KR0173272B1 - Laser printer having toner saving function - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a laser printer having a toner saving function that can save toner by adjusting a transfer interval of a toner when a high resolution such as an internal document is not required. Control means for controlling the operation of the controller; font data storage means for storing the magnetic image of the data as data with respect to the character data applied from the host; and according to a predetermined control signal and data signal from the control means. A laser printer having an engine control means for driving an engine, the laser printer comprising: a toner saving mode selecting means for allowing a user to select a toner saving mode, and an image for outputting image data output from the control unit in synchronization with a clock signal; A data supply means for dividing and outputting the clock signal Means and a logical sum calculating means for logically calculating the output signal of the clock distributing means and the output signal of the supply means to the image data and outputting the logical sum operation means to output to the engine control unit. And adjusting the signal level output to the image data supply means and the clock divider means in accordance with the selection of the toner saving mode.

Description

Laser printer with toner savings

1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a general laser printer.

2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a laser printer having a toner saving function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the apparatus of FIG.

4 is a diagram showing the contrast of printing results with and without the toner save mode.

5 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a laser printer having a toner saving function according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: Host Interface 2: Input Data Storage

3: program storage unit 4, 40, 50: control unit

5: Font data storage unit 6: Output data storage unit

7: engine control unit 30: key input unit

U1: Shift Register U2: D-Flip-Flop

U3: Selector G1: Inverter

G2: AND gate

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a laser printer, and more particularly, to a laser printer having a toner saving function that enables toner to be saved by adjusting a transfer interval of a toner when a high resolution such as an internal document is not required.

A printer that receives data from a host such as a computer and prints an image image according to the data on the ground has various forms such as dot, inkjet, and laser printer according to the principle of the printing operation. Among them, the laser printer can achieve high resolution through a unique method such as transferring an image to be printed on paper.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of a general laser printer having the above-described functions. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes serial or serial data received from a host according to a contract protocol between the host and the printer. A host interface for processing in a parallel manner, 2 is an input data storage for temporarily storing data input through the host interface 1, 3 is the compatibility of the operating program of the printer itself and the program between models A program storage unit for storing emulations and the like for expansion, 4 is a control unit for controlling the entire apparatus based on the operation program stored in the program storage unit 3.

Further, reference numeral 5 denotes a font data storage unit for storing a character image (font) of the data as data for character data applied from the host (not shown), and 6 denotes the font data storage unit 5. Output data storage unit for storing the image data for output to the engine controller 7 to be described later in accordance with the control of the controller 4 on the basis of the magnetic image stored in, 7 is a predetermined from the controller 4 An engine controller for driving an engine in accordance with a control signal and a data signal.

That is, in the laser printer having the above-described configuration, the controller 4 is provided to the engine control unit 7 on the rear side based on the magnetic image stored in the font data storage unit 5 for the data input from the host. The contracted image data and predetermined control data are outputted, and the controller 4 drives the engine to control the image data, thereby printing an image image of the data received from the host on the ground.

However, in the conventional laser printer having the above-described configuration, when printing A4 size at 300 DPI (dot per inch) resolution, about 1 megabyte of image data is required. When the image data is processed by software, It takes a lot of time, which is a factor to reduce the printing speed of a large printer.

Accordingly, the present invention was created in view of the above circumstances, and toner can be saved by adjusting the transfer interval of the toner as needed when it is not necessary to print at a high resolution such as an internal document. (TONER) The aim is to provide a laser printer with saving function.

A laser printer having a toner saving function according to the present invention for realizing the above object corresponds to control means for controlling the operation of the apparatus as a whole according to a predetermined operation program, and to the character data applied from the host. A laser printer comprising: font data storage means for storing a magnetic image of data as data; and an engine control means for driving an engine in accordance with a predetermined control signal and a data signal from the control means, wherein the user has a toner saving mode. A toner saving mode selecting means for selecting an image, an image data supply means for outputting the image data output from the controller in synchronization with a clock signal, a clock divider for dividing and outputting the clock signal, and a clock divider means. Logically combining the output signal and the output signal of the supply means to the image data And a logical sum calculating means for outputting to the engine control unit, wherein the control unit outputs the signal level output to the image data supplying means and the clock distributing means according to whether the toner saving mode is selected by the user through the key input means. Characterized in that it is to be adjusted.

That is, according to the present invention having the above configuration, it is possible to save the toner by adjusting the transfer interval of the toner as necessary when it is not necessary to print at a high resolution like an internal document.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a laser printer having a toner saving function according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the same components as in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 30 denotes a key input unit provided with a predetermined function key so that a user can select a toner saving function according to the present invention, and 40 denotes an emulation of the printer through an interface with the host (not shown). In addition, a control unit which executes a toner saving function through a predetermined control signal according to whether a user selects a function through the key input unit 30, and reference numeral U1 denotes image data DATA 0 to DATA 7 to be printed from the control unit 40. ) Is shifted in parallel with the clock frequency and outputs in serial data form. G1 is an inverter for inverting the phase of the clock CLK applied to the shift register U1. D-flip-flop as a clock divider for dividing the clock signal inverted by G1), and G2 is an output signal of the D-flip-flop U2 and the shift level. The output signal of the master (U1) is an AND gate that outputs the AND operation.

Next, the operation of the apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the timing chart of FIG.

When data is applied through the host interface 1, the controller 40 generates image data based on this. In this case, the controller 40 determines whether the user has selected the toner saving mode through the key input unit 30. The level of the toner saving enable signal EN-TSAVE output to the D-flip-flop U2 is adjusted to a high or low level depending on whether or not the output of the toner is stored.

When the user selects the toner saving mode, the control unit 40 sets the level of the toner saving enable signal EN-TSAVE to a low level and at the same time as shown in FIG. By setting the load signal DATA-LD to a low level, the prepared image data DATA 0 to DATA 7 are loaded into the shift register U1.

At this time, the controller 40 suppresses the data output according to the clock CLK input by keeping the enable signal ENABLE at a high level.

On the other hand, the inverter G1 inverts the clock signal CLK supplied to the shift register U1 and supplies it as a clock signal of the D-flip flop U2 connected to the rear stage. The flop U2 divides and outputs a clock signal applied through the inverter G1 because the toner saving enable signal EN-TSAVE applied from the controller 40 is in a low state.

When the image data is loaded for the scan line in the shift register U1, the controller 40 changes the enable signal to a low level as shown in FIG. By setting, the data loaded by the above process is output in serial form in synchronization with the clock signal CLK. In this case, the image data output from the shift register U1 is transferred by the AND gate G2. AND operation is performed on the output signal of the flip-flop U2, and as a result, the image data output to the engine control unit 7 side of the rear stage is divided by the D-flop U2 as shown in FIG. In accordance with the output signal, the transfer interval of the toner is adjusted twice.

On the other hand, when the user does not select the toner saving mode, the control unit 40 outputs the toner saving enable signal EN-TSAVE in a high level state, and as a result, the D-flip flop ( Since U2) is preset (PRST), the output level of the Q terminal is high regardless of the clock input, so that the image data output from the shift register U1 is normally transferred in accordance with the normal clock signal CLK. Output at intervals.

That is, according to the first embodiment, the control unit 40 changes the level of the toner saving enable signal EN-TSAVE according to whether the user selects the toner saving mode, and sets the transfer interval of the toner transferred on the drum. Can be adjusted, resulting in saving toner.

On the other hand, in adjusting the transfer interval of the toner, as shown in (b) of FIG. 4, when only the transfer position of the same row ROW is skipped while printing several scan lines, a problem occurs in that the resolution drops. Done.

FIG. 5 is a logic diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention created to solve the above problems. In FIG. Both output terminals Q of the D-flip flop U2, Selector that selectively selects one of the output signals output through).

That is, according to the second embodiment, when the user selects the toner saving mode through the key input unit 30, the control unit 50 simultaneously sets the toner saving enable signal EN-TSAVE to a low level. The select signal SELECT in which the level is inverted is output for each scan line, so that the divided output signal of the D-flip-flop U2 is inverted for each scan line by the select signal SELECT. As a result, the transfer position of the toner TOMER transferred by the engine is output in a staggered form for each stanline as shown in FIG. 4C.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be variously modified within the scope not departing from the technical gist of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a laser printer having a toner saving function that can save toner by adjusting a transfer interval of a toner when a high resolution such as an internal document is not required. .

Claims (2)

Control means for controlling the operation of the apparatus as a whole according to a predetermined operation program, font data storage means for storing the magnetic image of the data as data with respect to the character data applied from the host, and the predetermined means from the control means A laser printer having an engine control means for driving an engine in accordance with a control signal and a data signal, the laser printer comprising: a toner saving mode selection means for allowing a user to select a toner saving mode, and clocked image data output from the control unit; Image data supply means for synchronously outputting the signal, clock divider for dividing and outputting the clock signal, and outputting the output signal of the clock divider and the output signal of the supply means to the image data and outputting the result to the engine controller. And a logical sum calculating means. Blowing a laser printer with a saving toner (TONER), characterized in that the so as to adjust the level of the signal output by said image data supply means and the clock frequency division means depending on whether the user of the toner save mode is selected through the key input unit functions. The method of claim 1, wherein the control means controls to output a predetermined control signal whose level is inverted for each scan line according to whether the user selects the toner saving mode or not. Both output terminals Q, and of the clock divider based on the output level A laser printer with a toner saving function, characterized in that it further comprises a signal selection means for selectively selecting and outputting one of the output signal output through the).