JPH1081040A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a sorted printing paper by a method wherein the formation of images is performed out of image data in paginal order and, at the same time, this image forming action is repeated by the specified number of copies. SOLUTION: When received data are judged as not an EOJ code, which indicates the delimitation of image data, the received data are edited as the image data by one page and successively housed in a receiving buffer within a RAM 52. When the data by one page are judged to be received, the contents of the receiving buffer is housed in a page buffer within the RAM 52. To the following image data, the same action as mentioned above is repeated. Thus, in the page buffer, image data edited per one page unit are housed successively in the receiving order of the received image data. When the finish of receiving is judged by receiving the EOJ code, the image data stored in the page buffer in paginal order is continuously put into printing. This series of printings are executed by the number of times, which indicates the number of copies specified at a console panel 9.

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 such as a laser printer and an electronic copying machine for forming an image in accordance with image data sent from a host device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a laser printer, an electronic copying machine, or the like as an image forming apparatus is connected to a computer, an image reading apparatus, or the like as a host apparatus, and receives an image according to image data sent from the host apparatus. An image forming apparatus that forms an image on a sheet as a forming medium is known.

[0003] Such an image forming apparatus has a printing direction,
In other words, the orientation is to perform so-called portrait printing with the long side in the vertical direction, and
There is a type that performs so-called landscape printing in which the horizontal direction is a long side. On the other hand, the maximum width that can be printed by the image forming apparatus is regulated by the width of the photosensitive drum provided inside the image forming apparatus, and a plurality of sizes of paper are supplied in both the vertical and horizontal directions up to the maximum width. You can do it. When the paper is supplied, it is necessary to supply the paper by setting the orientation in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction so as to match the orientation with the paper feeding direction.

However, printing may be started in a state where the orientation does not match the paper feeding direction due to the carelessness of the operator or the like. In such a case,
Since information to be printed is lost, printing must be performed again after resetting the paper supply direction. When such a situation occurs, not only is the paper wasted, but also reprinting is troublesome and the operability is poor.

When printing a plurality of copies in the image forming apparatus, printing is performed for a designated number of copies on one page of image data received from the host device, and then the next one page is printed. Since printing is performed in page units such that printing is performed for a designated number of copies of image data, printed paper is obtained in an unsorted state. Therefore, it is necessary for the operator to rearrange the printed sheets after all the printing is completed, and there is a disadvantage that operability is poor.

[0006]

According to the present invention, when printing a plurality of copies as described above, printing is performed for a specified number of copies for each page of image data, and this is repeated to print a plurality of pages. Is printed, so the printed paper is not sorted.
It is necessary for the operator to rearrange the printed paper after printing is completed, and this is done to solve the drawback of poor operability. It is intended to provide a device.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus for forming image data on a medium on which an image is to be formed. Receiving means for receiving image data, storage means for storing image data received by the receiving means, and a series of images stored in the storage means after the receiving means has finished receiving image data corresponding to a plurality of pages. And an image forming means for forming an image of data in page order and repeating this image forming operation the number of times specified by the instruction means.

[0008]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 8 and 9 are an external perspective view and a schematic vertical sectional side view showing an internal configuration of a laser printer as an image forming apparatus of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a laser printer as an image forming apparatus, which has the following configuration. That is, 5 in the figure
Reference numeral denotes a printer main body of the image forming apparatus 1. The upper rear portion of the upper surface of the printer main body 5 is one step higher. A paper discharge tray 8 movably supported by a jogger 7 is mounted in the recess 6, and an operation panel 9 is provided on the right side of the recess 6 and three IC card insertion ports 11 are provided on the left side. It is in the installed state.

As shown in FIG. 7, the operation panel (first instruction means, second instruction means) has an LCD (liquid crystal) display 9a for displaying the number of sheets, a mode, a guide message, and the like.
It is composed of an LED display 9b for lighting and displaying various states with LEDs (light emitting diodes), and a switch 9c for instructing various operations. The above LED display 9b
Indicates whether the printer is connected to an external device, that is, “online” indicating an online / offline mode, “ready” indicating that the printer is operable, “data” indicating that image data is being transferred, It is composed of an "operator" requesting an operator call, a "service" requesting a serviceman call, and a "mode" indicating auto / manual.

The switch 9c is composed of, for example, a menu key, a value key, an input key, or a ten key (not shown). The menu key is composed of two keys "next item" and "previous item", and a plurality of menu information displayed on the left half of the LCD display 9a is incremented every time the "next item" key is pressed. Each time the "previous item" key is pressed, it is decremented and displayed, and these display operations are cyclically repeated. The value key is also composed of two keys, "next item" and "previous item", and a plurality of value keys corresponding to menu information displayed on the left half of the LCD display 9a. The information is incremented each time the “next item” key is pressed, decremented and displayed each time the “previous item” key is pressed, and these display operations are cyclically repeated.
The operator selects a desired operation by operating the menu key and the value key, and instructs a predetermined operation by pressing an input key.

A paper discharge tray 12 is provided on the front side of the printer main body 5, and a manual feed tray 13 is provided on the rear side. A paper detector 2 is provided at the bottom of the manual feed tray 13.
6, which detects that a sheet P as an image forming medium has been inserted into the manual feed tray, and
U50 is notified. As shown in FIG. 9, a drum-shaped photoconductor 15 as an image carrier is provided substantially at the center of the printer body 5, and a charging device 16 and a laser optical Corollary 17,
A developing device 18, a transfer device 19, a peeling device 20, a cleaning device 21, and a charge removing device 22 are sequentially arranged. Further, in the printer main body 5, an image support transport path 24 extending in the front direction via an image transfer section 23 formed between the photoreceptor 15 and the transfer device 19 is formed. Paper cassette 25a stored at the bottom,
25b, 25c to paper feed rollers 28a, 28b, 28c
The paper P automatically fed through the transfer roller pairs 29a, 29b, 29c, or the like, or the paper P manually fed from the manual feed tray 13 via the transfer roller pair 29d is guided to the image transfer unit 23. ing.

Each of the paper feed cassettes 25a, 25b, 25
c is configured, for example, as shown in FIG. That is, the paper P is fed into a box-shaped paper feed cassette 25a, 2
5b and 25c are stored with their positions aligned with the origin 0. With the sheet P stored, the lever 70 is moved in the direction of arrow AB and the lever 72 is moved in the direction of arrow CD.
The sheet P is moved in the respective directions to press the sheet P. Pressing members 71 and 73 are fixed to the ends of the levers 70 and 72, respectively.
When 0 and 72 are moved and set at the outer peripheral position of the sheet P, a plurality of position detection switches (detection means) 80,... Provided corresponding to the sliding positions of these pressing members 71 and 73 are pressed. The detection signals from the position detection switches 80,.
0. Thereby, the CPU 5
0 indicates the current positions of the levers 71 and 72, and the size and direction of the currently set sheet P can be recognized from the position information of the levers 70 and 72. .

Each of the sheet cassettes 25a, 25
Above b and 25c, paper sensors 26a, 26b and 26c for detecting the presence or absence of the paper P based on the presence or absence of reflected light are provided, respectively. When the paper P runs out, a signal to that effect will be given later. The CPU 50 is notified. An aligning roller pair 30 is disposed upstream of the image transfer section 23 of the image support transport path 24, and a fixing device 31 and a discharge selector 32 are disposed downstream thereof.
And a paper discharge roller pair 33 are disposed. At the end of the image support transport path 24, a branch transport path 35 having a pair of paper discharge rollers 34 for guiding the paper P sorted by the paper discharge selector 32 to the concave portion 6 as a paper discharge section is provided. Is formed.

In FIG. 8, 40 is a lower cover, 41 is a front cover, 42 is an upper cover, 43 is a right cover (door) which can be opened and closed, 44 is a left cover, 45 is a right cover opening / closing lever, and 46 is an upper unit opening / closing lever. Lever. Also, 47 and 49 shown in FIG. 9 are substrates on which a printer circuit for controlling the operation of the printer itself is mounted, 48 is a printer circuit 47,
A board on which a printer control circuit for controlling the operation of the printer 49 is mounted and which constitutes a printer control unit. Three connectors (not shown) are attached to the ends of the board constituting the printer control unit 48 to form the IC card insertion slot 11 so that the IC cards 65, 66, and 67 can be inserted. Has become. When an image is formed, the photoconductor 15 is driven to rotate and is uniformly charged by the operation of the charging device 16.
Exposure corresponding to the image signal is performed on 5 to form an electrostatic latent image. Next, the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 15 is developed by a developing device 18 using a two-component developer including a toner and a carrier, and is sent to the image transfer unit 23 as a developer image.

On the other hand, in synchronization with this developer image forming operation,
The sheet P taken out from the sheet cassette specified by the operation panel 9 or the sheet P manually fed out of the sheet cassettes 25a, 25b, and 25c is sent to the image transfer unit 23 via the aligning roller pair 30, and Photoconductor 1
The developer image formed on the transfer sheet 5 is transferred to the sheet P by the operation of the transfer device 19. Next, the paper P is released from the peeling device 2.
At 0, it is peeled off from the photoconductor 15, passes through the image support transport path 24, and is sent to the fixing device 31. Here, after the developer image is fused and fixed on the sheet P, the sheet
And the paper is discharged onto the upper paper discharge tray 8 or the front paper discharge tray 12.

After transferring the developer image onto the paper P,
The residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor 15 is cleaned by the cleaning device 21 so that the next Coby operation can be performed. FIG. 6 shows a main part of an electric circuit of the printer control unit 48. In the figure, a CPU (image rotating means, determining means, editing means) 50 controls the entire image forming apparatus 1. R0M51 stores a control program, and the CPU 50 operates according to the program. The ROM 51 stores data related to the paper P such as a personal identification number (ID number) to be collated at the time of data change, a top margin, a left margin, and a paper type. RAM (storage means) 52
Are used as a page buffer for temporarily storing image data sent from the host device 58 and a work buffer for the CPU 50.

The extended memory 53 is a large-capacity memory used when the RAM 52 cannot store one page of data when the image data sent from the host device 58 is a large amount of data such as bitmap data. It is. The video RAM 54 is used as a scan buffer for storing image data expanded into a bit image.
It is supplied to. The serial-parallel conversion circuit 55 converts the image data, which is developed into a bit image in the video RAM 54 and sent as parallel data, into serial data, and
7 and 49.

A host interface 57 exchanges data between a host device 58 such as a computer or an image reading device and the printer control unit 48. A transfer line 59 connecting these devices is connected to a serial transfer device. It has two types, a line and a parallel transfer line. The data can be properly used depending on the type of data transferred to and from the host device 58. In addition, the host interface 57
It has a configuration having a plurality of input / output ports (not shown), so that a plurality of host devices 58 can be connected. Thus, the image forming apparatus 1 is accessed from the plurality of host devices 58 in a time-division manner, and various sizes of images are formed. The printer interface 60 includes a printer control unit 48 and a printer circuit 47,
49, and the detection signals from the paper sensors 26a, 26b, 26c or the position detection switches 80,... Are also sent to the CPU 50 via the printer interface 60. It has become.

The operation panel control circuit 56 controls the LCD panel 9a of the operation panel 9 to display a guidance message, controls the LED display 9b to turn on, off, and blinks, or transmits data input from the switch 9c to the CPU 50. Control to send the data to the server. Also internal bus 61
Are the CPU 50, ROM 51, RAM 52, extended memory 53, video RAM 54, operation panel control circuit 5,
6, a bus for mutually transmitting and receiving information among the host interface 57, the printer interface 60, and the IC cards 65 to 67.

Each of the IC cards 65 to 67 is constituted by a nonvolatile memory, for example, a static RAM with battery backup, an E ² PROM, an EPROM, a mask ROM, or the like. These IC cards 65 to 67 are used as an extension memory of the apparatus or as a recording medium for programs and other data. The color is classified according to the type of the memory and the function of the stored content. For example, a mask ROM type IC card in which a font is recorded is blue,
The static RAM type IC card in which the emulation is recorded is colored orange. Therefore, in the IC cards 65 to 67, the type of the memory and the type of the written data can be seen at a glance.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. First, the operation for forming an image in accordance with the orientation specified by the operation panel 9 irrespective of the feed direction of the paper P will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the operator designates an orientation using the operation panel 9. This designation operation is performed as follows. That is, by operating the "next item" or "previous item" key of the menu of the operation panel 9, the display content of the message display area provided on the left side of the LCD display 9a is cyclically changed, and the orientation is changed. Display the message "ORIENT:" for setting, and in this state, operate the "next item" or "previous item" key of the value to print the portrait in the input area provided on the right side of the LCD display 9a. Is displayed, or "LANDSCAP" for performing landscape printing is displayed, and an input key is pressed when a desired value is displayed. As a result, any of the above values is sent to the CPU 50 via the operation panel control circuit 56, decoded by the CPU 50, and stored in the RAM 52 as a landscape flag.

In this state, when the printing operation is started,
First, the orientation flag is checked to determine whether the orientation is a landscape (step S1). Here, if it is determined that the orientation is a portrait designation as shown in (a) or (c) of FIG. 2, the process proceeds to step S2, and it is checked whether the paper feed is in the vertical direction. The determination of the paper feed direction is based on the signals from the position detection switches 80,.
The analysis is performed by the PU 50. If it is determined in step S2 that the paper feed direction is horizontal, the flow advances to step S3 to set the orientation to landscape and turn on an internal flag (not shown) provided in the RAM 52 to indicate that the received character should be rotated. To be stored.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2 that the paper feed direction is vertical, the process proceeds to step S5, in which the orientation is set to portrait, and an internal flag provided in the RAM 52 indicates that the received characters should be printed as they are. By turning off.

If it is determined in step S1 that the orientation is a landscape designation as shown in FIG. 2 (b) or (d), the flow advances to step S4, and the paper feed is performed vertically as described above. It is checked whether it is the direction. If it is determined that the paper feed direction is vertical, the flow branches to step S3, the orientation is changed to landscape, and the fact that the received character should be rotated is set by turning on the internal flag provided in the RAM 52. Remember.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S4 that the paper feed direction is horizontal, the process proceeds to step S5, in which the orientation is set to portrait, and an internal flag provided in the RAM 52 indicates that the received characters should be printed as they are. By turning off.

Next, it is checked whether or not data has been received (step S6). If not, the flow returns to step S1 to wait for data reception while executing the above-described series of steps. If data is received in such a state, step S7
Then, the received character is rotated according to the internal flag previously stored in the RAM 52, or R
The data is stored in a page buffer provided in the AM 52. When it is determined that one page of data has been stored (step S8), the image data stored in the page buffer is converted into bit image data and transmitted to the video RAM 54 as a scan buffer. The video RAM 54 sends the bit image data to the serial-parallel conversion circuit 55 as parallel data. In this serial-parallel conversion circuit 55,
The bit image data as parallel data is converted into serial data and sent to the printer circuits 47 and 49. Thus, an image is formed on the paper P sent to the image transfer unit 23 in synchronization with the transmission of the bit image data, and a series of print output processing ends (step S).
9). Next, various flags and the like set in the above processing are initialized (step S10), and the process returns to step S1 to repeat the same operation as described above for the next image data. With the above operation, printing of a plurality of sheets is performed.

As described above, in printing the image data received from the host device 58, the orientation specified by the operation panel 9 and the position detection switch 8
When the feed direction of the paper P detected by 0,... Matches, the image is formed as it is, and when the feed direction does not match, the image data is rotated and then printed. The printing can be started without taking into account the above, and the operability is excellent.

Next, the operation in the case of performing the collate printing for obtaining the sorted printing result will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the operator designates a collate print using the operation panel 9. This designation operation is performed as follows. That is, by operating the "next item" or "previous item" key of the menu of the operation panel 9, the display content of the message display area provided on the left side of the LCD display 9a is cyclically changed, and the collate printing is performed. Message "COLLAT"
E: ”is displayed, and in this state, the“ next item ”or“ previous item ”key of the value is operated to display the LCD display 9.
“YES” or “NO” is displayed in the input area provided on the right side of “a”, and the input key is pressed when a desired value is displayed. As a result, any of the above values is transmitted to the CPU via the operation panel control circuit 56.
The data is sent to the CPU 50, decoded by the CPU 50, and stored in the RAM 52 as a collate flag.

In this state, when the printing operation is started,
First, the collate flag is examined to determine whether or not to perform collate printing (step T1). here,
If it is determined that the print is not a collate print, the process proceeds to another process.

On the other hand, when it is determined that the print is the collate print, the process proceeds to step T2, and it is checked whether or not data has been received. If it is determined that no data has been received, the process returns to step T1 and waits for data to be received while executing steps T1 and T2. When data is received in such a state, it is checked whether or not the received data is an EOJ (End of Job) code indicating a delimiter of image data (step T3). here,
If it is determined that the received data is not an EOJ code, the process proceeds to step T4 to edit the received data as one page of image data, and sequentially stores the data in a reception buffer provided inside the RAM 52. When it is determined that one page of data has been received (step T5), the contents of the reception buffer are stored in a page buffer provided inside the same RAM 52 (step T5).
6).

Next, various flags used in the above series of processing are initialized (step T7), and the process returns to step T1 to repeat the same operation as described above for the next image data.
In this manner, the page buffer sequentially stores the image data edited in units of one page in the order of the received image data.

Next, if it is determined in step T3 that the EOJ code has been received during the reception of the image data, it is determined whether or not the number of print copies has been designated by checking a copy flag described later. (Step T8). The designation of the number of copies is set by the operator using the operation panel 9 prior to the printing operation, and is performed as follows, for example. First, the operation panel 9
By operating the "next item" or "previous item" key of the menu, the display content of the message display area provided on the left side of the LCD display 9a is changed to click, and a message for designating the number of prints is displayed. "COPIES:" is displayed, and in this state, the "next item" or "previous item" key of the value is operated to input "1" to "99" in the input area provided on the right side of the LCD display 9a. Is displayed, and the input key is pressed when the desired number is displayed. As a result, the numbers are sent to the CPU 50 via the operation panel control circuit 56 as values,
The data is decoded by the CPU 50 and stored in the print copy number storage area in the RAM 52 as the number of print copies. At the same time, a copy flag is set to remember that the print designation is for a plurality of sheets.

At step T8, if it is determined that the number of print copies is not specified by checking the copy flag, a predetermined value "1" is set as a number of print copies in a counter provided in the RAM 52 (step S8). T10). On the other hand, if it is determined that the number of print copies is specified, the number stored in each print copy area is set in the counter (step T9).

Next, a series of image data formed in page order is printed in the page buffer (step T1).
1). Since printing is performed by the same operation as that described in the above embodiment, the description is omitted here. Next, the counter is decremented (step T12), and it is checked whether the value of the counter has become zero (step T13). The above printing operation (steps T11 to T1) is performed until the content of the counter becomes zero.
3) is repeated, and when the content of the counter becomes zero, the above series of processing is terminated. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of printed sheets sorted for each page can be obtained.

As described above, when printing multiple copies, the image data received from the host device 58 is
While editing the image data for the page, the image data is sequentially stored in the page buffer. When the reception of the image data is determined based on the reception of the EOJ code, a series of image data stored in the page buffer in the page order is continuously output. And a series of printings is performed the number of times specified by the operation panel 9. This makes it possible to obtain a plurality of printed sheets that have been sorted, and it is not necessary to rearrange the sheets manually by an operator, thereby improving operability.

[0037]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus excellent in operability that can obtain sorted printed paper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of automatic orientation switching.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between a sheet feeding direction and an orientation.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of a sheet cassette.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of collate printing.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of collate printing.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of an electric circuit of the printer control unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of an operation panel.

FIG. 8 is an external perspective view of a laser printer as an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a schematic vertical side view of a laser printer as an image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 Operation panel (instruction means) 9a LCD display 9c Switch 26a, 26b, 26c Paper sensor 50 CPU 51 ROM 52 RAM (storage means) 57 Host interface 58 Host device 60 Printer interface 80 … Position detection switch P… Paper (image forming medium)

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Satoshi Onuma 70 Yanagicho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Toshiba Intelligent Technology Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for forming image data on an image forming medium, an instructing means for instructing the number of image forming copies, a receiving means for receiving image data corresponding to a plurality of pages, A storage unit for storing the received image data, and after the reception unit has received image data corresponding to a plurality of pages, forming a series of image data stored in the storage unit in page order, and An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming unit that repeats an operation the number of times instructed by the instruction unit.