JPH0651670A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reclaime/reuse a recorded sheet by setting an erasing region and erasing a formed image on the erasing region, when the erasing is instructed. CONSTITUTION:A printer controller 20 controlling the whole of a laser beam printer 1 transmits and receives an electronic signal for performing recording and reproducing to/from an external host device 22 via an interface 21. A recording sheet reclaiming part 7 forms a white surface on the recorded sheet based on a regenerative signal fed from the printer part 20 at the time of reclaiming mode and composed of a laser scanner 30 outputting laser light from a laser unit 31 based on the regenerative signal, a polygon mirror 32, an image forming lens group 33, and a reflection mirror 34. In the recorded sheet reclaiming part 7, a white toner layer is formed on a drum 7A and transferred on a reclaiming part on the recorded sheet to execute the erasing based on the projection of laser beams outputted from the scanner 30 on the drum 7A.

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,
Specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording material by an electrophotographic process or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an image is formed on a recording material (hereinafter referred to as a recording sheet) by this type of image forming apparatus, a part or all of the image cannot be erased on the spot, Therefore, once image formation has been performed,
It was impossible to form a new image.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, a recording sheet in which incorrect recording is made, a sheet which is used for recording only partially, or a recorded waste sheet is All of them had to be discarded as they were, and there were problems from the perspective of protecting paper resources and reducing the amount of waste.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of reproducing and reusing a recorded sheet in order to solve the above-mentioned problems.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image on a recording material based on input image information. And an erasing area setting means for setting an area to be erased, an erasing means for erasing the area set by the erasing area setting means, and an erasing instruction means for instructing the erasing means to erase. It is characterized by that.

[0006]

According to the present invention, when erasing is instructed by the erasing instruction means, the erasing area is first set by the erasing area setting means, and the formed image is erased by the erasing means. Accordingly, it is possible to reproduce at least the image forming portion of the recording material on which the recording image has been formed.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a structural example of a laser beam printer to which the present invention is applied. Here, 1 is the laser beam printer (main body), 2 is a feeding cassette for accommodating a plurality of recording sheets S in an accumulated state, and 3 is a cassette 2.
A sheet presence / absence detection sensor for detecting the presence / absence of the sheet S in the inside, a cassette size detection sensor 4 for detecting the size of the recording sheet S accommodated in the cassette 2 (for example, constituted by a plurality of micro switches), A feeding roller 5 feeds the recording sheets S one by one from the cassette 2.

Further, 6 is a registration roller, and 7 is provided on the downstream side of the registration roller 6, and the recording sheet sent from the cassette 2 by the feeding roller 5 has a white portion or a white surface as described later. A recording sheet reproducing unit according to the present invention capable of forming a recording sheet; a fixing roller 8 provided further downstream of the recording sheet reproducing unit 7 for fixing a white portion or a white surface formed in the recording sheet reproducing unit 7; Reference numeral 9 is a recording registration roller, and 10 is a recording image forming unit. Furthermore, on the downstream side of the recording image forming unit 10, the fixing roller 1 for the image formed by the forming unit 10 is provided.
1, a discharge detection sensor 12 for detecting the discharge of the recording sheet,
Ejection rollers 13 and the like are provided to eject the recorded or white-reproduced recording sheet onto the ejection tray 14.

Reference numeral 15 is a main motor, 16 is a clutch for the feeding roller 5, 17 is a clutch for the registration roller 6 for the reproducing section, and 18 is a clutch for the registration roller 9 for the recording section. The rollers 6 and 9 are driven by the main motor 15 via respective clutches 16, 17 and 18 which are controlled at a predetermined timing. Further, the photosensitive drum 7A in the recording sheet reproducing unit 7, the photosensitive drum 10A in the recording image forming unit 10, the fixing rollers 8 and 11, and the discharge roller 13 are also configured to be driven by the main motor 15.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a printer control device for controlling the entire laser beam printer 1, which sends and receives electrical signals relating to recording and reproduction to and from an external host device 22 via an interface 21. Now, the recording sheet reproducing section 7
Is the printer control unit 2 in the reproduction mode as described later.
A white surface is formed on a recording sheet on the basis of a reproduction signal sent from 0, 30 is a laser scanner which outputs a laser beam from a laser unit 31 based on the reproduction signal, 32 is a polygon mirror, 33 Is an image forming lens group, and 34 is a reflecting mirror. Thus, in the recording sheet reproducing unit 7, the drum 7A is projected based on the projection of the laser beam output from the laser scanner 30 onto the photosensitive drum 7A.
A white toner layer is formed on the recording sheet, and this layer is transferred to the reproducing portion on the recording sheet to erase the toner.

Further, 40 is a laser scanner for the recording image forming section 10, 41 is a laser unit, 42 is a polygon mirror, 43 is an image forming lens group, and 44 is a reflecting mirror.
The laser scanner 40 forms a recorded image on a recording sheet based on the image recording signal sent from the printer control unit 20. Reference numeral 45 is a pre-exposure lamp of the recording image forming section 10, 46 is a primary charging device, 47 is a developing device loaded with colored toner, 48 is a transfer charging device, and 49 is for cleaning the recorded photosensitive drum 10A. Cleaner for 49A
Are their cleaner blades, which are well known in the art for electrophotographic processes.

Next, the printer control device 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
The configuration of 0 will be described.

The CPU 51 has a storage device ROM and RAM and a standard input / output port (I / O port), and can directly exchange various signals with the external host device 22. Various programs are also stored in the ROM, and the printer 1 can be made to perform recording and sheet reproducing operations according to a procedure described later. Furthermore, 52 is the interface 21.
A bus between the CPU 51 and the CPU 51, 53 is also a buffer, and an image recording signal (VD0) from the external host device 22.
Is supplied to the CPU 51 via the buffer 53, and is also sent to the laser unit 41 for forming a recorded image via the buffer 54.

Reference numeral 55 denotes a pull-up resistor provided in association with the cassette size detection sensor 4 and its sheet supply power source. The pull-up resistor 55 is arranged for each size of the recording sheets accommodated in the cassette 2 by the cassette size detection sensor 4. in accordance with,
The size signal is sent to the CPU 51. Also, 56 is CP
A buffer provided between the U51 and the laser unit 31 for sheet reproduction. When the CPU 51 gives an instruction for a reproduction mode, the input signal from the cassette size detection sensor 4 and the image signal (Vd0) of the area to be erased. Based on both of the above, the laser unit 31 is driven to reproduce the recording sheet.

Next, the state of the recording sheet on which the reproduction (erasing of the recorded image) and the re-forming of the image after the reproduction are performed will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 shows, for each process, an example in which the entire surface of a recorded recording sheet is reproduced by using this apparatus and re-recording is performed. Recording sheet S already recorded in cassette 2
The state of 1 is shown. That is, the * marks are the image recorded on the recording sheet S1 and its area. When such a recording sheet S1 is accommodated in the cassette 2 and the entire surface is instructed to be reproduced, the laser beam printer 1 detects the size by the detection signal from the cassette size detection sensor 4, and then the sheet S1 corresponding to the size is detected. The entire surface of the recording area P is irradiated with solid laser light by the laser scanner 30, the white toner is transferred to the entire surface of the recording sheet reproducing section 7, and the image is erased as shown in FIG. . Here, a portion W surrounded by a frame is a blank sheet reproduction area corresponding to the recording area P shown in (A) above.

The white toner spread on the recording sheet S1 for reproduction is fixed when passing through the fixing roller 8. Thus, in the next recorded image forming unit 10,
Laser light irradiation is performed by the laser scanner 40 according to the image signal (VD0) newly sent from the external host device 22, and the blank sheet reproduction area W on the sheet S1 is image group RP as shown by &, &. After the image is formed, the image group RP is fixed by the fixing roller 11.

FIG. 4 shows that for the recorded recording sheet S1,
An example of reproducing a partial area and performing re-recording will be described. It should be noted that the basic operation in each process does not change, so the description thereof will be omitted. However, in the case of this example, the white reproduction area W is partially divided from the recording area P of (A) as shown in (B). Limited. Thus, the white reproduction area W limited in this way
On the other hand, the re-recorded image group RP “Iroha ... Yama” shown in (C) can be formed and fixed.

FIG. 5 shows an operation procedure relating to the reproduction area setting as described above. In the printer control device 20, when the area to be reproduced is designated through the external host device 22 in the reproduction mode, first, in step S1, the recording area P on the recording sheet S1 of that size is stored in the storage device RAM. On the stored file, it is subdivided into a plurality of areas for searching, and numbers are given according to the search order. Then, in step S2, the area having the search number 1 is searched for, the process proceeds to step S3, and it is determined whether or not there is an image to be re-recorded in the area. If the determination is affirmative, the area is searched in step S4. After setting the area to be erased, the process proceeds to step S5. On the other hand, if the determination is negative, the process directly proceeds from step S3 to step S5, where the search number is incremented by 1, and in step S6 it is determined whether or not the search is completed for the entire search area. , Steps S3 to S5 are repeated for the entire search area, and then the setting of all reproduction areas to be white is completed.

Next, a reproduction area setting procedure as another embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

Although the recording area P on the recording sheet S1 does not change between FIG. 6 and FIG. 4 described above, the white reproduction area W and the re-recorded image group RP are the same. There are some differences as shown in (B) and (C). The reproduction area setting procedure according to this example will be described with reference to FIG. 7. In this example, the search area is subdivided into rows and columns, for example, the areas in each row are searched in columns, and this is repeated one by one until the last row. .

In FIG. 7, first, in step S11,
The screen to be recorded on the recording sheet S1 is divided into a plurality of vertical and horizontal areas, and row numbers and column numbers for search are added. Then, in step S12, the search is started from the row number 1 according to the column number of the row, and in the next step S13, it is determined whether or not there is an image to be recorded in the area of the row number. In the case of affirmative determination, the process proceeds to step S14, and the region from the column number 1 to the column number where the image to be recorded exists in the row number region is set as the region to be erased and reproduced, and then to step S15. If the determination is negative, the process directly proceeds from step S13 to step S15.

Then, in step S15, the column number is incremented in the area of the row, and in step S16, it is determined whether or not the search is completed up to the final column number of the row. Then, in the case of negative determination, the process returns to step S13 and repeats the following steps, and in the case of positive determination, step S13
In step 17, the row number is incremented by 1, the column number is returned to 1, and it is determined in step S18 whether or not the row number is the last row. If it is determined in step S18 that the row number is not the last, the procedure returns to step S13 and the following steps are repeated. However, if it is determined that the row is the last row, the search is completed for all the matrix number areas. As a result, the division setting of the area to be erased white is obtained.

In the embodiment described above, the case of the laser beam printer by the electrophotographic process is described as a preferable example, but the application of the present invention is not limited to the laser beam printer, and the same process can be used. Needless to say, the present invention can be widely applied to image forming apparatuses capable of erasing records.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the erase area setting means for setting the area to be erased for the formed image, and the area set by the erase area setting means, Since the erasing means for erasing and the erasing instruction means for instructing the erasing means are provided, erroneous recording may occur on a recording material on which an image has already been recorded,
If there is a request to modify and use a part of it, or if you want to reuse it to form a new image on the recording material, these can be done with a series of reproduction operations, and recording sheets such as recording paper. It is possible to suppress wasteful use and waste disposal, and contribute to paper resource protection and waste reduction.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a configuration example of a laser beam printer to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit configuration according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing recording and reproducing processes on a recording sheet according to the present invention by (A) to (C).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing another process of recording and reproducing on the recording sheet according to the present invention by (A) to (C).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of recording and reproducing operations according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing still another process of recording and reproducing according to the present invention by (A) to (C).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure for performing recording and reproducing operations according to the process shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Laser Beam Printer (Main Body) 2 Cassette 4 Cassette Size Detection Sensor 7 Recording Sheet Reproducing Section 8, 11 Fixing Roller 10 Recording Image Forming Section 15 Main Motor 20 Printer Control Section 22 External Host Device 30, 40 Laser Scanner 31, 41 Laser Unit 51 CPU

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display location G03G 15/04 116 9122-2H 21/00 H04N 1/38 4226-5C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image on a recording material based on input image information, an erase area setting means for setting an area to be erased for the formed image, and the erase area setting means. An image forming apparatus comprising: an erasing means for erasing an area set by the area setting means; and an erasing instruction means for instructing the erasing means to erase.