JPH06155859A - Operation control device of printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve the efficient operation of a printing apparatus and the conservation of power therefor. CONSTITUTION:A printing apparatus 1 consists of a printer control unit 2 and a printer 3. A microprocessor 7, a timer 6, a time memory table 8, a schedule setting memory 9 and a mechanism part power supply closing/changeover circuit 10 are incorporated in the printer control unit 2 and a mechanism part power supply 11 and a mechanism part 12 are incorporated in the printer 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an operation management system for a printing apparatus, and more particularly to an efficient operation method for the printing apparatus and power saving.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As described in JP-A-3-15938, in the prior art, the data processing start time of the printing device added to the print data sent from the host computer, that is, the starting time is set inside the printing device. Stored in the management table. Further, the print data is stored in a storage device different from the management table, and when the time stored in the management table comes under the control of a timer, output of the print data stored in the storage device is started. . With this method, printing can start immediately at the specified time, but since the operating schedule is not created and operated by the printing device itself, the host computer sends it to the printing device in advance along with the print data. The startup time must be registered.

Further, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-237717, in order to save power in the printing apparatus, if the waiting time of print data sent from the host computer is exceeded after the printing apparatus is powered on. The method is to switch off the power supply to the printing unit of the printing apparatus and switch to the power saving mode. However, in this method, since the power supply to the entire printing unit is cut off, when the next printing is started, it is necessary to heat the mechanism unit (heat roller etc.) in the printing unit, and the mechanism unit is regulated. Printing cannot start until the temperature is reached.

[0004]

To start printing by the printing apparatus, a fixing device (preheater, heat roller) or an optical system unit inside the printing apparatus for fixing the print data from the host computer to the sheet with the toner image is used. Must reach the specified temperature.

However, since the fixing device is not heated while the printing device is powered off, printing cannot be started immediately after the printing device is powered on, and the fixing device reaches the specified temperature. There is a problem of waiting until.

Further, for example, a printing apparatus that is performing a center job needs to turn on the power of the printing apparatus at any time to complete printing preparation so that it can immediately respond to a printing instruction from a user. Therefore, there is a problem that the fixing device and the optical system unit are heated to a specified temperature even while printing is not being performed, and power is wasted while printing is not being performed.

An object of the present invention is to store a time zone in which a printing device is operating during a certain period, determine a frequently operating time zone from the statistical result, and determine the fixing device or the optical device in advance before that time. Power on the system unit automatically,
Start each heating. As a result, printing can be started immediately when the predicted operating time is reached. Also,
It is to predict a time zone when the printer is not operating at all from the statistical results, and automatically cut off the power supply of the fixing device and the optical system unit inside the printing device at that time to reduce the wasted power.

[0008]

A printing instruction detecting means for detecting a printing instruction of a printing apparatus during a certain period of time, a storage means for storing the time and a printing time according to the instruction, and the stored time. Provided is a statistical value calculating means for determining a time and a time zone in which printing is frequently performed, and a time and a time zone in which printing is not performed at all based on a statistical result of printing time, and a setting means for setting an operation schedule of the printing apparatus. It was
Further, according to the schedule, a management unit for automatically turning on / off the power of each mechanical unit such as a fixing device in the printing apparatus is provided.

[0009]

With the above arrangement, the print instruction detecting means is
A print instruction sent from the host computer to the printing apparatus during a certain period of time is detected, and the storage unit stores the time when the print instruction is issued and the print time according to the instruction. Then, the statistical value calculation means calculates and sets the time when the printing apparatus is frequently used and the printing time, and the time when no printing is performed and the time zone thereof from the stored statistical results of the printing start time and the printing time. The contents calculated by the means are set in the printing apparatus as an operation schedule. The management unit automatically turns on / off the power of each mechanical unit inside the printing apparatus according to the set operation schedule.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to (a), (b), (c), (d) and FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the printer 1 is a host computer 2
The printing device receives data from 0 and prints. The printing device 1 includes a printer control device 2 and a printer 3. Further, the microprocessor 7 inside the printer control device 2 controls the entire printing device 1.

The printing apparatus 1 is connected to a host computer 20 via a reception buffer 4, and the reception buffer 4 temporarily stores print data sent from the host computer 20 and controls the microprocessor 7 to print one page at a time. Send data to 3 and print. The storage mechanism 5 is a storage mechanism that stores a control program of the printing apparatus 1, an error processing program, and programs shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 4 described later. When the main power of the printing apparatus 1 is turned on, the microprocessor 7 reads various programs from the storage mechanism 5 and starts controlling the printing apparatus.

The timer 6 is a timer that the microprocessor 7 refers to when measuring the time and date for control. The time storage table 8 is a time storage table divided into two areas. In area A, the time when a print instruction is issued from the host computer 20 is sequentially registered, and in area B, the time when printing is completed is sequentially registered.

The schedule setting memory 9 is a memory for setting an operation schedule created by the microprocessor 7 according to the program of the flowchart shown in FIG.
It is divided into two areas. The operating schedule (default schedule) of the printing device is stored in advance in area A, the mechanical power-on time calculated by the microprocessor 7 is stored in area B, and the mechanical power-off time is stored in area C. Set. The power-on / off circuit 10 is a circuit for turning on / off the power of the mechanism unit (heat roller) 11 inside the printer 3 controlled by the microprocessor 7 according to the program of the flowchart shown in FIG. The mechanical unit power supply 11 is a power source of a mechanical unit (heat roller) for fixing print data to a sheet with a toner image when printing is performed by the printer 3.
Is a mechanism unit (heat roller) main body.

Next, the operation schedule creation of the printing apparatus according to this embodiment and the operation of the printing apparatus according to the schedule will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4.

First, when the power of the printing apparatus main body is turned on, the microprocessor 7 reads various programs for controlling the printing apparatus from the storage mechanism 5 and starts the control. Among the various programs, an operation schedule creation program by the microprocessor 7 shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is also included. The description will be given below.

When print data is sent from the host computer 20, the reception buffer 4 is placed in the microprocessor 7.
The data reception interrupt is given. The microprocessor 7 is monitoring the data reception interrupt (S1), and when detecting the interrupt, checks whether it is a registration mode instruction.
(S2) The host computer 20 sends the registration mode instruction.
It is possible to give an instruction to the printing apparatus by a command from or a manual operation. At the time of setting the registration mode, the sampling period of the operating time is also specified at the same time. When the data reception interrupt is detected and the registration mode is designated, the time of the timer 6 is referred (S3), and the time is registered in the area A of the time storage table 8 (S4). On the other hand, if it is not in the registration mode, the time is not registered and the monitoring of whether the printing of the print data is completed next is continued (S5, S6), and when the printing is completed, the registration mode is checked again (S7). In the registration mode, the print end time is registered in the area B of the schedule setting memory 9 (S8, S
9). In this way, the print instruction time and the print end time from the host computer 20 are sequentially registered in the time storage table, and the statistical information of the time when the print instruction is given and the time when the print is finished during the operation time sampling period are obtained. Collect. After this, whether the specified statistical information collection period has elapsed,
The timer is checked, and the print instruction time and the print end time are collected again until the time has elapsed (S10). When the statistical information collection period has elapsed, the registration mode is canceled (S1
1) The print start time is calculated (S12). Start printing /
A method of calculating the end time will be described with reference to FIG. For example, the statistical information collection period is instructed to be 7 days from Monday to Sunday, and the time storage table storing the operating status is shown in FIG. FIG. 3B is a conversion table in which an area for 1 bit per hour is provided for one day (24 hours), and the operation status on each day of the week shown in FIG. 3A is converted into bits for each time. It is a thing. (Bit =
(1: activated bit = 0: not activated) The microprocessor 7 converts the operation status from the contents of the time storage table of FIG. 3A into bits for each time, and sets the conversion result in the conversion table of FIG. In order to calculate, the contents of the conversion table shown in FIG. 3B are checked for 24 hours of bits. For example, when the time from Monday to Sunday in FIG. 3B is checked from 10:00 to 11:00, bit = 1 indicates 5 days in total including Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and bi.
This means that t = 0 is water and the total number of days is 2 days.
= 1) total and non-operating (bit = 0) total are compared, it becomes bit = 1 (5)> bit = 0 (2), so the frequency is high during the time period from 10:00 to 11:00. The statistical result of FIG. 3C is 10:00 to 11:
The area 00 is set to bit = 1, which indicates that it has been activated. In addition, when the sum of the bits indicating that the operation is performed and the sum of the bits indicating that the operation is not performed are the same value, 1 is set to the bit indicating that the operation is performed. In this way, all the bits for 24 hours are checked, the statistical result of FIG. 3 (C) is completed, and the calculation result of FIG. 3 (d) is obtained.

Next, the time required for the mechanical section to reach the specified temperature is subtracted from the calculated print start time to calculate the mechanical section heating time (S13). For example, when the time required for heating the mechanical unit is 15 minutes, the print start time No. of the calculation result is as shown in FIG. In the case of No. 1, the mechanical unit power-on time is 7:45 and No. In the case of 2, the mechanical unit power-on time is 12:45. When the calculation of the mechanism heating time is completed, the value is set in the mechanism power-on area of the schedule setting memory B (S14), and the print end time value calculated in the print end time calculation (S12) is set in the schedule. Set to the mechanical power off area of the setting memory C (S1
5) Do. When the setting of the power-on / off time of the mechanical unit to the schedule setting memory is completed, the contents of the time storage memory, which has been holding the statistical information, is initialized (S16).
Then, the flag indicating completion of schedule setting is turned on (S17). FIG. 4 shows the processing of the program that operates the operation schedule created according to the flowchart of FIG.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, after the main power supply of the printing apparatus is turned on, the operation status for a certain period of time is stored, the subsequent operation schedule is created from the statistical result, and the printing apparatus is operated. be able to. This makes it possible to start printing immediately when printing is desired, and when the printer is not in use, power can be saved by automatically turning on / off the power of the printer mechanism section. .

In the present embodiment, the statistical information collection period is limited to one week in order to calculate the operation schedule.
This period is an arbitrary period and may be freely settable. Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The minimum unit for storing the operating status of the printing device is 1b.
I think it = 1 hour, but this is 1 bit =
If it is performed in minutes, seconds, etc., it becomes possible to operate the printing apparatus more efficiently.

[0020]

According to the present invention, after the main power supply of the printing apparatus is turned on, the operation status for a certain period of time is stored, the subsequent operation schedule is created from the statistical result, and the printing apparatus can be operated. . As a result, printing can be started immediately when it is desired to perform printing, and when the printing device is not used, power can be saved by operating the power supply of the printer mechanism unit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a connection between a host computer and a printing apparatus and a configuration of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of a program for creating an operation schedule of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3A is a diagram illustrating a time storage table, FIG. 3B is a conversion table, FIG. 3C is a statistical result, and FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of a program for performing an operation according to an operation schedule of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 7 ... Microprocessor, 8 ... Time storage table, 9 ... Schedule setting memory, 10 ... Mechanical part power on / off circuit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masa Futami 810 Shimoimaizumi, Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi Systems Office Systems Division (72) Inventor Masamitsu Suzuki 810 Shimoimaizumi, Ebina City, Kanagawa Stock Company Hitachi Factory Office Systems Division

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus stores a print instruction time and an operating time period during a fixed period, and then, from a statistical result thereof,
A means for creating a schedule according to the operating status, and the operation management of the printing apparatus, characterized in that the printing apparatus can be operated by the automatic power-on means and the automatic power-off means of each mechanism unit in the printing apparatus according to the schedule. method.