JPH11109796A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a user using a copying function, who should be nearby an image forming device from being waited for a long time, in the image forming device capable of executing a printer function and the copying function. SOLUTION: It is judged whether a second job accepted after a first job is a copying function of printing an image read by a CCD 109 or a printer function of printing the image accepted from a host computer through external I/F 209 and a CPU 206 executes a first mode for starting the formation of the image of the second job, after the formation of the image of the first job is completed, in accordance with the fact judged that the second job is the printer function and a second mode for forming the image of the second job in parallel with that of the first job, in accordance with the fact judged that the second job is the copying function.

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 capable of forming images of a plurality of jobs in parallel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, an electronic device which reads images of all originals to be copied, temporarily stores the image data in a memory such as a hard disk, and repeatedly reads out and prints out image data of an arbitrary original from the memory. 2. Description of the Related Art Digital copiers having a sorting function are known.
Accordingly, it is possible to discharge copy sheets in a sorted state without having a sorter device having a plurality of bins.

In addition, while the image data once stored in the memory is repeatedly read out and printed out, in parallel, the originals of other jobs are read and stored in an empty area other than the memory where the printed out data is stored. There is a control method in which, when a copy job for an original printed out first is completed, the original stored in a read memory is printed out later. In this case, the time for reading and storing the document of the subsequent job can be set during the time of first printing, so that the entire copy job time is reduced.

[0004] Similarly, there is also known a copier having a printer function of a computer, which can input print data from an external computer and print out the data with the copier. For example, while reading an original from the automatic document feeder (DF) and repeatedly reading out and printing out the image data once stored in the memory, print data is input from an external computer and the image data is stored in the memory. There is a control method in which image data input from an external computer is printed out when a copy job for a document which is stored in a free area and printed out first is completed. Also in this case, the time for storing the image input from the external computer can be set during the time when the image is first printed out, so that the entire job time can be reduced.

[0005]

However, when a user intends to use a copy, for example, when a large amount of data is being printed from a computer, a copy original can be read and stored in advance. In order to obtain a copy output, there is a problem that printing must be temporarily stopped by interrupt copying or the user must wait until the print output is completed.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a receiving unit for receiving a plurality of jobs, an image forming unit for forming images of the plurality of jobs received by the receiving unit on a sheet, A first mode in which the means starts image formation of the second job received after the first job after the image formation of the first job is completed, and an image formation of the first job in which the image formation of the second job is started. And a control unit for selectively executing a second mode performed in parallel with the image forming apparatus.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus capable of performing a print operation of a job of a copy function and a job of other functions, a receiving unit for receiving a plurality of jobs, and an image of the multiple jobs received by the receiving unit. An image forming means for forming a sheet on a sheet;
Determining means for determining whether or not the second job received after the job is a copy function; and forming the image of the second job in response to the determination means determining that the second job is a function other than the copy function. A first mode, which is started after the image formation of the first job is completed, is executed, and the image formation of the second job is changed to the image formation of the first job in response to the determination unit determining that the function is the copy function. And control means for executing a second mode performed in parallel with the image forming apparatus.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 100 is the copier body, 180
Is a circulation type automatic document feeder (RDF). Reference numeral 101 denotes a platen glass as a document table. A scanner 102 includes a document illumination lamp 103, a scanning mirror 104, and the like. The re-scanner is reciprocally scanned in the left-right direction of FIG. 1 by a motor (not shown), and the reflected light of the original is transmitted through the lens 108 via the scanning mirrors 104 to 106 to form an image on the CCD sensor 109. 107
Is an exposure control unit composed of a laser, a polygon scanner, etc., and converts a laser beam 129 converted into an electric signal by the image sensor unit 109 and modulated based on an image signal subjected to predetermined image processing described later to the photosensitive drum. Irradiate 110. Around the photosensitive drum 110, a primary charger 112, a developing device 121, a transfer charger 118, a cleaning device 116, and a pre-exposure lamp 114 are provided.

In the image forming section 126, the photosensitive drum 110
Is rotated by a motor (not shown) in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure, and after being charged to a desired potential by the primary charger 112,
A laser beam 129 is emitted from the exposure control unit 120 to form an electrostatic latent image. The electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 110 is developed by the developing device 121 and is visualized as a toner image. On the other hand, the transfer paper fed from the upper cassette 131 or the lower cassette 132 by the pickup rollers 133 and 134 is sent to the main body by the feed rollers 135 and 136, and is fed to the transfer belt by the registration rollers 137,
The visualized toner image is transferred to transfer paper by the transfer charger 118. After the transfer, the photosensitive drum 110 is placed in the cleaner device 1
The residual toner is cleaned by 16 and the residual charge is erased by the pre-exposure lamp 114. Transfer paper after transfer is transfer belt
The toner image is separated from 130, the re-toner image is recharged by pre-fixing chargers 139 and 140, sent to a fixing device 141, fixed by pressure and heat, and discharged out of the main body 100 by a discharge roller 142. Reference numeral 138 denotes an attraction charger that attracts the transfer paper sent from the registration roller to the transfer belt 130, and 139 is used to rotate the transfer belt 130, and at the same time, forms a pair with the attraction charger 138 to form the transfer belt 130. Is a transfer belt roller for adsorbing and charging the transfer paper.

The main body 100 is provided with a deck 150 capable of absorbing, for example, 4000 transfer papers. The lifter 151 in the deck 150 rises according to the amount of transfer paper so that the transfer paper always contacts the paper feed roller 152. In addition, a multi-bypass 153 capable of storing 100 transfer sheets is provided.

Further, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 154 denotes a paper discharge flapper, which switches the path between the double-side recording side or the multiple recording side and the paper discharge side. The transfer paper fed from the paper discharge roller 142 is switched to a double-side storage side or a multiple recording side by the paper discharge flapper 154. Reference numeral 158 denotes a lower transport path, which transfers the transfer paper sent from the paper discharge roller 142 to the reverse path 1.
The transfer paper is turned over via 55 and guided to the re-feed tray 156.
Reference numeral 157 denotes a multiplex flapper that switches the path between double-sided recording and multiplexed recording. When the flapper is tilted to the left, the transfer paper is guided directly to the lower transport path 158 without passing through the reverse path 155. Reference numeral 159 denotes a paper feed roller for feeding the transfer paper to the photosensitive drum 126 through the path 160. A discharge roller 161 is disposed near the paper discharge flapper 154 and discharges the transfer paper switched to the discharge side by the paper discharge flapper 154 to the outside of the apparatus. At the time of double-sided recording (double-sided copying) or multiple recording (multiplexed copying), the discharge flapper 154 is raised upward and the copied transfer paper is stored in the re-feed tray 156 in a state where it is turned over via the transport paths 155 and 158. I do. At this time, at the time of double-sided recording, the multiplex flapper 157 is tilted rightward.
The transfer sheets stored in the re-feed tray 156 are guided to the registration rollers 137 of the main body via the path 160 by the feed rollers 159 one by one from below. To discharge the transfer paper from the main body in reverse, raise the paper discharge flapper, tilt the flapper 157 to the right, transport the copied transfer paper to the transport path 155 side, and set the trailing edge of the transfer paper to the first feed. After passing through the roller 162, the sheet is conveyed to the second feed roller side by the reversing roller 163, and the transfer sheet is turned over by the discharge roller 161 and discharged out of the apparatus. The discharged sheets are sorted by the sorter 400.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. The image reading unit 201 includes the CCD sensor 109,
The original image constituted by the analog signal processing unit 202 and the like and stored in the CCD sensor 109 via the lens 108 is converted by the CCD sensor 109 into an analog electric signal. The converted image information is subjected to analog / digital conversion (A / D conversion). The digitized signal is subjected to shading correction (correction of variations in a sensor for reading a document and correction of light distribution characteristics of a document illumination lamp), scaling processing, and an electronic sorter unit 203.
Is input to

An external I / F processing unit 209 develops image processing information input from an external computer and inputs the image processing information to the electronic sorter unit 203 as image data. In the electronic sorter unit 203, correction processing necessary for an output system such as γ correction, smoothing processing, edge enhancement, other processing, processing, and the like are performed.
Output to the printer unit 204. The printer 204 is provided with an exposure control unit 12 such as a laser, which
The image forming unit 126 includes an image forming unit 126, a transfer sheet transfer control unit, and the like, and records an image on the transfer sheet according to an input image signal.

The CPU circuit unit 205 includes a CPU 206, a ROM 207, an RA
M208 and the like, and controls the image reading unit 201, the electronic sorter unit 203, the printer unit 204, the sorter 400, and the like, and controls the sequence of the present apparatus in a comprehensive manner.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the electronic sorter unit 203. The image sent from the image reading unit 201 is input as black luminance data,
Sent to one. The log conversion unit 301 stores an LUT (lookup table) for converting input luminance data into density data, and outputs a table value corresponding to the input data, thereby converting the luminance data into density data. Convert to Thereafter, the density data is sent to the binarization unit 302.

The binarization unit 302 binarizes the multi-valued density data, and the density value becomes "0" or "255". The binarized 8-bit image data is converted into 1-bit image data of “0” or “1”, and the amount of image data stored in the memory is reduced. However, when an image is binarized, the number of tones of the image is changed from 256 to two, so that image data with many halftones such as a photographic image generally undergoes remarkable deterioration when binarized. Therefore, it is necessary to perform pseudo halftone expression using binary data. Here, an error diffusion method is used as a method for pseudo-halftone expression using binary data. In this method, if the density of a certain image is larger than a certain threshold value, it is assumed to be density data of "255", and if it is less than a certain threshold value, it is assumed to be density data of "0". Is a method of distributing the difference between the density data and the binarized data to surrounding pixels as an error signal. The distribution of the error is performed by multiplying a weight coefficient on a matrix prepared in advance by the error generated by the binarization and adding the result to surrounding pixels. As a result, the average density value of the entire image is stored, and the halftone can be represented in a pseudo binary manner.

The binarized image data is sent to the control unit 303. The image data from the computer input from the external I / F processing unit is processed as binary image data by the external I / F processing unit.
Sent to The control unit 303 temporarily stores all the images of the original to be copied in the image storage unit 304 or sequentially reads out and outputs the image data from the image storage unit 304 according to a command from the main body.

The image storage unit 304 has a SCSI controller and a hard disk (memory), and writes image data to the hard disk according to a command from the SCSI controller.
The plurality of image data stored on the hard disk are output in an order according to the editing mode specified by the operation unit of the copying machine.

For example, in the case of sorting, reading is performed in order from the last page of the document bundle to the first page from the RDF,
Once stored on the hard disk. Then, the image data of the temporarily stored original is read from the hard disk in order from the last page to the first page, and this is repeated a plurality of times and output. Thereby, it can play the same role as a sorter having a plurality of bins. In addition, since images can be stored, multiple copies can be printed without reading the original multiple times, and it is necessary to read the stored original when resuming printing from a paper jam. Disappears.

The image data called from the image storage unit 304 is sent to the smoothing unit 305. In the smoothing unit 305, first, 1b
The data of it is converted into 8-bit data, and the signal of the image data is set to “0” or “255”. The converted image data is obtained as the sum of the values obtained by multiplying the coefficients on the predetermined matrix by the density values of the neighboring pixels, and is replaced with a weighted average value. As a result, the binary data is converted into multi-valued data in accordance with the density value of the neighboring pixels, and an image quality closer to the read image can be reproduced. The smoothed image data is input to the gamma correction unit 306. When outputting density data, the γ correction unit 306 performs conversion using an LUT in consideration of printer characteristics, and adjusts output according to the density value set by the operation unit.

The control flow of the image forming apparatus will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The program for executing this flowchart is stored in the ROM 207,
This program is executed by U206. The first job will be described as a job that has already been received, and the second job will be described as a job received after the first job. The jobs include a job of a printer function for printing out image data input from the host computer via the external I / F processing unit 209 and a job of a copy function for copying a document image. Here, the operation of storing the images of the first job and the second job in the image storage unit 304 will be described as being processed by another task.

If a second job is received during execution of the first job, it is determined in step 1 whether the first job has been completed. (For example, one page unit). Next, in Step 3, it is determined whether the first job is a job of the printer function and the second job is a job of the copy function. If a negative determination is made, the process returns to Step 1, and the above-described processing is performed until all data of the first job is printed. The process is repeated, and after printing all data of the first job, printing of the second job is performed (Step 4 and Step 5).

If the determination in step 3 is affirmative, it is determined in step 6 whether the second job has been completed. If the second job has not been completed, the printing operation of the second job is performed in a predetermined unit (for example, one page unit). ) (Step 7). Then, returning to step 1, the above operation is repeated.

If it is determined in Step 6 that the second job has been completed, the process returns to Step 1, and the above processing is repeated.
This control ends when the job ends.

When printing the first job and the second job in parallel, the sorter 400 is controlled to discharge the recording paper of the first job and the recording paper of the second job into different bins. To do.

In the above description, it is assumed that a job has a printer function and a copy function. However, other combinations of a fax reception function and a copy function, a combination of a printer function, a fax reception function, and a copy function may be used. Also applicable to That is, in the determination in Step 3, the same effect can be obtained by making an affirmative determination when the first job has a function other than copying and the second job is a copying function, and making a negative determination otherwise.

Also, when both the first job and the second job have the copy function, an affirmative determination may be made in Step 3. For example, when the first job has already been read but a large number of pages have been printed,
A user who wants to perform the copy function as the second job does not have to wait in front of the image forming apparatus until the printing of the first job is completed.

As described above, when the second job has the copy function, the first job and the second job are printed in parallel, so that the user who wants to perform the copy function needs to wait for the completion of the first job. Absent. When the second job is not a copy function, the printing of the second job starts after the printing of the first job is completed.If the first job is the copy function, the processing time may be prolonged due to the second job. Absent.

[0029]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the image formation of the second job accepted after the first job is started after the image formation of the first job is completed. Since the first mode and the second mode in which the image formation of the second job is performed in parallel with the image formation of the first job are selectively executed, the image can be flexibly adjusted according to the nature of the first job and the second job. The schedule of formation can be controlled.

According to the present invention, it is determined whether or not the second job received after the first job is a copy function, and it is determined that the second job is a function other than the copy function. In response to this, the first mode in which the image formation of the second job is started after the image formation of the first job is completed is executed, and when it is determined that the second job has the copy function, the second mode is executed. Since the second mode in which the image formation of the job is performed in parallel with the image formation of the first job is executed, the user who uses the copy function which must be near the image forming apparatus does not have to wait for a long time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of an electronic sorter unit 203.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of control of the image forming apparatus.

[Description of Signs] 100 Image forming apparatus main body 109 CCD 204 Printer section 206 CPU 207 ROM 209 External I / F processing section 304 Image storage section

Claims (9)

[Claims] An accepting unit that accepts a plurality of jobs; an image forming unit that forms an image of the plurality of jobs accepted by the accepting unit on a sheet; and an image of a second job that the accepting unit accepts after the first job. A first mode in which formation is started after the image formation of the first job is completed, and a second mode in which image formation of the second job is performed in parallel with image formation of the first job are selectively executed. An image forming apparatus comprising: a control unit. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sorting unit that sorts the sheets on which the images are formed by the image forming unit, wherein the sorting unit determines whether the sheet on which the image of the job received first is formed and the image of the job received later. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the formed sheets are sorted. 3. An image forming apparatus capable of performing a print operation of a job of a copy function and a job of other functions, a receiving unit for receiving a plurality of jobs, and forming images of the plurality of jobs received by the receiving unit on a sheet. An image forming unit, a determining unit that determines whether a second job received after the first job by the receiving unit is a copy function, and determining that the determining unit has a function other than the copy function. In response, a first mode in which the image formation of the second job is started after the image formation of the first job is completed is executed, and in response to the determination unit determining that the image forming apparatus has the copy function, the second mode Control means for executing a second mode in which image formation of a job is performed in parallel with image formation of the first job. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit causes the first job and the second job to form images alternately in the second mode. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the function other than the copy function is one of a printer function and a facsimile reception function. 6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving a plurality of jobs; forming images of the received plurality of jobs on a sheet; and forming an image of a second job received after the first job.
The first job that starts after the image formation of the first job is completed
And a step of selectively executing a second mode in which image formation of the second job is performed in parallel with image formation of the first job. 7. An image forming method in an image forming apparatus capable of performing a print operation of a job of a copy function and a job of other functions, a step of receiving a plurality of jobs, and forming an image of the received plurality of jobs on a sheet. Determining whether the second job received after the first job is a copy function; and determining that the second job is a function other than the copy function.
A first mode, in which the image formation of the second job is started after the image formation of the first job is completed, is executed, and the image formation of the second job is performed in response to the determination that the image forming apparatus is a copy function. The first job to be performed in parallel with the image formation of one job
Executing two modes. 8. A storage medium readable by a CPU, comprising: a step of receiving a plurality of jobs; a step of forming images of the received plurality of jobs on a sheet; and an image of a second job received after the first job Formation
The first job that starts after the image formation of the first job is completed
A storage medium storing a program having a mode and a step of selectively executing a second mode in which image formation of the second job is performed in parallel with image formation of the first job. 9. A storage medium readable by a CPU, wherein the storage medium stores a program for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of performing a print operation of a job of a copy function and a job of other functions. Receiving a plurality of jobs; forming images of the received plurality of jobs on a sheet; determining whether a second job received after the first job is a copy function; Depending on the function,
A first mode, in which the image formation of the second job is started after the image formation of the first job is completed, is executed, and the image formation of the second job is performed in response to the determination that the image forming apparatus is a copy function. The first job to be performed in parallel with the image formation of one job
A storage medium storing a program having the steps of executing two modes.