JPH09109489A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of enhancing an operating efficiency and maintaining security. SOLUTION: This printer is composed of a sensor 240 for detecting the full stack (full capacity) of a discharge bin 250, non-volatile memory 230 and a controller 210 for controlling the writing of data to the non-volatile memory 230. If the full stack (full capacity) of a specified discharge bin 250 is detected by the sensor 240 when data is printed on a print medium (copy) based on print information enthered through computer terminals 30, 40, 50, the print information is stored in an appropriate memory area for the non-volatile until the full stack is released. Thus it is possible to enter print information again and prevent data from being inadvertently printed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer having a mechanism for performing printing on a print medium (original) and required sorting based on print information from a plurality of computer terminals connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various network systems have been proposed in which a plurality of computer terminals (input terminals) and printers are connected by a network to share resources. As a printer used in such a network system, for example, information (print information) indicating a print job from each input terminal and the name of a recipient attached to the print job
There is known a method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-207540 in which a printed document is discharged to a bin corresponding to the name of the recipient while performing a printing process corresponding to the print job.

FIG. 3 is a connection configuration diagram of a conventional network system and a printer used therein. In FIG. 3, a printer control device 70 and a command input terminal 71 are connected to the printer 100 via a connection cable 7. Also, computer terminals 80, 90, 110 as input terminals are connected to the printer control device 70 via connection cables 4, 5, 6, 8, and thereby a network system that shares the printer 100 is configured. There is. The printer 100 includes a common discharge tray 101 and a plurality of bins 102j1 ... 102jn.
And a stacker 102 composed of a stacker 102, and printed originals are sorted and discharged into a plurality of discharge bins 102j ... 102jn. Printer control device 70
Is the command input terminal 71 and the mailbox 7.
And 2. A predetermined memory area 720 is formed in the mailbox 72, and a table created by the command input terminal 71 is stored in the memory area 720. Then, the printer 100 is controlled based on the in-table information stored in the memory area 720.

Each computer terminal 80, 90, 110 connected to the printer control device 70 has a document creating function, and print information for the created document is controlled by the printer via the connecting cables 4, 5, 6, 8. It is adapted to be transmitted to the device 70. The printer control device 70 controls the printer 100 on the basis of the print information to cause the document to be printed. The printed document is discharged to the bin designated by each computer terminal 80, 90, 110, and when the designated bin becomes full stack, the printed document after that is discharged to the common tray 101. It has become.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional printer 100 shared by the plurality of computer terminals 80, 90, 110, the designated bin is filled with the printed originals and becomes a full stack. in case of,
Subsequent printed documents are discharged to the common discharge tray 101. Therefore, printed documents corresponding to print information from a plurality of computer terminals may be mixed. In this case, the network administrator or the terminal operator has to sort the printed originals based on the terminal name or the like, which is a problem. Further, there is also a problem that the printed printed document is opened and is viewed by an unspecified person, so that the security cannot be protected.

Further, when the designated bin is full stack, the print information is once invalidated and deleted on the printer 100 side, the original in the designated bin is removed, and then the print information is sent again for printing. It is also possible. However, if the print information is invalidated for each full stack, the same print information must be sent again to the printer 100 side, resulting in a problem that work efficiency is significantly reduced.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems,
When the stack is full, it is not necessary to input print information from the input terminal to the printer again to avoid a decrease in work efficiency, and to avoid inadvertent printing when shared by multiple input terminals. To provide a printer capable of maintaining security.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems A first method for solving the above problems is described below.
A printer according to the invention is a printer including a printing mechanism for printing an original on the basis of print information from an input terminal and a stacker for accommodating an original printed by the printing mechanism, wherein the printing mechanism is optional at the time of printing. A non-volatile memory connected so that it can be read out; and a sensor for detecting whether or not the originals stored in the stacker are full stacks,
Memory control means for storing print information from the input terminal in the non-volatile memory when the sensor detects that the sensor is full stack is provided.

The printer according to the second aspect of the invention includes a printing mechanism for printing on a document based on print information from a plurality of input terminals, a stacker including a plurality of discharge bins, and a document printed by the printing mechanism. A printer having means for accommodating each of the input terminals in a designated discharge bin, the printing mechanism being connected so that it can be read at any time during printing,
A non-volatile memory in which a memory area corresponding to each discharge bin is formed, a sensor for detecting whether or not the documents stored in each of the discharge bins are full stacks, and the designated discharge bins are full stacks. Memory control means for holding print information from the input terminal in a memory area corresponding to the discharge bin when the sensor detects that there is
Is provided.

In each of the above inventions, the memory control means is provided with a timer for periodically outputting a signal at a predetermined time interval, and the signal output from this timer is used as a trigger to indicate the state of the discharge bin in the full stack. May be confirmed by the sensor, and when the full stack is released, the print information stored in the corresponding memory area may be read.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the printer of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a connection configuration diagram of a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a processing procedure explanatory diagram according to this embodiment. In FIG. 1, a plurality of computer terminals 30, 40, 50 as input terminals are connected to a printer 10 via a connection cable 1, and a network system is constituted by this.

The printer 10 contains a document storage mechanism before printing, a document transport mechanism, a printing mechanism for performing desired printing under the control of the printer controller 20 described later, and a document printed by this printing mechanism. Stacker,
It also has a printer control unit 20 that controls internal operations. The components other than the stacker and the printer controller 10 are almost the same as those of the known printer, and therefore, illustration and description thereof are omitted.

The stacker has a plurality of discharge bins 250 for discharging printed originals, and each discharge bin 25
A sensor 240 is attached to the upper end of the 0 discharge port. The sensor 240 detects whether or not the documents in the discharge bin 250 are full stack (full), and when the full stack is detected, a predetermined signal is transmitted to the printer control unit 20. It should be noted that even if the sensor 240 detects a full stack, several originals can be ejected.

The printer controller 20 controls the print job,
A controller (memory control means) 210 for performing a predetermined drawing process and the like based on print information including print data, designation data of a discharge bin, and the like, and carrying and printing of an original document, which performs memory control described later as necessary. It has a mechanical controller 220 for controlling mechanical operations such as ejection, and a non-volatile memory 230 in which a plurality of memory areas for storing the print information are formed. Non-volatile memory 2
The address of the memory area in 30 corresponds to each discharge bin 250, and the controller 210 stores the start address and the end address of the memory area corresponding to each discharge bin.

Each computer terminal 30, 40, 50 connected to the printer 10 has a document creating function, and print information for the created document is transmitted to the controller 210 via the connection cable 1, respectively. There is.
Then, the document is printed based on this print information.

Next, the operation of the printer of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be specifically described with reference to FIG. When printing a document created by each computer terminal 30, 40, 50, first, print information for the document is input from the computer terminal 30, 40, 50 to the controller 210 of the printer control unit 20 via the connection cable 1. (S (step, the same applies hereinafter) 301). When the print information is input, the controller 210 confirms the designation data of the discharge bin in the print information (S302). Then, when the designated data is confirmed, the controller 210 issues a command to the mechanical controller 220 to confirm whether or not the designated discharge bin 250 is full stack (S303). When it is confirmed by the mechanical controller 220 that the discharge bin 250 is not full stack, that is, when the signal from the sensor 240 is not sent to the mechanical controller 220, a drawing process corresponding to the print information is performed (S304) and printing is performed. One completed document is discharged (S305).

On the other hand, when the discharge bin designated in S303 is full stack, that is, the original contained in the discharge bin reaches the installation location of the sensor 240, and the sensor 240
When the output signal from the mechanical controller 220 is sent to the mechanical controller 220, the controller 210 determines that the nonvolatile memory 23
The print information is stored in the memory area corresponding to the discharge bin of 0 (S311), and the information of the full-stack discharge bin is stored in the internal memory or the like (S312). Then, for example, for each cycle set in the software timer, a command for confirming whether or not the designated discharge bin is full stack is issued to the mechanical controller 220 (S313). This allows the mechanical controller 220
Confirms again whether or not the designated discharge bin is full stack (S314), and if it is full stack, repeats S313 and S314. The steps S313 and S314 are performed by the interrupt process of the controller 210 so as not to affect the print process from another computer terminal. When the full stack of the specified discharge bin is released, the nonvolatile memory 23
The print information is read from the corresponding memory area of 0 and the above S3
04, returning to S305, drawing processing is performed, and one document is discharged.

After discharging one document in S305, the controller 210 issues a command to the mechanical controller 220 to confirm whether the designated discharge bin is full stack. As a result, the mechanical controller 220
It is confirmed whether or not the designated discharge bin is full stack, and the controller 210 is notified (S306). If the designated bin is full stack, the controller 210 processes the printing information being rendered at that time to perform rendering, and ejects the original document into the ejection bin that is set with a margin beforehand (S321). ). The controller 210 also stores the print information before drawing in the address corresponding to the discharge bin that is a full stack of the non-volatile memory 230 (S3).
22) and returns to S312 to S315.

On the other hand, when it is confirmed that the designated discharge bin is not full stack, the controller 210 confirms whether the discharge of all sheets is completed based on the print information (S).
307). If all sheets have not been discharged, S305 and subsequent steps are repeated. When all the sheets have been discharged, the controller 210 confirms whether or not the print information remains in the nonvolatile memory 230 (S308). If no data remains, the process ends. In addition, the nonvolatile memory 2
If print data remains in 30, the print information is cleared, and then the process ends (S331).

As described above, the printer 10 of this embodiment
Has a non-volatile memory 230, and also has a drain bin 25
0 is equipped with a sensor 240 for detecting whether or not the originals in each bin are full stack.
When the document in the discharge bin 250 is detected to be full stack by 40, the print information from the input terminal is stored in the non-volatile memory 230. Therefore, when the specified discharge bin is full stack However, there is no need to send print information from the input terminal to the printer 10 again.

When the printer 10 and a plurality of computer terminals 30, 40 and 50 are connected to form a network system and the designated discharge bin 250 is a full stack, printing is performed on the designated discharge bin. Since the print information can be stored in the corresponding memory area of the non-volatile memory 230 until the completed original can be discharged, re-input of print information and careless printing are avoided.

[0022]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, when the stacker for accommodating printed originals is a full stack, the corresponding print information is stored in the nonvolatile memory until the stacker is released. Since it is stored in, the print information can be sent from the input terminal to the printer only once. This prevents the work efficiency from decreasing.

Further, in the case where the stacker is composed of a plurality of discharge bins and a specific discharge bin is designated from a plurality of input terminals, if the designated discharge bin is full stack, it is released and the document is discharged. Since the print information is stored in the corresponding memory area of the non-volatile memory until the ready state, in addition to the effect of sending the print information from the input terminal to the printer only once, the effect of avoiding inadvertent printing As a result, it is possible to solve the problem of the complexity of the sorting work and the security caused by discharging the documents on the common tray as in the conventional case.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a connection configuration diagram of a network system representing an embodiment of a printer of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a processing procedure of the printer according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a connection configuration diagram of a network system using a conventional printer.

[Description of sign]

 10 Printer 20 Printer Control Unit 30, 40, 50 Computer Terminal (Input Terminal) 210 Controller (Memory Control Means) 220 Mechanical Controller 230 Nonvolatile Memory 250 Sensor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer comprising a printing mechanism for printing an original on the basis of print information from an input terminal, and a stacker for accommodating the original printed by the printing mechanism, wherein the printing mechanism is used at any time during printing. A non-volatile memory connected so that it can be read, a sensor for detecting whether or not the originals stored in the stacker are full stacks, and the input terminal when the sensors detect that the stacks are full stacks. And a memory control means for storing the print information of the above in the non-volatile memory. 2. A printing mechanism for printing a document based on print information from a plurality of input terminals, a stacker composed of a plurality of discharge bins, and a document printed by the printing mechanism designated by each input terminal. In a printer having means for accommodating in an ejection bin, a non-volatile memory connected to the printing mechanism so that it can be read out at any time during printing, and a memory area corresponding to each ejection bin is formed; A sensor that detects whether or not the stored documents are full stack, and when the sensor detects that the specified discharge bin is full stack, the print information from the input terminal corresponds to that discharge bin. And a memory control means for holding the memory area in the memory area. 3. The memory control means has a timer that periodically outputs a signal at a predetermined time interval, and when the signal output from the timer is used as a trigger, the state of the discharge bin in the full stack is detected by the sensor. 3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printer information is read out and the print information stored in the corresponding memory area is read out when the full stack is released.