JPH05162409A - Printing apparatus equipped with recovery function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make recovery processing start from the least necessary page on occasion of a failure by jammed paper without making unnecessary output. CONSTITUTION:In a printing apparatus that is equipped with an overlay sequence control table(OSCT) 24 that specifies, in addition to printing order, prescribed overlays necessary for overlayed printing in overlay printing process and an overlay sequence pointer 28 that specifies data to be printed in a next page out of those stored in the OSCT 24, and is prepared for execution of the overlay printing, a function 31 that informs, on occasion of a failure by jammed paper, the number of pages already printed up to the page in the jam is further provided. Furthermore, the apparatus is so constructed that a function 32 for restart of printing is provided so that interrupted printing command can be made thereby to restart from the interrupted point with the values in the OSCT 24 specified by the overlay sequence pointer 28 set at specified value by instructions given from a host unit 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a recovery function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An operation of a conventional printing apparatus for performing overlay printing in which a predetermined format (hereinafter referred to as a form overlay) is superimposed and printed will be described.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a conventional printing system. In the figure, reference numeral 11 denotes a host, which gives a command to a printing device to perform printing. Reference numeral 12 is an operating system (hereinafter abbreviated as OS), and the host 11
It controls the system. Reference numeral 13 denotes a writer, which executes print jobs on the host 11. Reference numeral 14 is print data, which is a print object. Reference numeral 15 is form overlay data, which has a plurality of types and is a format to be superimposed and printed on the print data when printing. Reference numeral 16 is overlay sequence data, which is used for designating predetermined form overlay data 15 for superimposing printing together with the print data printing order. 20 is a printing device,
Printing is performed according to an instruction from the host 11. Two
A print control unit 1 creates print data based on the data received from the host 11 inside the printing apparatus and prints the print unit 27.
To pass to. A data buffer 22 holds print data. A form overlay memory 23 holds a plurality of types of form overlay data 15. An overlay sequence control table 24 holds overlay sequence data 16 that specifies the order in which form overlay data 15 is used and when. Reference numeral 25 is a decompression unit that stores the contents of the data buffer 22 in a bit map memory.
26, and the specified form overlay data 15 in the form overlay memory 23 is superimposed on the basis of the information specified in the overlay sequence control table 24 and expanded in the bitmap memory 26. Reference numeral 26 is a bit map memory, which holds data to be printed in a bit unit state. A printing unit 27 prints the contents of the bitmap memory 26. 28
Is an overlay sequence pointer for designating an item in the overlay sequence control table 24 to be printed next.

The writer 13 of the host 11 issues a print command to the printing device 20, and specifies a plurality of form overlay data 15 to be printed by being superimposed on the print data 14, and the order of which form overlay data 15 and when to use. The overlay sequence data 16 and the print data 14 to be printed are transferred to the printing device 20.

When the printer 20 receives the print command, the print controller 21 transfers the transferred print data 14 to the data buffer 22.
The form overlay data 15 is stored in the form overlay memory 23, and the overlay sequence data 16 is stored in the overlay sequence control table (hereinafter abbreviated as OSCT) 24.

Next, the expansion unit 25 of the print control unit 21 decomposes the print data 14 of the data buffer 22 into bits in the bitmap memory 26 and expands it, and then refers to the OSCT 24 to determine which form overlay is required and which form. Check whether to use overlay data. An example of overlay sequence data is shown in FIG.

The overlay sequence data is made up of three elements including a group number, the number of prints, and a superimposed overlay identifier (hereinafter abbreviated as ID) group. The content of the first line specifies that the G1 sheet of the document is printed by superposing a plurality of overlay overlay ID groups (ID111, ID112, ...) And printing the number of sheets N11. The total number of prints specified by the overlay sequence data in the figure is (N11 + N12 + ... + Npq)
It becomes a sheet.

When the ID of the form overlay to be used is known, the form overlay data 15 is fetched from the form overlay memory 23 and the bitmap memory 26 is obtained.
It is decomposed into bits, and the previous print data is superimposed and developed. When a plurality of form overlay data 15 are specified, a plurality of superimposing operations are performed.

When the expansion including the form overlay is completed in the bitmap memory 26, the print control unit 21 to the print unit 27
The contents of the bitmap memory 26 are transferred to and printing is performed.

There is a problem in dealing with a case where a paper jam occurs during printing with the form overlay designation and the printing is interrupted. When a paper jam occurs, in the conventional printing system, when the same format (hereinafter referred to as overlay) overlap and the same number of prints are specified for all pages, the conventional paper jam occurs as shown in FIG. It is a processing sequence in the case of. If a paper jam occurs, it cannot be reported because there is no rule to report to the host 11 immediately.Therefore, when the following command is issued from the host 11 to the printer 20, the printer 20 operates due to an abnormality in the host 11. Then, the host 11 issues a sense command to the printer 20 to report the details of the abnormality. Printer
Reference numeral 20 reports an abnormal content (paper jam) recovery processing request and a print completed page count to the host 11. Host 11
Determines that operator intervention is required and requests operator intervention.

When the operator intervenes and resets the paper of the printing device 20, resets the printing device 20 to release the abnormal state and presses the start button, the printing device 20 returns to the online state. The printing device 20 that has returned to the online state sends a ready signal to the host 11. The host 11, which has received the ready signal, retransmits the print data from the page in which the paper jam has occurred to the printing device 20 to print it, based on the recovery processing request notified by the abnormality occurrence report and the print completion page count. The retransmitted print data is printed again for the number of sheets.

When the form overlay and the number of prints to be superimposed are individually specified for each page, the information of the form overlay to be used for the form overlay is passed from the host to the printer, and is re-output from the first page of the printing job. To do.

[0013]

That is, in the conventional recovery method, when a paper jam occurs during printing and overlay printing, the printing is restarted from the printing of the page in which the paper jam occurs or by using the form overlay. At the time of work, printing is performed from the beginning of all works, and therefore, there is a problem that pages that have been normally printed before a paper jam occurs are re-output and wastefully output.

In view of the above point, the present invention provides a means for performing a recovery process from a minimum required page without performing wasteful output in a state where a paper jam occurs during printing and overlay printing. With the goal.

[0015]

The above problems can be solved by a printing apparatus having a recovery function configured as follows. FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

According to the number of prints designated by the host 11,
An overlay sequence control table 24 for designating a predetermined form overlay for overlay printing when performing overlay printing together with the print data print order,
An overlay sequence pointer 28 for designating next data to be printed in the overlay sequence control table 24, and the overlay sequence pointer 28.
A value that specifies the value of the overlay sequence control table 24 specified by the overlay sequence pointer 28 specified by the host 11 in the printing device that performs overlay printing according to the function 31 that reports the number of printed sheets for the page in which the paper jam has occurred. Resume print function 32 that restarts the print command that was interrupted once set to
Is provided.

[0017]

The function 31 of reporting the number of printed sheets for a page with a paper jam reports the number of printed pages of the paper with a paper jam to the host 11. As a result, the host 11 calculates the remaining required number of prints.

Resume printing function 32 according to an instruction from the host 11
Sets the value of the overlay sequence control table 24 designated by the overlay sequence pointer 28 to the designated value and restarts the interrupted print command halfway.

[0019]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 29 is a printed sheet number counter, which counts the number of printed sheets. A printed sheet number reporting function 30 notifies the host 11 of the content of the printed sheet counter 29. Reference numeral 31 denotes a paper jam occurrence page print count reporting function, which counts the number of printed pages and notifies the host 11 when a paper jam occurs. A restart print function 32 sets the overlay sequence pointer 28 to a specified value in response to an instruction from the host 11 and restarts a print command once interrupted. In addition, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 9 are the same.

The outline of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 shows a paper jam recovery processing sequence according to the present invention. The process up to the abnormality occurrence report is the same as in the conventional print sequence, and will be omitted.

After reporting the occurrence of an abnormality, the host 11 requests the information of the printing device 20 by a sense command, and obtains a paper jam occurrence, a request for recovery processing, and print completion page number information. After the operator intervenes to finish setting the paper, reset the printing device 20 to release the abnormal state, and after the printing device 20 returns to the online state, the host 11 prints the number of prints for the recovery first page together with the print control information. Transfer information to change. Based on this information, the printing apparatus 20 can recover the state immediately before the occurrence of the paper jam by changing the overlay sequence data 16 received and stored in the OSCT 24 only for the recovery top page.

A more detailed description of an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS.
This is performed according to FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention (No. 1 before starting printing), and the O provided by the present invention is shown.
The set value of SCT24 is shown. The number of printed sheets counter 29 counts the total number of printed sheets and the number of printed sheets of the page.

At the beginning of the print job, the transferred overlay sequence data 16 is stored in the OSCT 24, and the overlay sequence pointer 28 and the print number counter 29 are initialized. Therefore, the overlay sequence pointer 28 is O
The initial position of SCT24 is shown.

According to the OSCT 24, the form overlay data 15 is superimposed on the print data 14 transferred thereafter, and the print processing for the designated number of sheets is performed. Further, the overlay sequence pointer 28 and the print number counter 29 are updated in accordance with the processing of the print job.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the embodiment of the present invention (part 2).
(Before start of printing), the contents of the items of the OSCT 24 in FIG. 4 are shown. The first line of the first group of OSCT24 specifies the form overlay IDs ID111, ID112, .. and prints N11 sheets by superimposing a plurality of form overlay ID111, ID112, .. on the print data of page 1. Specify that.

Therefore, the result of printing the designation of OSCT 24 in FIG. 4 is shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (part 3 when a paper jam occurs), and the OSC at that time.
The relationship between T24 and the overlay sequence pointer 28 is shown.
That is, the overlay sequence pointer 28 is
The page in which the paper jam has occurred is specified.

When a paper jam occurs during printing, the host 11 is notified of the paper jam occurrence, and the number of printed sheets for which printing has been completed and the number of printed pages for which the paper jam has occurred are printed number reporting function 30 and the number of pages for which a paper jam occurs Report using the reporting function 31.

As the paper jam recovery processing, the host 11 uses the information about the number of printed pages (J) of the paper jam reported from the printing device 20 and prints the specified form overlay of the page to be restarted (number of sheets = N21-J). ) Is transferred to the printing device 20, and the restart printing function 32 of the printing device 20 stores this number in the OSCT 24 instead of the original number (N21).

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of the embodiment of the present invention (part 4).
Recovery start setting). In the figure, the number of prints of the specified form overlay (the number of prints = N21-J) transferred in the recovery process is stored in the position designated by the overlay sequence pointer 28 of the OSCT 24, and the printing device
20 prints from the position designated by the overlay sequence pointer 28 of the OSCT 24.

Therefore, when printing pages that were interrupted due to a paper jam, J sheets will be printed before the interruption and N21-J sheets will be printed after the restart, and J + (N21-J) = N21 sheets can be printed, so wasteful printing is performed. It is economical without. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the embodiment of the present invention (No. 5 at the time of completion of recovery printing), showing the contents of the printing result after the recovery processing, and the number of sheets necessary and sufficient by restarting after the paper jam occurs. Indicates that printing is possible.

[0031]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, there is a remarkable industrial effect that the paper jam restart processing can be performed without performing unnecessary printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a control sequence according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (No. 1 before starting printing)

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (No. 2 before starting printing)

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (part 3 when a paper jam occurs)

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (part 4 when recovery start is set)

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (part 5 when recovery printing is completed)

FIG. 9: Conventional control sequence for paper jam occurrence

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a conventional printing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Host 12 OS 13 Writer 14 Print Data 15 Form Overlay Data 16 Overlay Sequence Data 20 Printing Device 21 Print Control Unit 22 Data Buffer 23 Form Overlay Memory 24 Overlay Sequence Control Table or OSCT 25 Expansion Unit 26 Bitmap Memory 27 Printing Unit 28 Overlay sequence pointer 29 Printed sheet counter 30 Printed sheet number reporting function 31 Paper jam occurrence page printed sheet number reporting function

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An overlay sequence control table (2) for designating a predetermined form overlay for overlay printing when performing overlay printing according to the number of prints designated by the host (11) together with print data print order.
4) and the overlay sequence control table (2
In the printing device that has an overlay sequence pointer (28) that specifies the data to be printed next in 4), and that performs overlay printing according to the overlay sequence pointer (28), set the number of printed sheets for the page in which the paper jam has occurred. The function (31) to report and the value of the overlay sequence control table (24) specified by the overlay sequence pointer (28) according to the instruction from the host (11) are set to the specified value and the interrupted print command is interrupted. A printing apparatus having a recovery function, which is provided with a restart printing function (32) for restarting from the.