JPH0557972A - Electrophotography printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable printing capacity to be improved by controlling the moving speed of a sheet in compliance with the appearance of print and thereby changing printing time, in an electrophotography printer. CONSTITUTION:Print data edited by a print editing part 2 is analyzed using a printing time calculation part 3, then time required for printing on a sheet is calculated and the calculated time data is set in a timer part 6. The printing of data is initiated in a print processing part 5 simultaneously with the setting of the calculated time data in the timer part 6. The timer part 6 connects a signal to a speed control part 7, if the set time is up. The speed control part 7 accelerates a sheet feed speed and discharges the sheet.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic printer, and more particularly to controlling the traveling speed of paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional electrophotographic printer, the traveling speed of paper during printing is constant.

[0003]

In this conventional paper running speed control, printing is performed on the entire surface of a page even when printing blank paper on which characters or graphics are not printed or when only a few lines are printed on the upper edge of the paper. In all cases, the paper runs at the same running speed and the printing operation is performed, and in any case, the printing time proportional to the number of printed sheets is required.

[0004]

The electrophotographic printer of the present invention finds the last line of a character to be printed or the bottom end of graphics from the data edited for printing, and locates this position at the bottom end position. As a print time calculation unit that calculates the time from the start of paper suction to the end of printing at the bottom edge position, a timer unit that counts down the time calculated by this print time calculation unit and outputs a signal when the time is up, and this timer And a speed control unit that controls the traveling speed of the printing paper according to signals from the printing unit and the printing processing unit that performs the printing process.

[0005]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. The print data from the host device is received by the reception buffer 1 and sent to the print editing unit 2. The print editing unit 2 edits print data, and prints data for a paper size to be printed.
As a sequence of black and white dots, it is output as matrix data that matches the resolution of the device. Upon receipt of this data, the print time calculation unit 3 analyzes black and white for all the received data, and finds the point at which black printing is the last when printing is executed. At this time, the referenced data is immediately stored in buffer 4
Transfer to. Using the position of the last black print point found as the print bottom position, find the distance between this position and the top of the paper, and calculate the time required to execute printing from that distance and the paper running speed during printing. To do. Since the printing operation is executed from the upper end to the lower end of the paper, this time corresponds to the time when the printing is actually executed. Then, a time obtained by adding this time and the time for the sheet feeding until the actual printing is set in the timer unit 6. At the same time when the time is set in the timer unit 6, a print execution start signal is transmitted to the print processing unit 5. The timer unit 6 starts counting down the time set by the printing time calculation unit 3 at the same time as it is set, and the print processing unit 5 reads data from the buffer 4 and starts printing. At this time, the speed control unit 7 is controlled by the print processing unit 5 and runs the paper for printing. When the time set by the timer unit 6 expires, the timer 6 outputs a signal to the speed control unit 7. When this signal is output from the timer unit 6, printing on the paper is completed, and the speed control unit 7 receiving this signal accelerates to a paper speed higher than the paper traveling speed for executing printing up to that time. Execute paper ejection.

In the case of blank page printing, the printing time calculation section 3 sets "0" to the timer section 6 when it is found that blank page printing has been performed. Then, the timer section instructs the speed control section 7 to accelerate the traveling speed of the sheet, and the sheet travels at a high sheet traveling speed from the sheet feeding operation,
Paper is ejected in a short time. If the paper traveling speed at the time of acceleration is twice as high as the paper traveling speed at the time of printing execution, the time required for blank paper printing will be half the time required in the conventional case.

The printing time can be shortened when there are few characters or graphics to be printed on the upper end side of the paper or when a large amount of printing is performed.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, the time required for printing on the paper is calculated from the print data, and when the time elapses, the traveling speed of the paper is immediately increased to eject the paper. Since the speed is increased, there is an effect that the time from sheet feeding to sheet discharging can be shortened depending on the format of the text or graphics to be printed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Receive Buffer 2 Print Editing Section 3 Printing Time Calculation Section 4 Buffer 5 Print Processing Section 6 Timer Section 7 Speed Control Section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The last line of a character to be printed or the bottom end of graphics is searched from the data edited for print execution, and this position is taken as the bottom end position from the start of sheet suction to the end of printing. A print time calculation unit that calculates time, a timer unit that counts down the time calculated by this print time calculation unit, and outputs a signal when the time is up, and a signal from this timer unit and a print processing unit that performs print processing. An electrophotographic printer, comprising: a speed control unit that controls a traveling speed of the printing paper.