JPH11179971A - Method and apparatus for judging expendables replacing period of image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To judge the replacing period of expendables by noticing not only a consumption degree but also the deterioration of quality. SOLUTION: When color reproducibility is deteriorated to a degree incapable of being adjusted even by the color adjustment of a color adjusting control part 23, the replacing period of toner or a drum is judged on the basis of the residual amt. of toner stored in a toner residual amt. memory part 25, the elapse time from the toner replacing period stored in a toner replacing period memory part 26, the elapse time from the drum replacing period stored in a drum replacing period memory part 27 and the cumulated number of printing surfaces of the drum stored in a drum cumulated printing surface number memory means 28.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining the time for replacing consumables in an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to replacing consumables in consideration of not only the degree of wear of consumables but also deterioration of consumables. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining a consumable item replacement time of an image forming apparatus capable of determining a time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a color printer or a color copier, it is important to maintain the image quality of an image to be printed. ) To maintain output image quality.

The color adjustment is performed, for example, by printing a color adjustment sheet, reading the color adjustment sheet, and detecting the difference between the color to be output and the actually output color to adjust the output color. The color adjustment sheet is C as shown in FIG.
(Cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black) are generally printed at a plurality of gradations.

However, the color adjustment can be performed when the consumables of the image forming apparatus such as ink, toner, and photosensitive drum are in a normal state (usable state). In some cases, it is not possible to maintain output image quality by color adjustment.

[0005] Therefore, it is necessary to replace consumables as appropriate, but it is difficult to replace consumables at an appropriate time because the replacement time of consumables differs depending on the usage of the image forming apparatus.

For this reason, as a technique for judging the replacement time of consumables, an image printing apparatus described in JP-A-1-304468, a serial printer described in JP-A-3-202373, and a technique described in JP-A-4-53970 are disclosed. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-
JP-A-341933, JP-A-6-193
Image forming apparatus described in JP-A-171186
A printer maintenance circuit and the like described in 246758 have been proposed.

[0007] In each of these techniques, the replacement time of each consumable is determined by focusing on the degree of wear of the consumable.

For example, the image printing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-304468 stores and holds the accumulated operation time of each consumable, and requests replacement of the consumable when the accumulated operation time reaches the set time. The serial printer described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-202373 stores and holds the total print time and displays the count value, so that the replacement time of the consumable can be known.

The control apparatus for detecting the life of a consumable component of an electrophotographic printer described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-53970 updates a counter value each time printing is performed, and when the counter value reaches a set value. It has a function of notifying that the consumable has reached the end of its life and of returning the counter value to a predetermined value by an operation of the operator.

The printer control device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-341933 measures and stores the cumulative operation time of the printer, and notifies the replacement of consumables and the timing of inspection based on the measured value. The image forming apparatus described in JP-A-171186 manages replacement of consumables based on the value of a counter that counts a horizontal synchronization signal when transferring image data to a print head. The printer maintenance circuit described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-20964 predicts the next replacement date and time by using the information of the cumulative number of print output sheets and the replacement date and time of replacement parts and consumables.

[0011]

However, the quality of consumables may deteriorate due to chemical change or the like regardless of the degree of wear, and the quality of the output image may deteriorate due to the influence of the quality deterioration. In some cases, image quality cannot be maintained even by color adjustment. In each of the above-described technologies, the replacement time of the consumable is determined based on the degree of the consumable, and therefore, it is not possible to cope with the deterioration of the quality of the consumable.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for determining a replacement time of a consumable item of an image forming apparatus, which can determine a replacement time of a consumable item not only by a degree of wear but also by deterioration of quality. The purpose is to:

[0013]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for judging replacement of consumables in an image forming apparatus having a color adjusting function for preventing deterioration of color reproducibility of an output image. In the above, a tone curve is created by performing color adjustment, and when an error of the created tone curve is out of an allowable range, a wear degree and a deterioration degree of a plurality of consumables are respectively detected, and the wear degree and the It is characterized in that a notification for urging replacement of consumables in which at least one of the degrees of deterioration exceeds a predetermined degree is performed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the degree of deterioration of the consumable is determined to have deteriorated when a predetermined time has elapsed since the replacement of the consumable. It is characterized by that.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the color adjustment is automatically performed by printing a color adjustment sheet and reading the printed color adjustment sheet before discharging the sheet. Features.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a consumables replacement timing judging apparatus for an image forming apparatus having a color adjusting function for preventing a color reproducibility of an output image from deteriorating, a tone curve created at the time of color adjustment Tone curve storage means for storing, error detection means for detecting an error in the tone curve stored in the tone curve storage means, consumption degree detection means for detecting the degree of wear of consumables, and detection of the degree of deterioration of the consumables Deterioration degree detecting means, an exchange determining means for determining whether or not the consumables need to be replaced based on the detection results of the wear degree detecting means and the deterioration degree detecting means; and A replacement notifying unit for notifying the user of replacement of the consumable when it is determined that replacement is necessary.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the deterioration degree detecting means includes a replacement time storing means for storing a time when the consumables are replaced, and When a predetermined period of time has elapsed from the replacement time of the stored consumable item, the consumable item is determined to be deteriorated.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, a color for reading the color adjustment sheet is provided in a sheet transport path from the time when the color adjustment sheet used for the color adjustment is printed until the sheet is discharged. It is characterized by comprising adjusting means.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a method and an apparatus for judging replacement time of consumables of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus 1 processes print data transferred from a host computer (not shown) and creates a raster image on a buffer memory (not shown). UI that accepts instructions from (user
interface 3, a color adjustment IIT (image input termin) for reading a color adjustment sheet
al) 4, IOT (imageouttop) for printing a raster image created by the printer control device 2 on paper
out terminal 5).

The printer control unit 2 includes an interface 21, a UI control unit 22, a color adjustment control unit 23, a tone curve storage unit 24, a remaining toner amount storage unit 25, a toner replacement time storage unit 26, and a drum replacement time storage unit. Unit 27, and a drum cumulative print surface number storage unit 28.
Toner remaining amount detection sensor 51, toner replacement detection sensor 5
2. It includes a drum replacement detection sensor 53 and a cumulative print surface number counter 54.

The interface 21 receives print data transferred from a host computer (not shown), and
The control unit 22 controls the UI unit 3 to notify the user of various kinds of information including the time of replacement of consumables, and receive various settings and instructions including color adjustment from the user. The color adjustment control unit 23 performs color adjustment based on the color adjustment sheet read by the color adjustment IIT 4, and
Reference numeral 4 stores a tone curve generated by the color adjustment performed by the color adjustment control unit 23 (the tone curve will be described later).

The toner remaining amount detecting sensor 51 has an IOT
5, the toner remaining amount storage unit 25 stores this, and the toner replacement detection sensor 52 detects that the toner has been replaced, and the toner replacement time storage unit 26
Stores the time when the toner was replaced based on the detection result of the toner replacement detection sensor 52. The drum replacement detection sensor 53 detects that the drum of the IOT 5 has been replaced, and
The drum replacement time storage unit 27 includes a drum replacement detection sensor 53.
The cumulative number of printed pages counter 54 counts the number of pages printed by the IOT 5, and the drum cumulative printed pages number storage unit 28 stores the cumulative number of printed pages counter 54 based on the detection result. Based on the counting result, the number of printed surfaces of the IOT 5 after the drum is replaced is stored.

The image forming apparatus 1 is capable of performing color adjustment, and determines a replacement time of a consumable based on a result of the color adjustment. Here, the color adjustment will be described. Color adjustment is to return the color reproducibility of the output (printed) image to an ideal state.
For a certain color brightness, there is a difference between ideal brightness and actual brightness. The curve drawn with the ideal brightness as an input value and the actual brightness as an output value is the tone curve described above.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a tone curve. FIG.
In the ideal tone curve 242, the input value i and the output value j are always equal, that is, a straight line having a slope of 1. In this state, the color reproducibility becomes an ideal state. However, in practice, it is not possible to prevent deterioration of color reproducibility due to aging or the like, so that the tone curve deviates from the ideal tone curve 242. The color adjustment can be said to be a process of returning the deviated tone curve to an ideal state. The color adjustment sheet is printed by the IOT 5, and this is read from the color adjustment IIT 4, and I
By analyzing the characteristics of the OT 5, parameters for correction are created so that an ideal tone curve is reproduced. The tone curve corrected by the correction parameters becomes the actual tone curve 241.

Even when the color adjustment is performed, the tone curve cannot be returned to an ideal state due to an error in the color adjustment itself, deterioration of the toner and the drum, and the like. It can be ignored if it is not a problem. Therefore, the maximum error allowable area 243 of the tone curve is set, and the tone curve is set to the maximum error allowable area 24.
3 is permitted, and if it is outside the region 244, it is determined that color adjustment is impossible.

The color adjustment is performed by correcting a tone curve for each of C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black).

Here, with reference to FIG. 3, a description will be given of a process for detecting an abnormal tone curve (color adjustment is impossible). FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of the tone curve abnormality detection processing.

When the abnormality detection process of the tone curve is started (step 101), first, an input value i (see FIG. 2) is initialized to 0 (step 102). Next, the difference between the output value j for the input value i and the ideal output value (equal to i because of the slope 1) is determined (step 103). If the difference is not within the allowable range (within the maximum error allowable area 243 in FIG. 2) (NO in step 103), it is determined that there is a problem with the tone curve (step 105), and the process is terminated (step 110).

On the other hand, if the difference between the output value j for the input value i and the ideal output value is within the allowable range (step 104)
YES), the average value of the differences at each input value i is updated (step 106), and i is increased by a predetermined amount until the input value i exceeds the maximum value i (max) (NO at step 107). (Step 108), and Step 10
Return to 3.

The processing of steps 103 to 106 is repeated, and if the input value i exceeds the maximum value i (max) (YES in step 107), it is determined whether or not the average value of the differences between the input values i is within an allowable range. Is checked (Step 108). If the tone curve is not within the allowable range (NO in Step 108), it is determined that there is a problem in the tone curve (Step 105). It is determined that there is nothing (step 109), and the process is terminated (step 110).

In this process, even if the output value j for each input value i is within the maximum allowable error range, if the average of the differences is large, it is determined that the tone curve is abnormal.

If there is an abnormality in the tone curve, the cause is an abnormality in the image forming apparatus 1, an insufficient amount of consumables (durable), or deterioration. Therefore, these causes are determined and the user determines. You need to be notified of the results.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the cause determination process when it is determined that the tone curve is abnormal.

The image forming apparatus 1 starts processing (step 151), and when any of the CMYK tone curves is detected as being out of the allowable range (step 152), the tone curve is first stored in the toner remaining amount storage unit 25. The remaining toner amount is checked (step 153). If the remaining toner amount is insufficient (NO in step 153), a notification of toner replacement is displayed on the UI unit 3 (step 154), and the process ends (step 153). 160).

If the remaining amount of toner is sufficient (YES in step 153), the cumulative number of printing surfaces of the drum stored in the drum cumulative printing surface number storage unit 28 exceeds the number of durable printing surfaces. If (YES in step 155), U
A notification of drum replacement is displayed on the I section 3 (step 15
6), end the process (step 160). If the cumulative number of printing surfaces of the drum does not exceed the number of durable printing surfaces (NO in step 155), the progress from the toner replacement is performed based on the toner replacement time stored in the toner replacement time storage unit 26. The time is checked (step 157), and if there is a problem with the elapsed time after toner replacement (step 1).
(YES at 57), a notification of toner replacement is displayed on UI unit 3 (step 154), and the process is terminated (step 16).
0). If there is no problem in the elapsed time after the toner replacement (NO in step 157), the drum replacement time storage unit 2
The elapsed time from the drum replacement is checked based on the drum replacement time stored in step 7 (step 158).
If there is a problem with the elapsed time after the drum replacement (YES in step 158), a notification of the drum replacement is displayed on the UI unit 3 (step 156), and the process ends (step 160).

If there is no problem with the remaining amount of toner, the cumulative number of printing surfaces of the drum, the elapsed time after toner replacement, and the elapsed time after drum replacement (NO in step 158),
It is considered that the abnormality of the tone curve is caused by something other than the consumables, and maintenance by the CE is required. Therefore, a CE call is displayed on the UI unit 3 (step 159), and the process is terminated (step 160).

The criterion of the elapsed time after toner replacement determined in step 157 or the elapsed time after drum replacement determined in step 158 changes depending on the environment in which the image forming apparatus 1 is placed. 3 can be set arbitrarily.

In this embodiment, the case where the consumables of the image forming apparatus 1 are a toner and a drum has been described. And the like may be consumables. In this case as well, the replacement time of the consumables can be determined in the same manner.

Next, a description will be given of a second embodiment of a method and an apparatus for determining the replacement time of consumables in an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In the second embodiment, an image forming apparatus configured to automatically perform color adjustment will be described in addition to the above-described first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment. The image forming apparatus conveys a sheet 60 fed from a sheet feed tray 69 via a conveyance path 68, and also transmits an ROS (Raster Outp) based on a raster image from a printer controller (not shown).
out Scanner) 61 irradiates a laser beam to drum 62 charged by charging unit 63 to obtain an electrostatic latent image, and drum 62 attracts toner in developing unit 64 to develop the electrostatic latent image, Transferring the toner of the developed image to a transfer unit 6
In step 6, the image is transferred onto the sheet 60.

Next, the drum 62 is cleaned by the cleaner 65, and the sheet on which the toner has been transferred is subjected to the toner fixing process in the fixing unit 67, and is discharged to the discharge tray 70. The reading is performed by the color adjustment IIT 71 between the unit 67 and the paper discharge tray 70.

Therefore, in this image forming apparatus, after turning on the power or printing a predetermined number of sheets, the color adjustment sheet is automatically printed at predetermined time intervals, so that the color adjustment sheet is read by the color adjustment IIT 71, Color adjustments can be made.

For this reason, color adjustment can be performed without user's operation, and as a result, the judgment of high consumable time of consumables can be automatically performed periodically.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the color reproducibility deteriorates unadjustable even by color adjustment, the consumption level, the service life, and the deterioration of the consumable are detected by detecting the deterioration. Since it is configured to determine the time of replacement of consumables, it is possible to determine the replacement time of consumables taking into account not only the degree of wear of consumables but also the degree of deterioration of consumables, and obtain high quality output images Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a tone curve.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of a tone curve abnormality detection process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of a process of determining a cause when it is determined that there is an abnormality in a tone curve.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a color adjustment sheet.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Printer control part 3 UI part 4 IIT for color adjustment 5 IOT 21 Interface 22 UI control part 23 Color adjustment control part 24 Tone curve storage part 25 Toner remaining amount storage part 26 Toner exchange time storage part 27 Drum exchange Timing storage unit 28 Drum cumulative printing surface number storage unit 51 Toner remaining amount detection sensor 52 Toner replacement detection sensor 53 Drum replacement detection sensor 54 Cumulative printing surface number counter 60 Paper 61 ROS 62 Drum 63 Charging unit 64 Developing unit 65 Cleaner 66 Transfer unit 67 Fixing unit 68 Conveyance path 69 Paper feed tray 70 Paper discharge tray 71 IIT for color adjustment 241 Actual tone curve 242 Ideal tone curve 243 Maximum error allowable area 244 Outside area

Claims (6)

[Claims] In a method for judging replacement time of consumables of an image forming apparatus having a color adjustment function for preventing a color reproducibility of an output image from deteriorating, a tone curve is created by performing color adjustment, and a tone curve of the created tone curve is created. When the error is out of the allowable range, a notice prompting replacement of the consumables in which at least one of the consumption degree and the deterioration degree exceeds a predetermined degree is detected by detecting the consumption degree and the deterioration degree of the plurality of consumables. A replacement time determination method for the consumables of the image forming apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the degree of deterioration of the consumable is determined to be deteriorated when a predetermined time has elapsed after the replacement of the consumable. Method for determining when to replace consumables. 3. The consumable of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color adjustment is automatically performed by printing a color adjustment sheet and reading the printed color adjustment sheet before discharging the sheet. Replacement time determination method. 4. A tone curve storage means for storing a tone curve created at the time of color adjustment in a consumable goods replacement time determination apparatus of an image forming apparatus having a color adjustment function for preventing color reproduction of an output image from deteriorating. An error detection unit that detects an error of the tone curve stored in the tone curve storage unit; a consumption level detection unit that detects a consumption level of a consumable; a deterioration level detection unit that detects a deterioration level of the consumable product; Replacement determining means for determining whether or not the consumables need to be replaced based on the detection results of the wear degree detecting means and the deterioration degree detecting means; and determining that the consumables need to be replaced by the replacement determining means. A replacement notifying unit for issuing a notification prompting replacement of the consumable in such a case. 5. The deterioration degree detecting means includes a replacement time storing means for storing a time when the consumable is replaced, and a predetermined time has elapsed from the replacement time of the consumable stored in the replacement time storing means. 5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the consumable is determined to be deteriorated when the replacement is performed. 6. A color adjusting means for reading a color adjustment sheet used in the color adjustment in a sheet conveyance path from printing of the color adjustment sheet to discharge of the sheet. Consumable item replacement time determination device for an image forming apparatus.