JPH056140Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printer device shared by a plurality of workstations on a network.
Specifically, there is a print request file storage means that sequentially stores file information to be printed sent from each of a plurality of workstations via a network, and each file information stored in this print request file storage means. The present invention relates to a printer device that is equipped with a printer main body that reads and prints out images sequentially on sheets of a preset predetermined size that are automatically fed.

[Prior Art] The basic configuration of a system in which a printer device is shared by a plurality of workstations via a network is shown in FIG. 7, for example.

In the figure, 10 is a workstation configured on the network 1, and each workstation 10 is equipped with terminal equipment such as a display device 11, a keyboard device 12, a floppy disk device 13, etc., and input from the keyboard device 12. to create various documents, and send the created documents to the floppy disk device 13 as file information.
It is designed to perform processing such as storage. 20
3 is a printer main body, and 30 is a control device that controls printing operations in the printer main body 20. Then, the printer main body 20 feeds paper of a predetermined size automatically from the automatic paper feed tray 21 to the controller 3.
File information (documents) as described below are sequentially printed out from 0, and the printed sheets are sent to the output tray 22. The documents created as described above at each workstation 10 to be printed are sent from the workstation 10 to the control device 30 via the network 1. are sequentially stored as file information in a predetermined area of the disk device 32 (hereinafter referred to as a print request file storage area), while the file information stored in this print request file storage area is read out and printed on the printer main body 20. It is provided as file information.

In the above system, the printer main body 20, the control device 30, and the print request file storage area of the disk device 32 are the basic components of the printer of the same type as the present invention.

In addition, in FIG. 7, 31 is a display device, and this display device 31 is connected to the control device 3.
It is designed to display various information starting from 0.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] By the way, with the above-mentioned conventional printer device, when each workstation shares the printer device on a network, the size of the file information to be printed created by each workstation is The degree of freedom becomes smaller.

The main body of the printer is equipped with an automatic paper feed mechanism that supplies paper of a predetermined size, and
Print request file storage means (corresponds to the print request file storage area of the disk device 32)
This is because the file information read from the printer is simply provided to the printer itself as information to be printed.

If the size of the file information to be created at each workstation is freely determined, if the print size of the file information read from the print request file storage means does not match the paper size, each time the file information is read, The paper size of the automatic paper feed mechanism must be changed. Therefore, when the number of workstations that share the printer device increases, the size of the file information to be printed that is created at each workstation cannot be freely determined, as a practical matter, considering the time and effort required to change the paper. be.

Therefore, the problem with the present invention is that even if the size of the file information to be printed is different from the size of the automatically fed paper, the paper can be switched each time the file information is read from the print request file storage means. The aim is to eliminate the need for such work.

[Means for solving the problem] As shown in FIG. Request file storage means 2
and a printer main body 3 that reads each file information stored in the print request file storage means 2 and sequentially prints out the files in a preset size Sa that is automatically fed. In this printer device, the technical means for solving the above problem is to provide a manual paper feed mechanism 4 in the printer main body 3, and to store the read file information when printing out by automatic paper feeding of the printer main body 3. When the size to be printed and the set paper size Sa do not match, a plurality of size-specific file storage means 5(1), 5(2) re-store the read file information for each size to be printed. ),…
...5(n) (n=1,2,...), and when paper is manually fed into the printer main body 3, the paper Sm
Size-specific file storage means 5(i) corresponding to the size
Manual print information reading means 6 that provides the file information stored in (i is any value from 1 to n) to the printer main body 3 as information to be printed.
It is equipped with the following.

Furthermore, in addition to the above-mentioned configuration, the present invention provides a control device as a size changing means for changing the size-specific file storage means for frequently used sizes into a new print request file storage means in place of the above-mentioned print request file storage means. 30.

In the above technical means, the number of size-specific file storage units 5(1) to 5(n) is determined in each workstation depending on the size of file information to be created.

[Operation] File information to be printed sent from each workstation via the network 1 is sequentially stored in the print request file storage means 2. Then, the print main body 2 reads the file information from the print request file storage means 2, and if the size to be printed matches the automatically fed paper size Sa, prints out the file information sequentially onto the automatically fed paper Sa. do.

On the other hand, when printing out the above, if the print size of the read file information does not match the set paper size Sa,
The read file information is stored in size-specific file storage means 5(1) to 5 corresponding to its size.
(n).

As mentioned above, normally, the process of printing out by the print main body 3 or re-storing the file information read from the print request file storage means 2 into the size-based file storage means 5(1) to 5(n) is continuous. It will be held in

Here, when printing out by manual paper feeding instead of printing out by automatic paper feeding, when the paper Sm is supplied to the printer main body 3,
The manual print information reading means 6 reads the paper Sm
Size-specific file storage means 5 corresponding to the size of
File information is read from (j) (j is any value from 1 to n), and this file information is shared with the printer body 3 as information to be printed. Then, the printer body 3 receives the manually fed paper.
The file information provided from the manual print information reading means 6 is printed out on Sm. Each time paper of the same size as the paper Sm is manually fed, the file information read out from the size-specific file storage means 5(j) by the manual print information reading means 6 is stored in the printer main body, as described above. 3 will be printed out. Also,
When the size of paper to be manually fed is changed, the manual print information reading unit 6 reads data from another size-specific file storage unit 5(K) (k is any value from 1 to n excluding j) corresponding to the size. The file information is read out, and the file information is shared with the printer body 3 as information to be printed. As a result, file information of a size matching the changed size is printed out on the paper of the changed size.

As mentioned above, in the printer device according to the present invention, the file information to be printed on paper of a size other than the paper size Sa used for automatic paper feeding is
The printing process can be performed at a predetermined time by manual paper feeding, instead of every time the print request file is read out from the print request file storage means as in the conventional case.

Moreover, the printer device according to the present invention includes a control device 30 as a size changing means for changing the frequently used size-specific file storage means to a new print request file storage means in place of the print request file storage means. With this configuration, file information of frequently used sizes can be stored in a new print request file storage means and paper can be automatically fed, and the frequently used paper can be easily changed depending on the circumstances. , operability can be improved.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a printer device according to the present invention. The configuration of the entire system including each workstation that shares the printer device is the same as that shown in FIG. 7.

In this example as well, basically the printer body 2
0, the printer body 20 is equipped with a control device 30, and in particular, the printer main body 20 has a manual paper feed mechanism in addition to an automatic paper feed mechanism, and correspondingly has a replaceable automatic paper feed tray 21 and a manual paper feed tray. 23 is provided. Also connected to the control device 30 are a disk device 32 for storing various file information and a display device 31 for displaying various information.

Here, the disk device 32 includes a print request file storage area for storing file information to be printed sent from each workstation via the network 1, and a first storage area corresponding to the size of the paper to be printed. A size-specific file storage area and a second size-specific file storage area are respectively secured, and the control device 30 performs various processes related to storing and reading file information in each area.

Then, the control device 30 sends the file information to be printed to the printer main body 20, and the printer main body 20 prints out the shared file information on paper that is automatically fed or manually fed, and ejects the paper. The paper is sent out to a tray 22. Further, in the case of manual paper feeding, the printer main body 20 is configured to output information on the tray size that matches the paper size to the control device 30.

Next, the operation of the printer device will be explained according to the processing flow of the control device 30 shown in FIGS. 4 to 6.

Now, assume that the print sizes that can be allowed within the system are limited to "A4", "B5", and "B4", and that "A4" size paper is supplied from the automatic paper feed tray 21.

The control device 30 recognizes that the automatic paper feed tray 21 of the printer main body 20 is set to "A4", and sets the first size-specific file storage area in the disk device 32 to "B4" size, and sets the second file storage area to "B4" size.
While allocating the file storage area by size to "B5" size, the file information of the print request sent from each workstation 10 via the network 1 is printed according to the processing flow shown in FIG. File information Specified size (a) A4 (b) B4 (c) B5 (d) A4 (e) A4: A queue is constructed as follows. In the process of executing the process according to the flow shown in FIG. 4, which will be described later, the control device 30 is always in a state of accepting file information (ST13 in FIG. Every time file information for a print request is sent,
The file information is accepted in the interrupt process (ST11), and the received file information is stored in the print request file storage area and the file information is added to the queue (ST11).
ST12).

On the other hand, normal print processing is carried out as a main processing in accordance with the flow shown in FIG. 4, separate from the storage of the file information.

That is, it checks the presence or absence of paper set in the manual paper feed tray 23 (ST1) and the presence or absence of file information in the print request file storage area (ST2),
If there is no manual paper feed and the file information is stored in the print request file storage area,
The first file information from the file queue in the print request file storage area, for example, the third
In the case shown in FIG. 1, file information a is read (ST3). Then, this read file information a
When the specified size "A4" matches the paper size of the automatic paper feed tray 21 at this time (ST4), the file information a read above from the control device 30 is transferred to the printer main body 20, and the printer main body 20 automatically The file information a is printed on a sheet of paper (“A4”) automatically supplied from the paper feed tray 21 (ST5), and the printed sheet is sent to the output tray 22 (ST6).

Reading of file information from the print request file storage area is performed according to first-in-first-out (FIFO), but the specified size of the read file information matches the paper size "A4" set in the automatic paper feed tray 21. The above process is repeated as long as possible (ST1 to ST6).

In this way, file information is sequentially read out from the print request file storage area, and in the process of printing the file information, the specified size of the read file information is changed to the set paper size "A4". If they do not match (ST4), for example, when the file information b of the specified size "B4" in FIG. The file is stored again in the size-specific file storage area (ST7). Further, for example, when file information c of designated size "B5" is read out, this file information c is stored in the second size-specific file storage area allocated to "B5" as shown in FIG.

Normally, when no paper is set in the manual paper feed tray 23, the automatic paper feed ("A4") is printed as described above, and the file is reloaded to the first or second size-specific file storage area. Storage processing and storage processing of the transmission file information via the network 1 to the print request file storage area are performed as interrupt processing for each of these processings, but here, paper is set in the manual paper feed tray 23. Then, the following processing is performed.

For example, when "B4" paper is set in the manual paper feed tray 23 (ST1), the size of the paper set in the manual paper feed tray 23 ("B4") and the size of the paper set in the automatic paper feed tray 21 are determined. After confirming that the size (“A4”) does not match (ST8), the file storage area corresponding to the tray size “B4” of the manual paper feed 23 (see FIG. For example, file information b is read from the file (see ). Then, this read file information b is transferred to the printer main body 20, and the printer main body 20 prints the file information b on paper (“B4”) supplied from the manual paper feed tray 23 ( ST5), and the printed paper is delivered to the output tray 22 (ST6). The above process is repeated while the paper size set in the manual paper feed tray 23 is "B4", but when the paper size is changed to "B5", the second size-specific file storage area (third For example, the file information C is read out from the printer (see FIG. 3) (ST9), and similarly, the printer main body 20 prints the file information C onto the manually fed paper of "B4".

In the process of each of the above processes, for example, the number of files in the size-specific file storage area in FIG. When changing to a new one, the following processing is performed according to the flow shown in FIG.

If the operator performs a predetermined tray change request operation (for example, an input operation using the numeric keypad) before actually changing the tray, an interrupt is generated to change the size of the automatic paper feed tray 21, and step (ST13) in FIG. 5 is triggered. The system is set to a prohibited state, and the reception of file information from the network 1 is stopped, and the remaining file information is printed according to the flowchart of FIG. 4 until the print request file storage area becomes empty. (ST21). and,
When the print request file storage area becomes empty, the first size-specific file storage area that previously corresponded to the "B4" size is newly allocated to the print request file storage area (ST22), and the previous print request is Allocate the file storage area (empty state) to a new size-specific file storage area corresponding to the "A4" size (ST23). In this way, when the new area allocation process in the disk device 32 is completed, step (ST13) in FIG.
The prohibited state is canceled and the reception of file information from network 1 is resumed. After that, for example, a message indicating that the automatic paper feed tray 21 is ready to be changed is output, and when the operator changes the automatic paper feed tray 21 from "A4" size to "B4" size accordingly, The process shown in FIG. 4 is executed in each file storage area to which the new allocation has been made. In other words, the file information of the specified size "B4" is stored in the printer main body 20.
The file information of designated sizes "A4" and "B5" is printed on paper fed manually by the printer main body 20.

Note that if the automatic paper feed tray 21 is changed before the size change preparation process shown in FIG. 2
A message is output to the effect that paper No. 1 is not accepted.

Furthermore, the interrupt activation related to changing the size of the automatic paper feed tray 21 may be performed when the tray is actually changed. In this case, since file information of various specified sizes remains in the print request file storage area, until the print request file storage area is emptied, all printing is performed, for example, by manual paper feeding.

As described above, in this embodiment, when changing the automatic paper feed tray 21, the allocation of each file information is changed according to the process shown in FIG. can be easily changed at your convenience.

[Effects of the invention] As explained above, according to the invention, file information to be printed on paper of a size other than the paper size used for automatic paper feeding can be printed at a time convenient for the operator and when manually fed. Because the printing process can be performed efficiently all at once by feeding paper, when the printer device is shared by each workstation on a network, the size of the file information to be printed at each workstation is reduced. The degree of freedom can be made relatively large.

In addition, since it is equipped with multiple size-specific file storage means, even when multiple operators' print requests overlap, you can feed paper of the desired size using the manual paper feed mechanism in addition to automatic paper feeding. file information can be printed instantly,
It does not interfere with the operations of other operators, and
From this point of view as well, the operability can be greatly improved.

Furthermore, the size changing means is provided for changing the size-specific file storage means for frequently used sizes into a new print request file storage means in place of the above print request file storage means, so that the file information for frequently used sizes can be updated. The print request file can be stored in a suitable print request file storage means and automatically fed, and the frequently used paper can be easily changed depending on the circumstances, improving operability.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention;
The figure is a block diagram showing an example of a printer device according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the state of each file storage area configured in a disk device, and FIGS. 4 to 6 are a block diagram showing an example of the printer device shown in FIG. A flowchart showing the flow of print processing in the apparatus, and FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall system configuration. Description of symbols, 1...Network, 2...Print request file storage means, 3...Printer body,
4...Manual paper feed mechanism, 5(1), 5(2),...5
(n) . . . Size-specific file storage means; 6. . . . Manual print information reading means.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model claims] A print request file storage means for sequentially storing file information to be printed sent from each of a plurality of workstations via a network, and a print request file storage means for reading each file information stored in the print request file storage means. In a printer device equipped with a printer body that sequentially prints out on paper of a preset predetermined size that is automatically fed, the printer body is provided with a manual paper feed mechanism, and when printing out by automatic paper feeding of the printer body, a plurality of size-specific file storage means for re-storing the read file information for each print size when the read file information size to be printed does not match the set paper size; , when paper is manually fed into the printer,
Manual print information reading means for providing file information stored in the size-specific file storage means corresponding to the paper size to the printer main body as information to be printed, and size-specific file storage means for frequently used sizes, are connected to the print request file storage means. 1. A printer apparatus comprising: size changing means for changing to a new print request file storage means instead of the means for storing a print request file.