JPS6283768A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a mechanical counter, an electric power source dedicated to a memory device and a counter device circuit and to miniaturize a unit with a low-cost by providing a magnetic memory medium to store the data to be held for the picture forming unit at every picture forming unit. CONSTITUTION:At a magnetic disk 4, the counting data area to store the number of sheets of printing is specified, and into the area, the data of the number of sheets of printing added one by one at every time the printing is executed are written. The control part of a main body 1 controls the image forming conditions in accordance with the characteristic data of the parts stored in the magnetic disk 4, thereafter, at every print, the printing signal is outputted from the main body 1, by the signal, a light head 6 adds the number of the sheets of the printing at every sheet to the magnetic disk 4 and rewrites successively the number of sheets of the previous printing. A printer main body 1, in order to add successively the number of sheets to the number of sheets of the past printing stored by the unit, can count the number of sheets of the printing of individual units without fail. Thus, the number of sheets of the printing can be stored in a small and low-cost way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on an image carrier in an electrophotographic copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or the like.

[Traditional technique]

Conventionally, for example, in an electrophotographic copying machine, in order to use the device for a long period of time, it is necessary to replace consumable parts such as the photosensitive drum, clean the developing device, charger, etc., replenish developer, and dispose of waste toner. It was necessary to do this regularly. Such work is carried out by specialized maintenance personnel, and because the work is complicated, it is actually difficult to perform periodic inspections, especially of small copying machines, of which there are many on the market.

Therefore, in order to simplify the maintenance and inspection work, for example, the photosensitive drum, the developing device, and the cleaning device are integrated into a unit, and maintenance work is performed by replacing this unit. In such cases, individual units may be replaced in order to manage the replacement time of the unit, or because the unit may be replaced with another unit even before the final replacement time of the unit is reached, for example when changing the toner color. is equipped with a counter that records the usage time (number of prints). As the counter, for example, a mechanical counter is used that records the number of prints by mechanically counting the number of rotations of the photosensitive drum.

[Problems with conventional technology]

However, mechanical counters like the ones mentioned above often break down, and although it is possible to use a semiconductor storage device as a means of storing the number of prints, the power supply and power required to maintain the memory in each unit are Since a circuit is required,
The disadvantage was that the unit was expensive.

[Purpose of the invention]

In view of the above drawbacks, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus that does not include a mechanical counter in the unit, does not require a dedicated power supply or counter circuit for the storage device, and can be made compact and inexpensive. With the goal.

[Key points of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus in which an image forming unit including at least an image carrier is configured to be replaceable with respect to an image forming apparatus main body. The present invention is characterized in that a magnetic storage medium is provided for storing data to be stored.

[Embodiments of the Invention] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that this embodiment will be explained using a printer as an example.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the printer, and FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of essential parts of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a printer body that prints using an electrophotographic process.
It is configured to be detachable. The image forming unit 2 has a photosensitive drum 3 as an image carrier, and also integrally includes a developing device and a cleaning device (not shown) to form a unit.

By simply replacing the image forming unit 2, the photosensitive drum can be replaced, the developer in the developing device can be replenished, or the waste toner in the cleaning device can be disposed of at the same time. In addition, 4 is a magnetic disk provided as a magnetic storage medium inside the image forming unit 2 as described later, 5 is a read head that reads information stored on the magnetic disk 4, and 6 is a write head that writes information to the magnetic disk 4. shows.

FIG. 3 shows the internal structure of the image forming unit 2. As shown in FIG.

In the figure, 7 is a unit case that houses the photosensitive drum 3 and a developing device and a cleaning device (not shown) arranged around the drum 3. A part of the case 7 has a cavity 7a.
is formed. The magnetic disk 4 is attached to the cavity 7a coaxially with the rotating shaft 8 of the photosensitive drum 3, so that the magnetic disk 4 rotates together with the photosensitive drum 3. In this case, since the magnetic disk 4 is provided within the cavity 7a, the toner in the unit case 7 will not scatter and stain the magnetic disk 4.

On the other hand, an opening 7b is formed in a part of the cavity 7a, and the read head 5 and write head 6 provided on the printer main body 1 side protrude from this opening 7b, and the magnetic disk 4 is
Read or write information stored in.

In this case, a shutter 9 is provided in the opening 7b, and the shutter 9 automatically opens when the image forming unit 2 is attached to the printer main body 1, and is closed when it is removed. 10 more
is a driven gear that rotates the rotating shaft 8, and rotates the photosensitive drum 3 by driving a driving gear 11 provided on the main body 1 side.

Characteristic data of each component, such as sensitivity data of the photosensitive drum 3, toner color data, etc., are written in advance on the magnetic disk 4 when the image forming unit 2 is manufactured. Then, by reading this data by the read controller 5, the main control section provided on the printer main body 1 side controls the image forming conditions according to the characteristics of each component of the unit. Image forming conditions such as the amount of charge, amount of exposure, or amount of developing bias are controlled to optimal values according to the characteristics of each component. This results in
When image forming unit 2 is replaced with a new unit,
Since the main body automatically controls the image forming conditions according to the characteristics of the parts of the unit, there is no need for adjustment work at the time of replacement, and the replacement work can be done easily.

Further, a count data area for storing the number of prints is defined on the magnetic disk 4, and print number data, which is added one by one each time printing is performed, is written in this area. In this case, a print signal is output from the main control section of the printer main body 1 every time printing is performed, and the write head 6 writes new print number data in the count data area of the magnetic disk 4 in response to this print signal. As for the method of writing data to the magnetic disk 4, when the printer main body 1 operates, the photosensitive drum 3 rotates, and at the same time, the magnetic disk 4 also rotates. A count data area is detected inside the printer, and the past print count data stored in the same area is rewritten with new data after addition. Note that when powering on the printer body 1 or replacing the image forming unit 2, when a new unit is installed, the photosensitive drum 3 and magnetic disk 4 rotate multiple times, and the stored information of the unit is transferred to the read head. Read by 5. As a result, the control section of the main body 1 controls the image forming conditions according to the characteristic data of the parts recorded on the magnetic disk 4, and from now on, the main body 1 outputs a print signal for each print. In response to the signal, the write head 6 adds the number of prints to the magnetic disk 4 one by one, and sequentially rewrites the previous number of prints. Therefore, image forming unit 2
If you replace the unit before it reaches the end of its service life and use that unit in another printer, the printer main unit 1 will reliably print each print in order to sequentially add the number of prints to the number of past prints stored in that unit. You can count the number of copies printed by the unit. Note that this number of prints is displayed on a display device (not shown) provided in the main body 1, and when the number of prints of the image forming unit 2 reaches its lifespan print number, the user is informed to replace the unit with a new unit.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the formant of data written to the magnetic disk 4. In order to recognize the start and end points of the data, premark data is added to the beginning of the main data, which is the number of prints and component characteristic data of the image forming unit, and postmark data is added to the end of the main data.

Also, at the end of the main data, to check whether there are any errors in the data read from the disk,
CRC (CyClic Redundancy)
ck) area.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the electric circuit in the above embodiment.

In the figure, 12 is a main control unit of the printer body 1, and 13 is a disk peripheral device also provided in the printer body 1. When counting the number of printed sheets, the main control section 12 controls the operation of the printer and at the same time outputs a print signal to the disk peripheral device 13 every time one sheet is printed. In response to this signal, the unit information control circuit 14 of the disk peripheral device 13 rewrites the print number data in its internal storage section (not shown) with new data, and the read/write timing control circuit 15 sets it to write mode. Then, the write data timing control circuit 16 adjusts the timing so that the data can be written in the count data area of the magnetic disk 4, and the print number data is written on the magnetic disk 4 by the operation of the write circuit 17, which is a driver for the write gutter 6.

On the other hand, when reading component characteristic data of the image forming unit 2 stored in the magnetic disk 4 or data on the number of prints previously executed, the read head 5 reads the data on the magnetic disk 4 and the data is amplified by the read circuit 18. Further, from this data, the read data timing control circuit 19 extracts necessary characteristic data of the parts of the image forming unit 2 and print number data.

Next, the unit information control circuit 14 stores the necessary data in an internal storage section and outputs the data to the main control section 12, whereby the main control section 12 controls the image forming conditions according to the component characteristics. It also detects and notifies the life of the unit.

Although the present embodiment has been described using a printer as an example, the present invention is not limited to this and can of course be used in electrophotographic copying machines, facsimile machines, and the like.

Further, in this embodiment, a magnetic disk is provided as a data storage means of the unit, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention may be applied to a method of attaching a magnetic storage medium such as a magnetic tape to a rotating member provided in the unit. However, it is certainly possible to implement it.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the number of prints is stored in the magnetic storage medium provided in the image forming unit, so there are fewer failures and no power supply is required.
It has the effect of being able to store the number of prints in a small and inexpensive manner.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of essential parts of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of the image forming unit, and FIG. 4 is a magnetic An explanatory diagram showing an example of a data format on a disk. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an electric circuit in the above embodiment. 1... Printer body, 2... Image forming unit, 3... Photosensitive drum, 4... Magnetic disk, 5... Read head, 6... Write head, 7... Unit case, 8... Rotating shaft, 9... Shutter, 10... Driven gear, 11... Drive gear, 12... Main control section, 13... Disk peripheral device, 14... Unit information control Circuit, 15... Read/write timing control circuit, 16.
...Write data timing control circuit, 17...Write circuit, 18...Read circuit, 19...Read data timing control circuit. Patent applicant Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Same as above
Casio Electronic Industries Co., Ltd. 1st rj! 11 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an image forming apparatus in which an image forming unit including at least an image carrier is replaceable with respect to an image forming apparatus main body, the image forming unit is provided with a magnetic storage medium for storing data to be held for each image forming unit. An image forming apparatus characterized by: