JPH05221581A - Printing control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent double printing from being applied on an already printed surface and relieve the burden of a user by detecting a spot on the printing surface, on which printing is intended to be applied, of a paper sheet, effecting printing on a surface where no spot is formed by turning over the paper sheet when a spot is detected only on one surface, and discharging a paper sheet, on which a spot is detected, without effecting printing thereon. CONSTITUTION:A paper feed control mechanism 250 feeds a paper sheet 211 to a turning-over mechanism 260 through control of a lever 251 when a spot is detected on a printing surface by a printing surface detecting mechanism 240. The turning-over mechanism 260 discharges the paper sheet 211 to a defective paper discharge port 262 when a spot is detected on both surfaces of the paper sheet 211 by means of the printing surface detecting mechanism 240. When a spot is detected only on the printing surface of the paper sheet 211 by the printing surface detecting mechanism 240, the paper sheet 211 is fed to the paper feed control mechanism 250 by the turning- over mechanism 260. The paper feed control mechanism 250 feeds the paper sheet 211 to a printing mechanism 270 through control of the lever 251. After printing is effected, the paper discharge mechanism 280 discharges a printed paper sheet 221 to a discharge paper stacker 220.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and particularly to a printing control which is suitable when printing is performed using a paper including a paper (backing paper) whose back side is printed on one side as a printing surface. A method and a device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example of a conventional printing apparatus, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho.
No. 8-132252 describes a paper feeding mechanism, a paper reversing mechanism and the like of a double-sided printing device. That is, printing is performed on a predetermined surface of the paper fed from the paper tray, and both sides of the paper are printed as needed and the paper is discharged to the stacker. Further, with respect to the use of recycled paper, there are cases where measures are taken to secure good print quality and normal operation of the paper feed mechanism due to the poor paper quality.

[0003]

The above-mentioned prior art has the following problems.

In recent years, from the standpoint of environmental protection, not only recycled paper but also back paper that uses the back surface of paper already printed on one side as the printing surface has been increasingly used. In this case, the user of the printing device needs to set the paper in the printing device, being careful to print on the non-printed surface of the backing paper. In rare cases, the paper may be set incorrectly and may be printed on the printed surface of the backing paper. As described above, the user of the printing apparatus needs to have knowledge and attention as to which side of the backing sheet is to be printed, which leads to a reduction in the willingness to use the backing sheet. There is a problem that printing error occurs due to an error.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, reduce the burden on the user of the printing device when using the backing paper, and perform printing on the unprinted surface of the backing paper. ..

[0006]

The above object can be achieved by providing the following means in a printing apparatus including a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device.

(1) Take out the paper from the paper feeding hopper,
Paper feeding means for feeding paper to the printing surface detecting means.

(2) A printing surface detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a smear having a color darker than the average color density of the printing surface on both sides of the paper.

(3) If the print surface detecting means detects a stain on the surface of the paper sent to the print surface detecting means by the paper feeding means, the paper is sent to the paper reversing means. After reversing the sheet, the sheet is sent to the printing unit, and if a stain is detected on both sides of the sheet, the sheet is sent to the defective sheet discharge unit, and if no stain is detected, the sheet is sent to the printing unit. Control means.

(4) Paper reversing means for reversing (turning over) the paper and feeding it to the paper feeding control means.

(5) Defective paper discharging means for discharging the paper to the defective paper stacker.

(6) Printing means for printing on paper and discharging the paper to the printed paper stacker.

[0013]

The paper to be printed is taken out from the paper feeding hopper by the paper feeding means and sent to the printing surface detecting means. And
The print surface detection means detects whether or not there is a stain on the print surface of the paper sheet, which has a darker color than the average color density of the print surface, and sends the paper to the paper feed control means. In the paper feed control means, if no stain is detected, the paper is fed to the printing means, the printing means prints on the paper, and the paper is discharged to the printed paper stacker. On the other hand, if a stain is detected, the sheet is sent to the sheet inverting means. The paper reversing means reverses the paper and feeds it again to the paper feed control means. The paper feed control means feeds the paper to the printing surface detection means again. Then, if the print surface detecting unit detects a stain again, the sheet is sent to the defective sheet discharging unit, and the defective sheet discharging unit discharges the sheet to the defective sheet stacker. on the other hand,
If no stain is detected after reversing by the paper reversing means,
The sheet is sent to the printing unit, the printing unit prints the sheet, and the sheet is discharged to the printed sheet stacker.

As described above, when the stain on the printing surface of the paper is detected during printing and the stain is detected on both sides of the paper, the paper is discharged as a defective paper, and if the stain is detected on only one surface of the paper. For example, printing is performed on the non-stained surface of the paper to reduce the burden on the user of the printing device when the backing paper is used, and to print on the non-printed surface of the backing paper. ..

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a printing device connected to an information processing device.

First, the mechanism of the printing apparatus 200 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 210 denotes a paper feed hopper that stores paper 211 to be fed to the printing apparatus. 220
Is a paper discharge stacker for storing the printed paper 221. Reference numeral 230 is a paper feed mechanism that feeds the paper 211 to the printing surface detection mechanism. A printing surface detection mechanism 240 detects a stain on the printing surface of the paper 211. Reference numeral 250 denotes the printing surface detection mechanism 240, the reversing mechanism 260, and the paper 21 between the printing mechanism.
1 is a paper feed control mechanism for controlling the paper feed of No. 1. The paper feed control mechanism 250 controls the levers 251 and 252 to control the paper 211.
Control the destination of. Reference numeral 260 denotes a reversing mechanism for reversing the paper. The reversing mechanism 260 includes the paper feeding control mechanism 25.
When the paper 211 sent from 0 reaches the optical sensor 261, the paper feed direction is reversed and the paper is fed to the paper feed control mechanism 250. A printing mechanism 270 includes a photosensitive drum 271, a charging device 272, a developing device 274, a fixing device 275, and the like.
The printing mechanism produces a printed image on a paper surface according to the widely used principle of electrophotography. A sheet 280 discharges the printed sheet 221 to the sheet stacker 220. A double-sided printing / feeding mechanism 290 sends the paper 221 printed on one side to the printing mechanism 270 again via the paper feeding control mechanism 250 and the reversing mechanism 260 when performing double-sided printing. 201 is a processing mechanism 201 which will be described later with reference to FIG. A display panel 202 is used by the printing apparatus 200 to notify the user of the printing apparatus 200 of information. A keyboard (K / B) 203 is used by the user to input an instruction to the printing apparatus 200.

Next, the print control processing hardware configuration of the printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
A central processing unit (CPU) 310 executes a control program related to printing. A read-only memory (ROM) 320 stores a control program for printing. A general-purpose memory 330 stores data related to printing. A communication unit (CDRV) 340 receives data related to printing from the outside of the printing device and sends back an operation state of the printing device to a transmission source of the data related to the printing. Instructions such as selection relating to printing are given via the keyboard 350 (KB). A display device (CRT) 360 displays a screen for instructing printing. An input / output unit 370 includes a development control mechanism 391 that generates an image on a sheet, a sheet feeding control mechanism 392 that controls the movement of the sheet in the printing apparatus, and a printing surface detection control mechanism 393 that detects a stain on the printing surface. Input and output data between. A bus 380 is used to transfer data between the peripheral devices 320 to 370 and the central processing unit 310.

Next, the print surface detection mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. 410 is a CCD line sensor. Also, 4
Reference numeral 30 is a position detection sensor that detects the position of the fed paper. The fed sheet 211 passes between the CCD line sensors 430 by the operation of the sheet feeding mechanism 420. The position detection sensor 430 detects the intensity of light illuminated from the lower surface of the sheet 211 to detect that the sheet 211 reaches the position of the sensor, and the CCD line sensor 430 detects only the sheet surface ( Paper is CCD line sensor 43
(Only when passing between 0). CCD
The line sensor 430 detects one-dimensional light and dark from the paper surface with which the CCD line sensor 430 is in contact. Then, the brightness information is notified to the print surface detection control mechanism 393. An example of the brightness information is shown in FIG. FIG. 5 shows the brightness of the paper surface in the line direction of the CCD line sensor 430 detected by the CCD line sensor 430 at each time point.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the one-dimensional light / dark information has a peak 511, the print surface detection control mechanism notifies the I / O unit 370 of the peak detection information. Further, the I / O unit 370 is always notified of the value 512 of the specified line of the light / dark information. Further, two CCD line sensors 430 are provided (430a and 430b), and the light and dark information on both sides of the paper 211 are simultaneously detected. That is, the printing surface detection mechanism 400
Notifies the I / O unit 370 of the presence / absence of a stain (having a dark peak) on each side of the fed sheet 211 and the average density of the sheet color on each side of the sheet.

As for the printing surface detecting mechanism, a simple embodiment as shown in FIG. 6 can be considered. Instead of using the CCD line sensor 430 described above, one or more optical sensors
Provide 430. As the optical sensor 630, a sensor that detects the intensity of reflected light of the light applied to the paper surface is used. Then, the print surface detection control mechanism 393 is notified of the light intensity information detected by the optical sensor 630. As shown in FIG. 7, when the intensity information has a peak 711, the print surface detection control mechanism 393 notifies the I / O unit of the peak detection information. Also, the value 712 of the specified line of strength information is always notified to the I / O unit. Level 713 indicates that the paper is the sensor 63
It indicates that it is not between 0. In this way, as in the above-described embodiment, the printing surface detecting mechanism 400 determines whether or not there is a stain (having a dark peak) on each side of the fed paper 211, and the paper color on each side of the paper. To the I / O unit 370.

Further, instead of using the CCD line sensor or the optical sensor described above, there is also a method of detecting the brightness and stains on the paper surface by using an image pickup device that captures the paper surface in a two-dimensional image.

Next, a description will be given of the processing when printing is performed in the document processing apparatus having the system configuration described above.

First, the mode setting of the printing apparatus 200 will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 12. The user of the printing apparatus determines whether the printing apparatus 200 performs normal printing, double-sided printing, or printing using backing paper in FIG.
An instruction is given using the keyboard 203 and the display panel 202 shown in FIG. Each mode 1 to be selected is displayed on the display panel 202.
201, 1202, 1203 are displayed, and the mode is set by pressing the key switch 1211, 1212, 1213 corresponding to each mode. The mode input (860) by the mode setting is stored in the print mode table 880 (870).

Next, the printing process of the printing apparatus 200 will be described with reference to FIG. The printing process 800 is performed by the printing device 2
00 is a process for printing one sheet of paper 211. In the print processing 800, first, the print mode table 880 is called (810) and the processing 900, 100 corresponding to the mode is executed.
Either 0 or 100 is performed (820). The print processes 900, 1000, 100 will be described in detail below.

First, the normal printing process 900 will be described with reference to FIG. In the normal printing process 900, first, the sheet feeding mechanism 230 feeds the sheet 211 from the sheet feeding hopper 210 to the printing surface detecting mechanism 240 (910). The print surface detection mechanism 240 sends the paper 211 to the paper feed control mechanism 250 without detecting the print surface. The paper feeding control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the paper 211 to the printing mechanism 270 (920). Then, after printing (93
0), the printed paper 221 is discharged to the paper discharge stacker 220 by the paper discharge mechanism 280 (940).

Next, the double-sided printing process 1000 will be described with reference to FIG.
It will be described using 0. First, the double-sided printing process 1000
The paper feeding mechanism 230 allows the paper 21 to be fed from the paper feeding hopper 210.
1 is fed to the printing surface detection mechanism 240 (1010). Next, without detecting the printing surface, the paper 211 is fed to the paper feed control mechanism 250 and the lever 251 is controlled to control the paper 2
11 is sent to the printing mechanism 270 (1020). After printing (1030), the double-sided printing paper feeding mechanism 2
The lever 291 of 90 is controlled to feed the sheet to the sheet feeding control mechanism 250, and the sheet feeding control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the sheet to the reversing mechanism 260 (1040). Reversing mechanism 260
To the paper feeding control mechanism 250, and the paper feeding control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the paper to the printing mechanism 270.
(1050). After printing (1060),
The stacker 2 for discharging the printed paper 221 by the paper discharge mechanism 280
The sheet is discharged to 20 (1070).

Next, the backing paper printing process 100 will be described with reference to FIG. In the back paper printing process 100, first, the paper feed mechanism 230 feeds the paper 211 from the paper feed hopper 210 to the print surface detection mechanism 240 (110). The print surface detection mechanism 240 detects the spots on both sides of the paper 211 (120), and then sends the paper 211 to the paper feed control mechanism 250. The paper feed control mechanism 250 includes the print surface detection mechanism 24.
If a blot on the printing surface is detected at 0, lever 2
51 is controlled to feed the sheet 211 to the reversing mechanism 260 (130, 150). When the printing surface detection mechanism 240 detects a stain on both sides of the sheet 211, the reversing mechanism 260 causes the defective sheet discharge port 262 to detect the sheet 211.
Is discharged (160, 200). In addition, the printing surface detection mechanism 2
If a stain is detected only on the printing surface of the paper 211 in 40, the reversing mechanism 260 feeds the paper 211 to the paper feed control mechanism 250, and the paper feed control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251. , Send the paper to the printing mechanism 270
(160, 170). After printing (180),
The printed paper 221 is discharged to the discharge stacker 220 by the paper discharge mechanism 280. If the print surface detection mechanism 240 does not detect a stain on the print surface, the paper feed control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to print the paper 211.
The paper is sent to 70 (130, 140). After printing (180), the printed paper 221 is printed by the paper discharge mechanism 280.
The paper is discharged to the paper discharge stacker 220 (190). In this way, when printing is performed using the backing paper, double printing on the already printed surface can be prevented.

Regarding the backing paper printing process, the following embodiments can be considered. This will be described with reference to FIG. The back side paper printing process 100 is performed by first feeding the paper feed hopper by the paper feed mechanism 230.
The paper 211 is fed from 210 to the printing surface detection mechanism 240 (1110). In the printing surface detection mechanism 240, the paper 21
After detecting the stain on both sides of the sheet 1 (1120), the sheet 211 is fed to the sheet feeding control mechanism 250. When the print surface detection mechanism 240 detects a stain on only the print surface, the paper feed control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the paper 211 to the reversing mechanism 260 (1130, 11).
50). Then, the reversing mechanism 260 sends the sheet 211 to the sheet feeding control mechanism 250, and the sheet feeding control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to send the sheet to the printing mechanism 270 (1160). And after printing (117
0), the printed paper 221 is discharged to the paper discharge stacker 220 by the paper discharge mechanism 280 (1180). If the print surface detection mechanism 240 does not detect a stain on the print surface, the paper feed control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the paper 211 to the print mechanism 270 (1140). After printing (1170), the printed paper 221 is discharged to the paper discharge stacker 220 by the paper discharge mechanism 280.
(1180). When the print surface detection mechanism 240 detects a stain on both sides of the paper 211, the paper feed control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the paper to the print mechanism 270 (1190). The printed paper 221 is discharged to the paper discharge stacker 220 by the paper discharge mechanism 280 without printing (1180).

In the embodiment described above, the printing surface detecting mechanism 240 detects the presence or absence of a smear on the surface of the paper 211 on which printing is to be performed, and if there is a smear on only the printing surface, the reversing mechanism 260 reverses the paper. By printing later, if there are stains on both sides and not using the paper 211 without printing, it is possible to double print on the side that has already been printed when using backing paper. To prevent.

Incidentally, in the above-described embodiment, the stain on the printing surface is not detected during normal printing and double-sided printing.
In the normal printing process 900 and the double-sided printing process 1000 as well, as in the case of the backing sheet printing process 100, the stain on the printing surface of the paper 211 is detected, and when the stain is detected on the printing surface,
An embodiment is conceivable in which the sheet 211 is discharged to the defective sheet discharge port without being printed, or is discharged to the sheet stacker without being printed.

Further, an embodiment in which the following functions are added to the above-described embodiment is also conceivable. In the print surface detection control mechanism 393, not only the presence or absence of the light and dark peaks 511 and 711 due to the stain on the paper surface shown in FIGS.
2, 712 have also notified the I / O unit 370. Therefore, the average densities 511, 7 of the printing surface, which are different for each sheet 211,
If 12 exceeds a certain value, it is considered that different types of paper 211 have been fed and the user of the printing apparatus is notified of that fact. The processing will be described with reference to FIG. The page printing process 100 described above with reference to FIG.
Expanded to processing of 300. However, it is assumed that the paper is fed before the processing 1310 and the average density of the paper 211 is detected by the print surface detection processing similar to 120 of FIG. The page printing process 1300 first acquires the average density of the sheet 211 printed immediately before from the average density table 1380 (131
0). Then, the value of the average density is compared with the average density of the paper to be printed (1320), and if the difference exceeds a certain value, it is displayed that the density of the paper is significantly different from that printed immediately before. Display on panel 202 (13
40). Therefore, if the user instructs "ignore and continue printing" (1350, 1360), the average density of the paper 211 to be printed from now on is calculated as the average density table 13.
It is stored in 80 (1330). On the other hand, the user
If the user instructed to "discharge" 11 (1350, 136)
0), the sheet 211 is discharged (1370). When the backing paper is used, it is possible to reuse the paper so that the paper 211
May be mixed. In such cases,
As described above, it is possible to instruct to use or eject the sheet 211.

In the above embodiment, the printing surface detecting mechanism 240
Can detect the state of both sides of the sheet 211 at one time, but a printing surface detection mechanism 240 that can detect only one side may be provided. In that case, the printing surface is detected immediately before being fed to the printing mechanism 270. That is, the sheet 211 is fed from the reversing mechanism 260 to the sheet feeding control mechanism 250, and the sheet feeding control mechanism 25
At 0, the lever 251 is controlled to feed the paper to the printing surface detection mechanism 240 again. Then, the print surface detection mechanism 240 detects the stain on the print surface, and then the paper feed control mechanism 25.
The paper feeding control mechanism 250 controls the lever 251 to feed the paper 211 to the printing mechanism if there is no stain.

Further, in the reversal method of the sheet 211 described in the above embodiment, the printing direction of the sheet is different (photosensitive drum 2
71 may come into contact with the lower surface of the page or may come into contact with the upper surface of the page). Therefore, it is necessary to form a print image on the photosensitive drum 271 in consideration of this point.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, a printing apparatus detects a stain on a printing surface of a sheet to be printed (when it is already printed, etc.) and only one side of the sheet is printed. If a spot is detected on the
By printing the surface without stains of the paper as the printing surface and discharging the paper with the stains detected on both sides without printing, double printing is performed on the surface that has already been printed when the backing paper is used. This makes it possible to perform printing while reducing the burden on the user of the printing apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a backing sheet printing control process.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a mechanism of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of print control processing.

FIG. 4 is a print surface detection mechanism diagram.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a method for detecting a spot on a printed surface.

FIG. 6 is a print surface detection mechanism diagram.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a method for detecting a blot on a printed surface.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a page printing process.

FIG. 9 is a normal print processing flowchart.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a double-sided printing process flow.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a backing sheet printing control process.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of an operation screen / panel.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of abnormality processing based on a sheet average density.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Reference number within the agency FI Technical display location G03G 15/00 102 (72) Inventor Tomoya Ozaki 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. Microelectronics Device Development Laboratory (72) Inventor Sadaji Kuwahara 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Stock Company Hitachi Microelectronics Device Development Laboratory

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. In a printing device comprising a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device, when a printing surface on which a print image of a paper to be printed is to be formed has an unsatisfactory stain on the printing, A print control device comprising means for printing on a surface without a smear on the side opposite to the print surface. 2. In a printing device comprising a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device, when a printing surface on which a print image of a sheet to be printed is to be formed has an unsatisfactory stain on the printing, A print control device comprising means for not printing on paper. 3. In a printing device comprising a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device, when there is an inconvenient stain on the printing surface of the paper on which a print image is to be formed, it is opposite to the printing surface. A print control apparatus comprising: a means for printing on a side without a stain and a means for not performing printing on the sheet when there is a stain that is inconvenient for printing on both sides of the sheet. 4. A printing device comprising a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device, wherein paper is taken out from a paper feeding hopper and fed to a printing surface detecting means, and both sides of the paper are provided. A printing surface detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a stain having a color darker than the average color density of the printing surface; and a printing of the paper sent to the printing surface detecting means by the paper feeding means in the printing surface detecting means. If a stain is detected on the surface to be tried, the sheet is sent to a sheet reversing unit, the sheet is inverted, and then the sheet is sent to a printing unit. If a stain is detected on both sides of the sheet, the sheet is detected. To a defective paper discharge means, and if a stain is not detected, a paper feed control means that feeds the paper to the printing means, and a paper reversal means that reverses (turns over) the paper and feeds the paper to the paper feed control means. , Do not eject the paper without printing it. Perform a paper output unit, the printing on the paper, the printing control apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a printing unit for discharging. 5. A printing device comprising a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device, wherein a paper is taken out from a paper feeding hopper and is fed to a printing surface detecting means, and printing is performed from this paper. The surface to be printed, the printing surface detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of a stain having a color darker than the average color density of the printing surface, and the printing surface detecting means sends the paper to the printing surface detecting means by the paper feeding means. If a stain is detected on the surface of the paper to be printed, the paper is sent to the paper inverting means, the paper is inverted, and then sent to the print surface detecting means again, and the stain is not detected. The paper is fed to the printing means, and if a stain is detected again, the paper feed control means for feeding the paper to the defective paper discharge means, and the paper is inverted (turned over) and fed to the paper feed control means. Paper reversing means and printing the paper A defective paper sheet discharge means for discharging without performs printing on the paper, the printing control apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a printing unit for discharging. 6. A printing device comprising a central processing unit, a storage device, an input device and an output device, wherein an average density of colors on a printing surface of a paper to be printed and a color density on a printing surface of a paper printed immediately before. A printing control method and apparatus, characterized by having means for notifying the user of the printing apparatus when the density is significantly different from the average density. 7. The print control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein after notifying the user, the user ignores the difference in average density and continues printing, and the user ejects the paper without printing it. A print control device having means for selecting paper. 8. The printing control device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, further comprising means for enabling or disabling a user to enable or disable a function of performing backside printing for printing on a surface of a sheet without stains. A print control device having. 9. The print control device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, when not printing, the same discharge port as the discharge port for discharging the normal printed paper. A printing control device comprising means for further discharging. 10. The print control device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, when printing is not performed, the paper is discharged from a dedicated paper discharge port for discharging a paper unsuitable for printing. A print control device comprising means.