JPH09146418A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the occurrence of an erroneous copy and lessen a burden associated with a copying operation by disabling a double sided copying mode, when an image exists at least on one side of a transfer paper sheet. SOLUTION: A double side copying part 6 is made of a double sided copying mechanism 4 and a printer engine (image forming part) 5. Also, a controller part 3 is formed out of a microprocessor, a memory or the like. When a transfer paper sheet is set in the paper sheet feed tray of a feeding part 7, the surface of the transfer paper sheet is read with a CCD sensor. When a value read with the sensor shows that the total area of black zones is equal to or more than a certain value, the controller part 3 judges the paper sheet as copied on one side. Then, the controller part 3 causes an operation part 8 to indicate an alarm and disables the double side copying selector key of the operation part 8, thereby prohibiting a double sided copying process.

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 having a double-sided copy function, and particularly when a transfer sheet having one side recorded and the other side being blank is used, it is erroneously recorded on the recorded side. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of preventing a situation in which images are repeatedly recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a printer, etc., an image is formed by transferring and fixing a toner image on a photoconductor onto a transfer paper.
When copying on both sides of a transfer sheet, after copying on one side, the transfer sheet on which one side has been recorded is temporarily stocked, and then the sheet is reversely fed to a transfer position at a predetermined timing to record an image on the back side. A double-sided copy function is used. In general, as a transfer paper used in a copying machine or the like, it was common knowledge to use a dedicated transfer paper having both sides of white paper. However, in recent years, in order to meet the demands for resource saving and cost reduction, it is necessary to perform image recording by using a blank portion (backing paper) on the back side of the transfer paper which has been used once and has been recorded on one side, that is, the transfer paper. Are being reused more often. In an image forming apparatus having a conventional double-sided copy function, when the image is recorded by using the white paper portion on the back side of the transfer paper on which the single-sided recording has been performed as described above, if the double-sided copy is erroneously executed, Since the recorded images are overlapped on one side, it is necessary to manually check and replace the presence or absence of images on both sides of the transfer paper before performing double-sided copying, which is complicated. In particular, performing the presence / absence check of the single-sided recorded transfer paper one by one from among a large amount of transfer paper has been a cause of lowering the copying work efficiency and lowering the operation rate of the device.

[0003]

In the present day when the tendency to use one-side recorded paper as the transfer paper is increasing,
When double-sided copying is performed by an image forming apparatus having a double-sided copying function, there are many cases in which a single-sided recording transfer sheet is erroneously used. In such a case, in the conventional image forming apparatus, the one-side recorded transfer sheet is set in the paper feed tray, and when this transfer sheet is selected, it is not noticed that the one-side recorded transfer sheet is stored. Sometimes I made a double-sided copy, which resulted in a miscopy, and I had to copy again. In order to prevent the occurrence of such a miscopy, it is necessary to check the presence / absence of images on both sides of the transfer paper set in the paper feed tray before performing the double-sided copy. The present invention has been made in view of the above,
When a transfer sheet with one-sided recording is set in the paper feed section of an image forming apparatus equipped with a two-sided copy function, the occurrence of erroneous copying due to the double-sided copying using the transfer sheet with the one-sided recording is prevented. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can reduce the load associated with copy operations.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is, in a copying machine having a double-sided copy function, a transfer paper surface which is about to be fed from a paper feeding portion to an image forming portion. It is characterized by including a control unit that detects whether or not there is a recorded image on the upper side, and prohibits the setting of the double-sided copy mode when the image exists on at least one side of the transfer sheet. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a copying machine having a double-sided copy function, it is detected whether or not there is a recorded image on the surface of the transfer paper which is about to be fed from the paper feed section to the image forming section, and the transfer paper is detected. When there is an image on at least one side, the control section for automatically canceling the setting of the double-sided copy mode and performing single-sided copying is provided. According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the single-sided recorded transfer paper is set in the paper feed tray, the presence of the recorded image is automatically detected, so that the single-sided recorded transfer paper is double-sided. Since you will not accidentally execute the copy,
Since the number of copies is reduced and the useless copying work is reduced, the work efficiency can be improved. According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the double-sided copy is designated when the single-sided recording transfer sheet is set in the paper feed tray, the copy is performed.
By automatically canceling the double-sided copy and performing the single-sided copy without interrupting the work, it is possible to reduce unnecessary copying work.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below in detail based on the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. The image forming apparatus of the present invention detects the state of the double-sided copy section that performs double-sided copying, the sheet feeding section that stores and feeds the transfer sheet, and the state of the back side of the transfer sheet that is stored in the sheet feeding section. A characteristic feature is that a control unit is provided to display a message on the operation unit and prevent double-sided copying when the stored transfer paper is a one-side recorded transfer paper. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a copying machine as an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.
The copying machine 1 includes an image reading unit 2 for reading a document surface set on a document table (not shown) and a controller unit (C
A double-sided copy unit 6 including a control unit 3 including a PU, a ROM, a RAM, an I / O port, etc., a double-sided copy mechanism unit 4 for executing a double-sided copy, and a printer engine (image forming unit) 5, and a transfer. Paper feeder 7 for storing and feeding paper
And an operation unit 8 including keys, a display unit, and the like provided at appropriate places of the copying machine.

In FIG. 1, the image reading unit 2 is a CCD.
An optical sensor which is composed of an image sensor and the like, and which reads image data of a document set on a document table (not shown), and which guides reflected light obtained by scanning the scanner to a CCD image sensor or the like. Equipped with a system. The printer engine 5 is a recording unit for recording a toner image or the like according to image data on a transfer paper. In an electrophotographic copying machine, a photoconductor, a charging device, an exposure device, a developing device, a transfer device, It is equipped with a fixing device. The operation unit 8 has various operation keys,
This is the part where the display unit is arranged and the copier is operated. The controller unit 3 is a control unit that controls a copying machine including a microprocessor and a memory. The double-sided copy mechanism section 4 is a section including a mechanism (double-sided conveyance path, double-sided tray, re-feeding means for the image forming section, etc.) that reverses the transfer paper. As shown in FIG. 2, the paper feeding unit 7 has a paper feeding tray 10 for storing the transfer paper and a paper feeding tray 10 not shown for taking out the transfer papers one by one from the paper feeding tray at the time of copying. This is a portion including a paper feed mechanism and a sensor 11 for detecting the one-side recorded transfer paper P.

As a transfer paper used in a copying machine, it has been common sense to use a dedicated transfer paper whose both sides are blank, but recently it has been used once due to demands such as resource saving and cost reduction. There is an increasing number of cases where copying is performed using the blank paper portion on the back side of the transfer paper on which one side has been recorded. In such a case, if the double-sided copy is performed without noticing that the single-sided recording transfer sheet is set in the paper feed tray, the recording is performed over the recorded surface. In order to solve such a problem, in the first embodiment of the present invention, C is provided at an appropriate position of the paper feeding unit 7, for example, a position facing the upper surface of the transfer paper P.
A CD sensor 11 is provided to detect in advance that the one-side recorded transfer paper P having the image P1 on one side is set and output a detection signal to the controller 3 to display a double-sided copy prohibition display on the operation panel (not shown). And the double-sided copy operation is prohibited.

The position of the sensor 11 is not limited to the position shown in the figure, but may be provided in the conveying path after the paper is fed. When it is provided on the conveyance path, it is possible to detect the presence / absence of an image even on the transfer sheet having the image P1 on the side opposite to that of FIG. The operation of this embodiment is as follows.
First, when the transfer paper P is set in the paper feed tray 10 of the paper supply unit 7, the surface of the transfer paper is read by the sensor 11 such as a CCD sensor, and the total area of the black areas is a certain value or more. First, the controller 3 determines that the transfer paper has been recorded on one side. When it is detected that the transfer paper has been recorded on one side, the controller 3 causes the operation unit 8 to display an alarm display, and the double-sided copy selection key of the operation unit 8 is invalidated, so Avoid copying. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent a mistake of performing double-sided copying when the single-sided recording transfer sheet is set in the sheet feeding unit 7. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation in this embodiment, in which after the transfer paper is set in the paper feed section 7, the sensor 11 detects whether or not one-sided recording is completed, and the controller 3 judges that one-sided recording is completed. In that case (ST2, YES), an alarm is displayed on the operation unit 8 and at the same time the double-sided copy selection key is invalidated (ST3, 4). If NO in step 2, double-sided copying is possible (ST5).

Next, in the second embodiment of the present invention, when the double-sided copy mode is detected and a single-sided recorded transfer sheet is detected, the double-sided copy selection is canceled and the single-sided copy is automatically performed. It is characteristic that the control is performed so as to perform. All other configurations are similar to those of the first embodiment. The flow chart of this embodiment is shown in FIG. In step 11, it is detected that the transfer paper has been recorded on one side,
If it is determined, an alarm display (ST1
2), after making both-sided copy selection invalid (ST13),
Single-sided copying is automatically executed (ST14). According to this mode example, when the one-side recorded transfer paper is set in the paper feed tray 10, even if the double-sided copy is mistakenly selected, the one-sided copy is automatically performed, so that the mis-copying is performed. It is possible to reduce the number of copies and to make a copy without mistakes. Further, according to the present invention, in the case where a single-sided recording transfer sheet is set, even when the one-sided copying is performed, the one-sided copying may be performed on the recorded side, It is possible to detect and judge this and prohibit copying. In addition, if it is configured to detect the presence or absence of recording on the upper surface of the transfer paper on the paper feed tray and the presence or absence of recording on the back surface of the transfer paper after being fed, the transfer paper that has been recorded on both sides by mistake is used. It can be prevented in advance.

[0010]

As described above, according to the invention of claim 1,
In an image forming apparatus having a double-sided copy function, when the single-sided recording transfer sheet is set in the paper feeding section, the double-sided copy will not be mistakenly performed. It will be possible. Further, since there is no risk of erroneous copying, it is possible to save resources and reduce costs by positively using one-side recorded transfer paper. According to the invention of claim 2, in the copying machine having the double-sided copy function, even if the double-sided copy is mistakenly selected when the single-sided recording transfer paper is set, the double-sided copy selection is automatically canceled. However, since the one-sided copy is performed, the copying can be surely performed without the operator visually confirming whether or not the transfer sheet is the one-side recorded transfer sheet, thereby improving the efficiency of copying work. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration example of a paper feeding unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 copy machine, 2 image reading unit, 3 controller unit (control unit including CPU, ROM, RAM, I / O port, etc.), 4 double-sided copy mechanism unit, 5 printer engine (image forming unit), 6 double-sided copy unit, 7 paper feed section, 8
Operation part, 10 paper feed trays, 11 sensors

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a copying machine having a double-sided copy function, it is detected whether or not there is a recorded image on the surface of the transfer paper which is about to be fed from the paper feed section to the image forming section, and at least one side of the transfer paper is detected. An image forming apparatus comprising a control unit for prohibiting setting of the double-sided copy mode when an image exists in the image forming apparatus. 2. In a copying machine having a double-sided copy function, it is detected whether or not there is a recorded image on the surface of the transfer paper that is about to be fed from the paper feed section to the image forming section, and at least one side of the transfer paper is detected. 2. When an image exists in the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus is provided with a control unit for automatically canceling the setting of the double-sided copy mode and performing the single-sided copy.