 13 as a rotating body having an octahedral mirror portion that reflects every scanning line, an f/θ lens 14, a mirror 15, a mirror motor 16 that rotates (drives) the polygon mirror 13, etc. It consists of

[0013] During the image forming operation, laser light from the laser optical system 12 corresponding to an image signal from an external device (host device) or an operation panel (not shown) forms an image on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 17. Ru. The photosensitive drum 17 rotates in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure, and first the charging device 18
The surface is charged, and then the laser optical system 12 performs exposure corresponding to the image signal.

That is, the laser beam generated from the semiconductor laser oscillator is scanned from the left to the right of the photoreceptor drum 17 at a constant speed as the polygon mirror 13 is rotated by the mirror motor 16, so that the surface of the photoreceptor drum 17 is scanned at a constant speed. An electrostatic latent image is formed. This electrostatic latent image is transferred to the developing device 1
A visible image is created by applying toner by 9.

On the other hand, the paper feed cassette 22a or 2
2b, the paper P as the image forming medium is conveyed to the feed roller 2.
3a or 23b, the sheets are taken out one by one, guided through a paper guide path 24 to a pair of aligning rollers 25, and sent to a transfer section by this pair of rollers 25.

[0016] Also, a manual paper feed section 44 is connected to the transfer section.
The paper P supplied from the aligning roller pair 25 is fed in accordance with a designation from the host device or the operation panel.

Then, the paper P sent to the transfer section is brought into close contact with the surface of the photosensitive drum 17 at the transfer device 20, and
The toner image on the photosensitive drum 17 is transferred by the action of the transfer device 20 . The transferred paper P is peeled off from the photosensitive drum 17 and passed through the conveyance guide 36 to the fixing device 3.
7, and the transferred image is thermally fixed by a heat roller 37a which generates heat for fixing by passing there.

A heater lamp (not shown) for heating is built into the heat roller 37a. After fixing, the paper P is sent onto the paper ejection tray 40 via the gate 38 by the paper ejection roller pair 39, or is sent to the upper conveyance path 41 by the gate 38, and is sent onto the paper ejection tray 43 by the paper ejection roller pair 42. It is designed to be discharged.

Further, after the residual toner is removed from the photosensitive drum 17 after the transfer by the cleaning device 45, the residual image is erased by the pre-exposure device 21, so that the photosensitive drum 17 is ready for the next image forming operation. .

Note that the photosensitive drum 17 and the charging device 1
8. The developing device 19, the pre-exposure device 21, the fixing device 37, and the cleaning device 45 are integrated into a unit, and the printer main body 1 serves as an electrophotographic process unit 60.
It is designed so that it can be attached and detached independently.

Further, in front of the aligning roller pair 25, an aligning switch 48 is installed in front of the paper ejecting roller pair 39 for detecting a paper feeding error to the transfer section by the aligning roller pair 25 or the like. are each provided with a paper ejection switch 49 for detecting a paper ejection error by the paper ejection roller pair 39.

Further, an engine control circuit 70 is installed between the paper feed cassettes 22a and 22b to control each electrical device provided in the main body 1 of the apparatus to control operations for completing the electrophotographic process. An engine control board and a board on which a printer control circuit 71 that controls the operation of the engine control circuit 70 are mounted are arranged.

[0023] Up to three boards for the printer control circuit 71 can be installed depending on the degree of function addition (for example, adding types of fonts, kanji, etc.). Two IC card connectors 7 arranged on the front edge of the board of the printer control circuit 71
Further functions can be added by inserting function-adding IC cards 95, 95 (described later) into 2a, 72b through openings (not shown) in the main body 1.

Further, on the left end surface of the substrate of the printer control circuit 71 located at the bottom, there is a connector (not shown) for connecting to a host device 89 (described later), which is an external output device such as an electronic computer, personal computer, or word processor. ) are provided.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming system comprising a printer control circuit 71 and a host device 89 of the laser printer 1 of the present invention. In the figure, C
The PU 81 controls the printer control circuit 71 as a whole. This CPU 81 obtains bitmap data corresponding to character data as image data sent from a host device (external device) 89 from an IC card 95, and converts it into a video RA.
This is to be stored in M85. The ROM 82 stores a control program, and the CPU 81 operates according to this program.

The ROM 82 also stores data regarding the paper P such as a password to be verified when changing data, top margin, left margin, paper type, message information to notify the operator, and the like. The RAM 83 is used as a page buffer for temporarily storing image data sent from the host device 89. The extended memory 84 is connected to the host device 89
This is a large-capacity memory used when the image data sent from the RAM 83 is a large amount of data such as bitmap data and the RAM 83 cannot store one page of data.

The video RAM 85 stores image data developed into bit images, that is, bit map data supplied from the IC card 95, and its output is supplied to the serial-parallel conversion circuit 86. It has become. The serial-parallel conversion circuit 86 is
The image data sent as parallel data expanded into a bit image (bitmap data) in the video RAM 85 is converted into serial data and sent to the engine control circuit 70.

The host interface 88 transfers data between the host device 89 and the printer control circuit 71, and has two types: a serial transfer line 90a and a parallel transfer line 90b. Then, it can be used appropriately depending on the type of data transferred to and from the host device 89. The engine interface 91 is the printer control circuit 7
1 and the engine control circuit 70 to mediate the transfer of the interface signal S3.

[0029] The connection circuits 93, 93 are connected to an IC card 95,
When inserting IC card 95 into connector 1a, 1b or removing it from connector 1a, 1b, the power supply and signal line supplied to IC card 95, 95 are cut off.
This prevents data stored in the IC cards 95, 95 from being destroyed due to noise generated during insertion and removal.

[0030] The E2 PROM99 sets various setting items for each emulation (according to the specifications of various companies) at the time of printing corresponding to the emulation name, that is, font used, print direction, top margin, left margin, print This is a non-volatile memory that stores setting values for the number of sheets, paper feed cassette, and other items.

In this case, since the setting values for each of the various setting items registered in the E2 PROM 99 are stored in non-volatile memory, even when the power is turned on again, the emulation name can be sent from the host device 89 or the operation panel 100
By simply selecting the emulation name in , you can print with the settings for each of the various setting items.

The operation panel control circuit 87 controls displaying guidance messages on the liquid crystal display (not shown) of the operation panel 100 for instructing various operations, and controls lighting, extinguishing, and blinking of the LED display (not shown). It performs control, or control of sending data input from the operation panel 100 to the CPU 81. In addition, the internal bus 92
The above CPU 81, ROM 82, RAM 83, expansion memory 84, video RAM 85, operation panel control circuit 87
, the host interface 88, the engine interface 91, the E2 PROM 99, and the connection circuit 93.

As shown in FIG. 3, the operation panel 100 includes a liquid crystal display 100a that displays the number of sheets, mode, guidance messages, etc., and an LED that lights up and displays various statuses.
D display 100b,..., menu next item key 100c for instructing various operations, menu previous item key 100d, value next item key 100e, value previous item key 100f
, and an online key 100g for switching between online and offline connection with the host device 89.

The LED indicators 100b, . . . are connected to the host device 89 or not, that is, online/
“Online” indicating offline mode, device body 1
“Ready” indicates that the unit is ready for operation, “Data” indicates that the image is being transferred, “Operator” requests an operator call, “Service” indicates a service call, and “Auto/Manual” indicates mode"
It is composed of each display unit.

A plurality of menu information displayed on the left half of the liquid crystal display 100a is displayed by pressing the menu next item key 1.
Each time 00c is pressed, it is incremented, and each time the pre-menu item key 100d is pressed, it is decremented and displayed, and these display operations are cyclically repeated.

Furthermore, a plurality of pieces of value information corresponding to the menu information displayed on the left half of the liquid crystal display 100a are incremented each time the value next item key 100e is pressed, and each time the value previous item key 100f is pressed. They are decremented and displayed on the right half of the liquid crystal display 100a, and these display operations are cyclically repeated.

The above menu information includes an emulation name setting mode, and in this emulation name setting mode, by pressing each key, the emulation name is set, and various setting items at the time of printing corresponding to this emulation name are set. That is, setting values for each item such as the font used, print direction, top margin, left margin, number of prints, paper feed cassette, and other items are read out from the E2 PROM 99.

[0038] The operator presses the menu next item key 1.
00c, the previous menu item key 100d, the value next item key 100e, and the value previous item key 100f to select and instruct the desired operation. Next, the operation of the above-described configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4.

First, when the power is turned on, the CPU 81 selects various setting items at the time of printing corresponding to the emulation name for initial setting, that is, the font to be used, the print direction,
Setting values for top margin, left margin, number of prints, paper cassette, and other items can be stored in the E2 PROM.
99 and set the value of each setting item to that setting value, it becomes possible to print with the setting values of the corresponding various setting items. At this time, the emulation name is stored in the RAM 83 and displayed on the liquid crystal display 100a of the operation panel 100.

Furthermore, by pressing the menu next item key 100c on the operation panel 100, a change in the emulation name is displayed. At this time, value next item key 1
By pressing 00e, you can change the emulation name (
selection) mode is indicated. Thereby, the CPU 81 determines that the mode is the emulation name change mode, and the current emulation name is displayed on the liquid crystal display 100a.

Thereafter, each time the value next item key 100e is pressed, the emulation names previously registered in the E2 PROM 99 are sequentially stored in the RAM 83 and sequentially displayed on the liquid crystal display 100a. Then, by pressing the next menu item key 100c, the currently displayed emulation name is directly designated.

[0042] Next, the CPU 81 sets various setting items at the time of printing corresponding to the designated emulation name, that is, font used, print direction, top margin, left margin, number of prints, paper cassette, and other items. The set value is read from the E2 PROM 99 and the value of each setting item is changed to the set value. In this changed state, printing can be performed.

In such a state, the host device 89
The print start command from host interface 8
8, is supplied to the CPU 81 via the internal bus 92. Then, the CPU 81 starts the printing operation with the values of each of the above setting items set corresponding to the emulation name. Furthermore, even during standby, the currently set emulation name is displayed on the liquid crystal display 100a of the operation panel 100.

For example, when the power is turned on, "A emulation" is displayed, and then by changing the emulation settings, "B emulation" is displayed, or "C emulation" is displayed.
"Emulation" is displayed.

As mentioned above, since the setting conditions such as the emulation name of the currently set emulation are always displayed on the liquid crystal display of the operation panel, the operation to confirm the setting conditions can be omitted and further settings can be made. It is possible to eliminate wasted paper due to mistakes.

[0046]

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention,
The currently set emulation can be easily checked, there is no need to actually print it out and check, and an image forming apparatus with good operability can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of main parts of a printer control circuit in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the internal structure of the laser printer in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the operation panel in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the laser printer in FIG. 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

1... Laser printer (image forming device), 70... Engine control circuit, 71... Printer control circuit, 81... CPU, 8
2...ROM, 83...RAM, 85...Video RAM, 89
...Host device (external device), 92...Internal bus, 93, 9
3...Connection circuit, 95, 95...IC card, 99...E2
PROM (storage means), P...paper, 100...operation panel, 100a...liquid crystal display unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing various image forming conditions related to image formation corresponding to various emulations, instruction means for instructing one of the various emulations, and an instruction provided by the instruction means. a display means for displaying an emulation name; a reading means for reading from the storage means various image forming conditions corresponding to the emulation instructed by the instruction means; An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming means for forming an image.