KR0153414B1 - Electricity saving printing method of printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

[Technical field to which the claimed invention belongs]

In the printing system, the system wakes up in advance to reduce the printing time after entering the sleep mode to suppress power consumption in the standby state.

[Technical Problem to Solve]

When printing code is generated from the computer in the power saving mode, the printer wakes up and prints.Because it has to wait while performing the wakeup, printing takes a long time and the printing speed drops. To solve it.

[Summary of the solution of the invention]

In the printing system, when the image forming apparatus is in the power saving mode, the printer receives the print code from the computer before actual printing and performs the wake up when the print code includes the wake-up control code.

[Important Uses of the Invention]

It is applied to printing the image forming apparatus in the printing system.

Description

Power saving printing method of printing system

1 is an engine configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus.

2 is a circuit diagram of an image forming apparatus.

3 is a state change characteristic diagram of a heater lamp temperature corresponding to an engine state by a printing method of an image forming apparatus.

4 is a power saving printing control flow diagram by wake-up of the embodiment according to the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system. In particular, a printing system composed of a computer connected to an image forming apparatus for providing information shortens printing time during printing after the image forming apparatus enters a sleep mode to suppress power consumption in a standby state. The present invention relates to a power saving printing method of a printing system that wakes up an image forming apparatus in advance.

Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR COMPUTER program (EPA) promotes the production and sales of high-efficiency office equipment (ENERGY EFFICIENT OFFICE EQUIPMENT) and reduces air pollution during power generation. ENERGY STAR LOGO ENERGY STAR LOGO Designated for High-Efficiency Office Equipment Compliant with the Terms and Conditions by Joining the ENERGY STAR Energy Program in Collaborative Efforts with US Environmental Protection Agency and Computer Device Manufacturers STAR COMPUTER) is authorized to use materials. Therefore, in order to reduce air pollution generated during such power generation, high efficiency office equipment for power saving is required.

Image forming apparatuses include copiers, fax machines, printers, and multifunction machines. Among them, a configuration and a control circuit of a general engine unit of a laser beam printer (LBP) using an electrophotographic development method are illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

1 is an engine configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus, and includes a photosensitive drum 10, a charging unit 11 for forming a uniform charge on the photosensitive drum 10, and an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 10. FIG. An exposure unit 12 to be formed, a developer 13 for transferring the developer to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 10, and a transfer unit for transferring the developer formed on the photosensitive drum 10 to a paper ( 14), a fixing unit 15 for fixing the developer formed on the paper to the paper, a cassette 16 for storing the paper, and a pickup roller for picking up and transporting the paper loaded in the cassette 16 ( 17), a register roller 18 for aligning the paper conveyed by the pickup roller 17, and a first paper sensor 19 and a second paper sensor 20 for detecting a conveyance state of the paper. It is.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the image forming apparatus configured as shown in FIG. 1 and includes an engine unit 30 and a video controller unit 40. As shown in FIG.

The engine controller 21 controls the operation of the engine of the image forming apparatus. The heater lamp control unit 22 is controlled by the engine control unit 21 to control the fixing unit 15. The photo developing control unit 23 controls the developing of the electrophotographic under the control of the engine control unit 21. The data generation control section 24 is already controlled by the engine control section 21 and transmits image data. The mechanism drive control unit 25 performs driving and control operations of various mechanisms in the printer under the control of the engine control unit 21. The sensor input unit 26 receives a signal sensed by each sensor and outputs the signal to the engine controller 21. The video interface unit 27 interfaces an input / output signal with the video controller unit 40. The first memory 28 stores a control program for printing, and temporarily stores the printing data. The computer interface 44 interfaces an input / output signal with a computer. The video controller 42 controls and outputs video data input from the computer interface 44. The engine interface unit 46 interfaces the input / output signal with the engine unit 30. OPE (OPERATING PANNEL) (50) has a plurality of keys that can generate key data, and when the key data is generated it is input to the video control unit 42, it is possible to display the display data of the video control unit 21 It has a display device. The second memory 48 stores a program for wake up, and temporarily stores the video data output from the computer interface 44. The operation of the general printing method for controlling the image forming apparatus including the above-described main configuration is as follows.

Now, the circuit of FIG. 2 is initially operated, and the video controller 42 initializes when power is supplied at power on. At this time, the fixing unit! 5 of FIG. 1 raises the fixing temperature under the control of the engine control unit 21. In other words, warm-up (Warm-Up) to raise the settling temperature until the standby temperature.

When the temperature of the fixing unit 15 reaches the atmospheric temperature by the above operation, the engine controller 21 notifies the video controller unit 40 of the engine state through the video interface unit 27, and the video controller unit ( 40) switches the image forming apparatus to the standby state (READY state).

In the printing operation, the photosensitive drum 10, the charging unit 11, the developing unit 13, the transfer unit 14, and the exposure unit 12 of FIG. 1 are operated based on a predetermined time sequence. Let's do it. Then, the sheet is started to be conveyed from the cassette 16 of FIG. After a certain time, when the paper conveyed by the above operation reaches the register roller 18 through the first paper sensor 19, the paper detection signal by the first paper sensor 19 is It is input to the engine control unit 21 through the sensor input unit 26, the register roller 18 aligns the conveyed paper, and transfers the aligned paper toward the transfer unit (14). At this time, the engine control unit 21 inputting the sheet detection signal controls the image data generation control unit 25 to output the image data to the exposure unit 12, and controls the development control unit 23 to control the developing unit 13. do.

As the sheet is transferred to the transfer unit 14 by the register roller 18, the exposure unit 12 receives the light corresponding to the image data output from the image data generation control unit 25 of FIG. Exposure is performed.

In this case, a portion exposed on the photosensitive drum 10, that is, a portion having an electrostatic latent image, is developed by transferring a developer from the developing unit 13, and a developer developed on the photosensitive drum 10 is transferred to the transfer unit 14. It is transmitted to the sheet conveyed by the register roller 18 by the. The developer on the paper is fixed to the paper due to the heat of the fixing unit 15.

When the above operation is completed, each part of the image forming apparatus stops the operation according to a predetermined order, and the paper is discharged to the outside. Then, the engine driving motor is stopped.

3 shows a state change of the heater lamp temperature corresponding to the engine state by the printing method of the image forming apparatus described above. That is, FIG. 3 shows the temperature change of the heater lamp and the printing process over time.

However, in the actual image forming apparatus, the time of waiting for printing takes longer than the time of performing the actual printing process after power on. This long waiting time causes unnecessary power consumption due to heating or fan driving of the heater lamp. In order to prevent such unnecessary power consumption, when a predetermined time (U.S. Standards for Environmental Affairs Standard is set to 15 minutes) elapses in the standby state, a power saving mode is performed by turning off the fixing unit 15 or the fan of the head part. Thus, in order to print while performing the power saving mode, the fuser or the fan of the engine unit must be woken up.

The conventional printing method for performing the wake-up is disclosed in Patent Application No. 9170 filed in 1993 in Korea by the applicant of the present application. When the printing code is input from the personal computer or the key signal is input from the OPE 50, the video controller 42 wakes up by a predetermined program stored in the second memory 48. A command is generated and applied to the engine unit 30 through the engine interface unit 46. Then, the engine unit 30 is input to the engine control unit 21 through the video interface unit 27, and the engine control unit 21 controls the heater lamp control unit 22 and the mechanism driving control unit 25 to fix the fixing unit. (15) and the fan and the like to wake up. When the wake up is completed, the engine controller 21 enters the standby mode READY and informs the video controller 42 that the wake up is finished. Thereafter, the video controller 42 receives the print code from the computer interface 44 and processes the print code to be sent to the engine unit 30. At this time, the engine unit 30 receives the printing data and performs printing as described above.

In the conventional printing method as described above, when the image forming apparatus generates a print code from a computer in a power saving mode, the printer performs wake-up and then performs printing. Therefore, there is a problem in that the printing speed is reduced because the printing takes a lot of time to wait while performing the wake-up.

In addition, the image forming apparatus wakes up when a key signal is input from the OPE 50 in the power saving mode to perform printing when a print code is generated, wherein the computer of the printing system and the image forming apparatus are separated by a predetermined distance. If the user is installed, the user needs to wake up by moving to the location where the image forming apparatus is installed.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a power saving printing method for solving the above problems.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a power saving printing method for improving a printing speed by waking up an image forming apparatus in advance in a power saving mode before actual printing.

The present invention for achieving the above object is characterized in that, in the printing system, when the image forming apparatus is in the power saving mode, a wake-up command is generated from the computer to perform the wake-up in the image forming apparatus before actual printing.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings of the present invention will be described in detail.

Configuration diagrams of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention are the same as those in Figs. 1 and 2, and reference numerals are the same.

4 is a flow chart of a power saving printing by wake-up according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The flowchart of FIG. 4 which is an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 described above.

If power is supplied and the printer is initially operated, the video controller 42 initializes the system in step 201 and proceeds to step 202. In the initializing operation, the video control unit 42 controls the engine unit 30 to perform a warm-up, wherein the engine control unit 21 is controlled by the video interface unit 27 and the fixing unit 15 ) And the fan enters the printable state, and then informs the engine state to the video controller unit 40 of the engine state. Then, in step 202, the video controller 42 switches the printer to the standby state and proceeds to step 203. In step 203, the video controller 42 checks whether the time set in the standby state has passed to the power saving mode condition. In operation 204, the video controller 42 controls the engine unit 30 to turn off the fixing unit 15 and the fan to perform a power saving mode. Then, in step 205, the video controller 42 checks whether the print code is input from the computer in the power saving mode state, and proceeds to step 206 when the print code is input. In step 206, the video controller 42 checks whether the wake-up control code is included in the print code. If the wakeup control code is included, the video control unit 42 proceeds to step 207 and generates a wakeup signal and sends the wakeup control signal to the engine unit 30 through the engine interface unit 46 to wake up. At this time, the engine control unit 21 outputs a lamp enable signal due to the heater lamp control unit 22. The heater lamp control unit 22 receives the lamp enable signal and heats the heater lamp in the fixing unit 15. After the wake-up is performed in step 208, the video controller 42 enters a printing standby state.

However, if the wakeup control code is not included in step 206, the video control unit 42 generates a wakeup signal and transmits the wakeup signal to the engine unit 30 through the engine interface unit 46. Then, the engine control unit 21 of the engine unit 30 outputs a lamp enable signal to the heater lamp control unit 22. The heater lamp control unit 22 receives the lamp enable signal and heats the heater lamp in the fixing unit 15. That is, the temperature in the fixing unit 15 is raised to wake up. The wake-up is performed and an operation corresponding to the input print code is performed.

Another embodiment of the present invention including the wake-up control code in the print code as described above is to wake up by exporting empty data on the table, such as 128 of ROMAN-8 table in LASERJET4 User Manual B-5 of the US HEWLETT PACKARD. You can perform ups. Since the empty data is recognized, the argument is ignored depending on the type of print language.

In another embodiment of the present invention including the wake-up control code in the print code as described above, by downloading one font from the computer to the image forming apparatus using the download function of the image forming apparatus, the downloading of the font is simply performed by the image forming apparatus. The memory is stored in the memory, but does not actually print. However, since the print code is input from the outside, the image forming apparatus wakes up.

As described above, when the standby state in which the image forming apparatus is not operated continues for a predetermined time, the present invention enters the power saving mode, and then, in this power saving mode, gives a wake-up command through a computer to perform a wake-up in advance, and then gives a printing command. Since it is possible to shorten the time taken to wake up during printing.

Claims (4)

A power saving printing method of a printing system having a power saving mode, the method comprising: checking whether a print code is input from a computer in a power saving mode; and performing a wakeup if the print code is a wakeup control code and not a wakeup control code. Wake-up method of the image forming apparatus characterized in that the process of performing the operation according to the print code. The power saving printing method of claim 1, wherein the power saving mode is configured to stop driving the fixing unit in the image forming apparatus when no input signal is provided from the outside to the image forming apparatus for a predetermined time. . The power saving printing method of claim 2, wherein the wakeup control code is a control code for instructing a wakeup to be performed. The power saving printing method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup control code comprises a print code for downloading one font of the image forming apparatus.