JPH05162871A - Picture-image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable manual paper-feeding without being instructed by an operation panel so that paper sheets will be supplied through a manual tray at the time of manual paper-feeding by setting a manual paper-feeding mode while giving priority to it when a paper sheet has been set on the manual tray. CONSTITUTION:In a laser printer, a manual tray 13 is provided on the rear side of a printer body 5, and also a feeding-paper cassette 25 is retractably housed in the bottom part inside the body 5, and an automatic paper-feeding passage A1 for introducing paper sheets P that have been fed through a paper- feeding roller 28 and a supply roller 29b to an imaging part 23 is provided between the feeding-paper cassette 25 and the imaging part 23. And also a manual paper-feeding passage A2 is provided between the manual tray 13 and the imaging part 23. When the paper-sheet setting to the manual tray 13 is detected by a paper-sheet detector 26, a supply roller 29a is driven by a control circuit, and the manual paper-feeding passage A2 is selected while giving priority to it. When the automatic paper feeding is selected by a feeding-paper changeover switch, respective rollers 28, 29b are driven for selecting the automatic paper-feeding passage A1.

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 copying machine or a printer, and more particularly to controlling paper feed selection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image on both an automatically fed sheet and a manually fed sheet, selection of the automatically fed sheet and the manually fed sheet is
This is done by operating the changeover switch provided on the operation panel or the changeover lever provided on the paper feed mechanism. For example, when paper is supplied from the manual feed tray to the image forming unit, the fact that it is specified can be specified from the changeover switch etc. provided on the operation panel so that automatic paper feeding from the currently selected paper feed cassette is temporarily performed. The image is formed on the sheet fed from the manual feed tray when stopped.

However, in the above image forming apparatus,
Since both papers are selected by operating the changeover switch or the changeover lever, there is a problem that the operation is complicated and image forming errors frequently occur due to malfunctions. Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-33913, when it is detected that a sheet is set on a manual feed tray, a manual feed mode (hereinafter referred to as a bypass mode) is set. A laser printer has been proposed which can make a judgment and automatically switch between an automatically fed sheet and a manually fed sheet.

[0004]

For example, in the case where expensive paper other than plain paper such as OHP is set in the manual feed tray for printing, in order to avoid printing mistakes on the expensive paper,
First, plain paper in a paper feed cassette is printed and checked in the automatic paper feed mode, and then expensive paper on the manual feed tray is printed.

However, the above Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-3391.
In the laser printer disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3, when expensive paper is set in the manual feed tray and plain paper is set in the paper feed cassette, the bypass mode is given priority and Since plain paper cannot be fed to the image forming unit, it is not possible to print the plain paper in the paper feed cassette in the automatic paper feed mode and check it before printing expensive paper on the bypass tray. Therefore, when expensive paper is set in the manual feed tray and plain paper is set in the paper feed cassette, it is impossible to avoid printing mistakes with the expensive paper. To avoid printing mistakes, do not set expensive paper in the bypass tray, print plain paper in the paper feed cassette in automatic paper feed mode, and then set expensive paper in the bypass tray to remove expensive paper. It is necessary to print or set plain paper in the manual feed tray and expensive paper in the paper feed cassette, which is troublesome and inconvenient. Particularly in the latter case, plain paper is set in the normal paper feed cassette, and therefore it is necessary to replace the paper or prepare a paper feed cassette in which expensive paper is set in advance.

According to the present invention, when the paper is supplied from the manual feed tray, the manual paper feed can be performed without designating the fact that the paper is supplied from the manual feed tray from the operation panel, and the paper is set in the manual feed tray. However, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of selecting a paper feed cassette.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic paper feed path for feeding a sheet set in a paper feed cassette to an image forming section, and a manual feed tray for the image forming section. In the image forming apparatus in which the manual paper feed path for supplying the specified paper is selectable, the paper feed mode setting means for preferentially supplying the paper from the manual paper feed path when the paper is set in the manual tray. And when the automatic paper feed path is selected with paper loaded in the bypass tray,
It has a paper feed mode switching means for feeding paper from an automatic paper feed path.

[0008]

In the above means for solving the problems, the manual paper feeding mode is preferentially set only by setting the paper on the manual paper feeding tray. Therefore, when the paper is fed from the manual paper feeding tray,
Manual feeding can be performed without designating from the operation panel that paper is fed from the manual feeding tray. Therefore, the usability is improved, and an error in image formation due to an error in selecting a paper feed location is eliminated.

Further, even when the paper is set on the manual feed tray, automatic paper feed from the paper feed cassette can be selected. Therefore, it is only necessary to select the paper feed cassette after setting the paper on the manual feed tray. It is possible to form an image on paper by trial and then form an image on paper on the manual feed tray. Therefore, it is possible to avoid an image forming error with a simple operation.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below by taking a laser printer as an example. First, the configuration of the laser printer will be described with reference to the sectional view shown in FIG. 3 and the external perspective view shown in FIG. In FIGS. 3 and 4, 1 is a laser printer and 5 is a printer main body. Printer body 5
The rear portion of the upper surface is provided with a higher level, and a concave portion 6 serving as a paper discharge portion is formed in the central portion of the upper portion. A paper discharge tray 8 movably supported by a jogger 7 is mounted in the recess 6. An operation panel 9 is arranged on the right side of the recess 6, and an IC card insertion slot 11 is arranged on the left side.

A discharge tray 12 is provided on the front surface of the printer body 5, and a manual feed tray 13 is provided on the rear surface side. As shown in FIG. 3, a paper detection unit 26 is arranged at the bottom of the manual feed tray 13, and the paper detection unit 26 is
Detecting that the paper P is set on the manual feed tray 13 is output to the control circuit 50 described later. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, an image forming unit 23 is provided substantially in the center of the printer body 5, and the laser optical system 17 is provided above the image forming unit 23.
However, on the downstream side of the image forming unit 23, the transport device 24 and the fixing device 3
1. The paper discharge selector 32 and the paper discharge roller 33 are sequentially arranged in the paper transport direction. The transport device 2
For 4, a conventionally known belt such as a conveyor belt is used.

The image forming section 23 includes a photosensitive drum 15, a charging charger 16, a developing device 18, a transfer charger 19, a peeling charger 20, and a cleaner 21.
Around the photosensitive drum 15, a charging charger 16, a developing device 18, a transfer charger 19, and a peeling charger 2 are provided.
0, a cleaner 21, and a discharge lamp 22 are sequentially arranged along the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 15. A registration roller 30 is provided in front of the photoconductor drum 15 to temporarily receive the supplied paper P in front of the photoconductor drum 15 and supply the paper P in synchronization with the rotation of the photoconductor drum 15. ..

Further, a paper feed cassette 25 is removably housed in the bottom of the printer body 5, and between the paper feed cassette 25 and the image forming unit 23, the paper feed cassette 25 to the paper feed roller 28 is provided. Further, an automatic paper feed path A1 for guiding the paper P automatically fed through the supply roller 29b to the image forming unit 23 is provided. Further, between the manual feed tray 13 and the image forming section 23, a manual paper feed path A2 for guiding the paper P manually fed from the manual feed tray 13 via the supply roller 29a to the image forming section 23 is provided. Furthermore, the paper discharge selector 3
On the upper side of 2, there is formed a branch conveyance path 35 provided with a paper discharge roller 34 for guiding the paper P sorted by the paper discharge selector 32 to the recess 6.

In FIG. 4, 40 is a lower cover, 41 is a front cover, 42 is an upper cover, 43 is a right cover that can be opened and closed, 44 is a left cover, and 46 is an upper unit opening / closing lever. Further, 47 and 49 shown in FIG. 3 are boards on which a printer circuit for controlling the operation of the printer itself is mounted, and 48 is a board on which a control circuit 50 for controlling the operation of the printer circuit is mounted.

The operation panel 9 is, as shown in FIG. 5, an LCD display 9a for displaying the number of sheets, a mode, a guide message, etc., an LED display 9b for displaying various states by LEDs, and a switch 9c for instructing various operations. And the automatic paper feed path A1,
Paper feed switch 9 for selecting manual paper feed path A2
It is composed of d. Whether the LED display 9b is connected to a host device (eg, word processor, personal computer, etc.), that is, online /
"Online" indicating the offline mode, "Ready" indicating that the printer is in an operable state, "Data" indicating that image data is being transferred, "Operator" requesting an operator call, requesting a serviceman call It is composed of each display of "service" and "mode" indicating auto / manual.

The switch 9c is composed of, for example, a menu key, a value key, a ten key (not shown) or the like. The menu key is composed of two keys, "next item" and "previous item", and a plurality of menu information displayed on the left half of the LCD display 9a is decremented each time the "next item" key is pressed. It is displayed and these display operations are cyclically repeated. Value key is also "next item" and "previous item"
A plurality of value information items, which are displayed on the left half of the LCD display 9a, are incremented and displayed each time the "next item" key is pressed, and these display operations are cyclically repeated. It is like this. The operator selects a desired operation and gives an instruction by operating the menu key and the value key. Further, it is possible to input value information with a ten-key pad (not shown), which is used for setting the number of prints or the like.

Now, the printing operation of the laser printer will be described. The photosensitive drum 15 is rotationally driven, and the photosensitive drum 15 is uniformly charged by the charging charger 16. Then, the laser optical system 17 exposes the photosensitive drum 15 on the photosensitive drum 15 in accordance with an image signal to form an electrostatic latent image. Is formed. The electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 15 is visualized as a toner image by the developing device 18.

On the other hand, in synchronism with the above operation, the paper P taken out from the paper feed cassette 25 or the manually fed paper P is sent to the image forming section 23 through the registration rollers 30 and is placed on the photosensitive drum 15. The toner image is transferred onto the paper P by the transfer charger 19. Next, the sheet P is peeled off from the photosensitive drum 15 by the peeling charger 20 and sent to the fixing device 31 by the conveying device 24.
Then, after the toner image is melted and fixed on the paper P by the fixing device 31, the discharge direction is sorted by the paper discharge selector 32, and the discharge tray 8 on the upper side or the discharge tray 1 on the front side.
2 discharged on top.

After the toner image is transferred onto the paper P, the residual toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 15 is cleaned by the cleaner 21 and further discharged by the discharging lamp 22 to be ready for the next printing operation. Next, the configuration of the control circuit 50 will be described with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG.

The control circuit 50 includes a microcomputer having a CPU 51, a program ROM 52, a data RAM 53, an expansion memory 54, a video RAM 55, etc., and controls the operation of the printer according to a program stored in the ROM 52 in advance. In particular, the control circuit 50
When the paper P is set on the manual feed tray 13, the supply roller 29a of the manual paper feed path A2 is preferentially driven based on the output signal of the paper detector 26 to manually feed the paper.
A function of setting a manual paper feed mode in which the upper paper P is supplied from the manual paper feed path A2 to the image forming unit 23 and a function of setting the manual paper feed mode, that is, with the paper P set on the manual paper tray 13 are supplied. When the automatic paper feed path A1 is selected by operating the paper changeover switch 9d, the paper feed roller 28 of the paper feed cassette 25 is operated based on the operation signal of the paper feed changeover switch 9d.
And a function of driving the supply roller 29b of the automatic paper feed path A1 to switch to the automatic paper feed mode in which the paper P in the paper feed cassette 25 is supplied from the automatic paper feed path A1 to the image forming unit 23.

A control program is stored in the ROM 52, and a personal identification number (I
Data such as D number), top margin, left margin, paper type, and the like are stored. RA
The M53 is used as a page buffer for temporarily storing image data sent from the host device, or a CP.
It is designed to be used as a work buffer for U51.

The expansion memory 54 is a large-capacity memory used when the RAM 53 cannot store one page of data when the image data sent from the host device cannot store a large amount of data such as bitmap data. Is. The video RAM 55 stores image data expanded into a bit image, and its output is supplied to the serial / parallel conversion circuit.

The paper feed path selecting operation of the laser printer will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.
When the laser printer is activated by turning on the main switch, it is determined in Step 1 whether the paper P is set on the manual feed tray 13. That is, the control circuit 50 determines, based on the output signal of the paper detector 26, which one of the automatic paper feed mode and the manual paper feed mode is to be set. When the paper detector 26 detects that the paper P is set on the manual feed tray 13, the control circuit 50 sets the manual feed mode. Then, as shown in FIG. 6 (a), a message such as “The manual paper feed mode has been set. Do you want to make a test print?” Is displayed on the LCD display 9a, and St is displayed.
Move to ep2. On the other hand, the paper P on the bypass tray 13
If is not set, the control circuit 50 sets the automatic paper feed mode, and the process proceeds to Step 4.

At Step 2, it is determined whether or not the paper feed changeover switch 9d has been operated. That is, the control circuit 50
Determines whether to switch the paper feed mode from the manual paper feed mode to the automatic paper feed mode based on the operation signal of the paper feed changeover switch 9d. If the paper feed changeover switch 9d is not operated, the process proceeds to Step 3. On the other hand, when the automatic paper feed is selected by operating the paper feed switch 9d, the control circuit 50 switches the manual paper feed mode to the automatic paper feed mode. Then, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), a message such as “Proof printing will be performed.” Is displayed, and the process proceeds to Step 4.

In Step 3, when the number of prints is set by the ten keys or the like, the control circuit 50 drives the supply roller 29a of the manual paper feed path A2 based on the print signal. Then, the paper P on the manual feed tray 13 is supplied to the image forming unit 23 from the manual paper feed path A2. Step
In 4, the control circuit 50 drives the paper feed roller 28 of the paper feed cassette 25 and the supply roller 29b of the automatic paper feed path A1 based on the print signal when the number of prints is set by the ten keys or the like. Then, the paper feed cassette 2
The paper P in 5 is supplied from the automatic paper feed path A1 to the image forming unit 23 and is subjected to test printing.

After the trial printing, the paper P on the manual feed tray 13 can be supplied and printed without selecting the manual feed tray 13 with the paper feed changeover switch 9d. In this way, the manual paper feed mode is set just by setting the paper on the manual paper feed tray 13.
When the paper is supplied from the manual feed tray, it is possible to perform the manual paper feed without designating from the operation panel 9 that the paper is fed from the manual feed tray 13. Therefore, the usability is improved, and the printing error due to the selection error of the paper feed location is eliminated.

Further, even when the paper is set on the manual feed tray 13, automatic paper feed from the paper feed cassette 25 can be selected. Therefore, plain paper is set in the paper feed cassette 25 and OHP or the like is set on the manual feed tray 13. After setting expensive paper, simply select the paper feed cassette 25 with the paper feed switch 9d to perform trial printing with plain paper in the paper feed cassette 25, and then print the expensive paper on the manual feed tray 13. it can. Therefore, it is possible to avoid printing mistakes on expensive paper with a simple operation.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it goes without saying that many modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the present invention. In the above-described embodiments, the laser printer has been described as an example, but the present invention may be applied to a copying machine or various printers such as a dot printer and an inkjet printer.

[0029]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the manual feeding mode is preferentially set only by setting the paper on the manual feeding tray. Therefore, when the paper is fed from the manual feeding tray. It is possible to perform manual paper feeding without designating from the operation panel that paper is supplied from the manual tray. Therefore, the usability is improved, and an error in image formation due to an error in selecting a paper feed location is eliminated.

Further, since automatic paper feeding from the paper feeding cassette can be selected even when the paper is set on the manual feeding tray, it is only necessary to select the paper feeding cassette after setting the paper on the manual feeding tray. It is possible to form an image on paper by trial and then form an image on paper on the manual feed tray. Therefore, it is possible to avoid an image forming error with a simple operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a control flowchart of the same.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the same.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of an operation panel.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a message displayed when a paper feed path is selected.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9d Paper feed changeover switch 13 Manual feed tray 25 Paper feed cassette 26 Paper detector 28 Paper feed rollers 29a, 29b Supply roller 50 Control circuit A1 Automatic paper feed path A2 Manual paper feed path

Front page continuation (72) Masao Otsuka 1-22 Tamatsukuri, Chuo-ku, Osaka Mita Kogyo Co., Ltd. (72) Junya Sasabe 1-2-2 Tamatsukuri, Chuo-ku, Osaka Mita Kogyo Incorporated (72) Inventor Kajo Taguchi 1-22 Tamatsukuri, Chuo-ku, Osaka Mita Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic paper feed path for supplying paper set in a paper feed cassette to the image forming section and a manual paper feed path for supplying paper set in a manual feed tray to the image forming section. In the selectable image forming device, when paper is set in the manual feed tray, the paper feed mode setting unit that preferentially feeds paper from the manual paper feed path, and automatically when paper is set in the manual feed tray An image forming apparatus comprising a paper feed mode switching unit that supplies paper from an automatic paper feed path when a paper feed path is selected.