KR100189086B1 - Complex printer using mutually different printing technology and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printing apparatus and a laser printing means which are structurally arranged in series so that the paper passes through the ink jet printing means portion to print the contents related to the color, The present invention can solve the problem of using two types of printers at the same time.

In order to accomplish the above object, there is provided a color image forming apparatus comprising first printing means for printing black and white through an electrophotographic developing method for printing black and white on an image recording medium in accordance with data received, And a second printing means for printing the color using the printing method.

According to the present invention, it is possible to develop a composite printer integrated with an existing independent ink-jet printer or a laser printer without frequent replacement, and to control the control unit of each of the detailed printers, The image can be printed at the same time, so that the economical efficiency, the ease of use, and the ease of development can be achieved.

Description

Composite printer with different printing technology and control method thereof

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a multifunction machine, and more particularly, to a multifunction machine which includes a printing unit using a high resolution electrophotographic developing system and an inkjet printing unit capable of compact color printing at a low price, And a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different printing techniques for printing black-and-white and color data by printing using color ink-jet printing means.

In general, color inkjet printers can perform color printing at low cost, while laser printers that support color printing are very expensive.

Colors were printed with color data in combination with three colors (yellow, cyan, and magenta), and even black was printed.

However, in order to perform black printing, it is necessary to combine all three colors, so that the consumption of color inks (yellow, cyan, and magenta) is disadvantageously increased, and color blurring due to combination of three colors may occur. Therefore, There was a problem in using the inkjet printing means for printing, and in this case, black printing was performed on the report or document using a laser printer which is an independent device for monochrome printing.

On the other hand, the inkjet printer uses black ink in color ink of three colors to use four colors, but also uses a laser printer which usually uses less maintenance cost, and also uses a laser printer for various important documents , While the briefing material containing a lot of color pictures and figures was printed with an ink jet printer.

However, depending on the type of document to be printed, it is considerably cumbersome and troublesome to use the inkjet printer and the laser printer alternately. Especially, the installation space and the connection of the print cable and the change of the driver program to use were the major difficulties.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printing apparatus and a laser printing means which are structurally arranged in series so that the paper passes through the ink jet printing means portion to print the contents related to the color, The present invention can solve the problem of using two types of printers at the same time.

1 is a cross-sectional view of a multifunction peripheral including a plurality of image forming apparatuses according to the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing the concept of a composite printer according to the present invention;

3 is a block diagram showing the inkjet printing unit of Fig.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing the laser printer image processing unit of Fig. 2; Fig.

5 is a transition diagram showing a transition of an operation state of a composite printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a table showing the state signal for generating the state transition of FIG. 5 and the operation of performing each state in the form of a table.

7 is a flowchart showing a sequence of a print job on a control board of a composite printer according to the present invention.

8 is a flowchart showing a sequence of a print job on a host computer for data printing using a composite printer according to the present invention.

9 is a conceptual diagram showing a printing procedure and a recording material transport path of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS OF MAIN PARTS OF DRAWINGS

1: image recording body 2: image recording body presence sensor

3: Pickup roller 4: Cassette

5: Path guide 6: Registration sensor

7: registration roller 8: developing roller

9: photoreceptor 10: charging roller

11: Transfer roller 12: First image forming means

13: Fixing roller 14: Second registration sensor

15: second registration roller 16: head carriage shaft and guide

17: inkjet printhead cartridge 18: printhead

19: second image forming means 20: discharge roller

21: Image Recording Medium Stack 30: Host computer

31: Parallel cable 32: Ink-jet printer control unit

33: inkjet printer mechanism part 34: laser printer image processing part

35: laser printer engine 41: buffer IC

42: Control ASIC 43: Microprocessor

44: ROM 45: input / output means

46: RAM 47: 1st drive IC

48: ink head 49: sensor circuit

50: printer mechanism part 51: second driving IC

52: drive motor 53: power supply part

61: buffer IC 62: data decoder

63: Instruction decoder 64: Buffer RAM

65: control circuit 66: engine interface

In order to accomplish the above object, there is provided a color image forming apparatus comprising first printing means for printing black and white through an electrophotographic developing method for printing black and white on an image recording medium in accordance with data received, And a second printing means for printing the color using the printing method.

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

A multifunction apparatus having a first image forming means for printing monochrome using an electrophotographic developing system and a second image forming means for printing a color through an ink jetting system is configured as shown in Fig.

First, an image recording material cassette 4 for storing an image recording material 1 for printing color and black and white, and a pickup roller (not shown) for picking up the image recording material 1 one by one and feeding it to the paper feed roller 3, a presence / absence sensor 2 for checking existence / nonexistence of an image recording medium in the image recording material storage cassette 4, and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus for aligning the front end of the image recording medium for monochrome printing A registering roller (or a register roller) 7 for transferring the image recording medium to the transferring portion, a registration sensor (or a registering roller) 7 for detecting the image recording medium transfer of the registration roller 7, A first image forming means 12 of an electrophotographic developing system for forming a monochrome printing image on a top recording medium from a registration roller 7, The toner of the fine powder on the upper surface of the formed recording medium is fixed by the high-temperature high-pressure A second image forming means 19 of an inkjet printing system for forming a color image by jetting color ink onto the fixed image recording medium, A second registration roller 15 for transferring the upper recording medium between the image forming means 19 and the inkjet printer head portion as the second image forming means 19, And a second registration sensor (14) for notifying the position of the upper recording body and the print preparation and notifying the start position by the second image forming means (19), and a second registration sensor A discharging roller 20 for discharging the upper recording material to the upper recording material stack 21 after color printing is completed by the second image forming means 19 and a stack 21 for stacking the upper recording material printed by the second image forming means 19, A power switching means (not shown) for switching the power of the respective rollers, (Not shown) for feeding power to the first and second image forming means 12 and 19 of different types, gears and belts which are power transmitting elements for transmitting power to the respective rollers, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the concept of a composite printer according to the present invention. Fig. As shown in the figure, first, the host computer 30 inputs data to be printed and a print command to the composite printer according to the present invention via the parallel cable 31.

Next, the composite printer is divided into a first image forming unit 12 using a laser printing method and a second image forming unit 19 using an inkjet printing method, and is activated according to the nature of the input data and a print command .

The first image forming unit is a laser printer and is composed of a laser printer engine 35 that performs mechanical printing under the control of the laser printer image processing unit 34 and the laser printer image processing unit 34, The two-phase forming means is a color inkjet printer and is constituted by an inkjet printer control section 32 and an inkjet printer mechanism section 33 which performs mechanical printing under the control of the inkjet printer control section 32. [

3 is a detailed block diagram of the inkjet printer control section 32 and the inkjet printer mechanism section 33 shown in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing details of the laser printer image processing section 34 and the laser printer engine 35 As a block diagram, the operation of such a constructed element is common to those of ordinary skill in the art of printer systems.

5 is a transition diagram showing transition of the operation state of the composite printer according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the operation states of the composite printer are largely divided into a standby state, a printing state of LBP (Laser Beam Printer) print data, and a printing state of IJP (InkJet Printer) If the data to be printed on the control unit 32 is LBP print data, the LBP status signal is set to 1, the IJP status signal is set to 0, and the operation state of the composite printer is changed to the LBP print data print state, The data to be printed is printed using the LBP method.

When the data to be printed is color data (that is, in the case of IJP print data), the IJP status signal is set to 1 in the laser print image processing 34 and the inkjet printer control section 32 and the LBP status signal 0, and the operation state of the composite printer is changed to the print state of the IJP print data, and the data to be printed is printed using the printing method of the ink jet printer.

At this time, after the monochrome and color printing is finished, the system state transitions to the standby state.

FIG. 6 is an operation table showing the status signal for generating the state transition of FIG. 5 and the operation of performing each state in the form of a table.

Fig. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a print order and a recording material conveyance path according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the first printing means prints black and white on the transported image recording medium, and the second printing means prints the color on the transported image recording medium.

8 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a print job on a host computer for data printing using the composite printer of the present invention. A determination step (81) for determining whether all the data to be printed are monochrome data or whether to print all of the print data using a laser printer as shown in the figure, and a determination step (81) A virtual page configuration step 82 for developing the virtual page. As a result of the determination, when the inkjet printer is used, a virtual page configuration step (82) for developing an inkjet printer print designation command and a print image, and a virtual page configuration step (82, 83) (85, 87) of transmitting the developed print data to the printing means until printing of the print designation page is completed, and designating printing of the next page (86) .

9 is a flowchart showing the sequence of a print job on the control board of the composite printer according to the present invention. A print waiting step 91 for waiting for input of a print command from the host computer, a data receiving step 92 for receiving one page of data when a print command is input, (Step 93) of printing the data on an image developed by the laser printer engine 35, and printing (step 94) printing the print data designated by the inkjet printer printing and printing it to the inkjet printer engine 33.

Hereinafter, the operation of the multifunction apparatus including a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different printing techniques according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, when the upper recording material presence sensor 2 notifies the upper recording material state by the central processing unit after setting the upper recording material 1 in the cassette 4, the printing signal of the data in which the color and monochrome image are embedded from the outside It comes in through the input / output port (I / O port).

At this time, the input print signal has the following meaning as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG.

In the embodiment of the present invention, three cases of printing will be described.

[Case 1]

When color data and monochrome data are present together in the data to be printed and color and monochrome are printed

In this case, first, monochrome printing is first performed on the transfer device, and then color printing is performed using an ink-jet printer (refer to FIG. 7).

If the data to be printed is data for black and white, the host computer 30 recognizes the data as print data (LBP print data) of the laser printing means and generates signal 1, generates control signal 0 because it is not color data, Processing 34 and the control unit 32 as shown in Fig. That is, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the composite printer transitions to a state of printing LBP print data with an input of 10 in the standby state. In this case, the first digit 1 indicates the LBP function is on, and the second digit 0 indicates the off of the IJP function.

Then, the central processing unit drives the feed motor serving as the main motor. At this time, the main motor operates the clutch, which is the power switching device on the axis, on the pickup roller 3 while performing the transfer rotation in the initial LBP printing mode, And picks up and transports the image recording bodies 1 by a difference in frictional force.

At this time, after the registration sensor 6 is operated, the leading end is aligned while forming a certain amount of loop between the nip of the registration roller 7.

On the other hand, the amount of the loop is set such that, after a predetermined time after operating the registration sensor 6 or after preparing for printing by the first image forming means 12, the clutch, which is a power switching device on the shaft of the registration roller 7, And the recording material is conveyed to the first image forming means by the registration roller 7, the black and white developing solution of the fine powder on the photoconductor 9 is conveyed between the transfer rollers 11 The fixing roller 13 fixes the developing agent of the fine powder to the upper recording medium by the high temperature and the high pressure, thereby completing the monochrome printing.

For printing of color data following black-and-white printing, the following steps are performed.

After the monochrome printing is completed, the host computer 30 inputs 0 to the image processing unit 34 and the control unit 32, respectively, and turns off the LBP and IJP functions to transition the system to the standby state as shown in FIG.

If the data to be printed is color data, it is recognized as print data (IJP print data) of the inkjet printing means to generate control signal 1, generates signal 0 so as not to activate LBP, And the control unit 32, respectively. That is, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the composite printer transitions to a state of printing IJP print data with an input of 1 in the standby state. At this time, the first digit 0 indicates the off of the LBP function, and the second digit 1 indicates the on of the IJP function.

After activating IJP according to the color data, color printing is performed as follows.

First, the second registration sensor is operated by the image recording body that has passed through the fixing roller (13). When the second registration sensor is operated, the control unit prepares the image processing for the color printing by the second image forming means, which is the inkjet printing means, and the first registration roller 7 (7) between the nip of the second registration roller 15 , A clutch, which is a power switching device provided on the axis of the second registration roller 15, is turned on, and the recording body is conveyed to the second image forming means by the pressing force and the frictional force of the roller .

As shown in Fig. 1, by setting the distance L from the first image forming means 12 to the second image forming means 19 to be larger than the maximum printable size, Out of the transfer portion of the one-phase forming means.

When the clutch is mounted on the axis of the second registration roller 15 in the above-described structure, the upper recording medium is conveyed to the predetermined printing area of the second image forming means 19 after the clutch ON time It is detected as the time to the distance after entering.

If there is no clutch on the shaft, the time can be checked with respect to the distance to the predetermined printing area of the second image forming means 19 after the second registration sensor 14 is operated.

Therefore, when the leading end of the image recording medium is stopped by the second registration roller 15 in the predetermined printing area of the second image forming means 19, the central processing unit causes the feed motor to rotate in the constant velocity mode for LBP printing in the inkjet printing mode To the inkjet mode in which the ink droplets are driven by the set step, and the recording medium is transported by 1/6, 1/3, 1/2 or the like.

That is, when the upper recording medium enters the printable area of the second image forming means 19 and then stops, the initial one side of the inkjet printhead as the second image forming means is composed of magenta, cyan, and yellow at the position of the home position Initialize each nozzle unit.

Next, in accordance with the color image signal of the head control section, along the guide shaft 16 mounted on the head cartridge cage section 17, while being transported by a separate carriage motor and a belt in a direction orthogonal to the recording body advancing direction, Color printing is performed on the required color image position.

At this time, the upper recording material is stacked on the upper recording material stack 21 via the discharge roller 20 while being fed by the feed motor at predetermined steps (i.e., 1/6, 1/3, 1/2) do.

At this time, the printing completion state is such that the trailing end of the upper recording medium leaves the second registration sensor 14, and then the time conversion and margin for the distance to the discharge roller 20 are set so as to stop the feeding motor together with the printing completion signal.

[Case 2]

When black-and-white printing is performed because only black-and-white data exists in the data to be printed

That is, in the multifunction apparatus according to the present invention, when only the monochrome printing is performed, even if the recording body operates the second registration sensor 14, no signal is output to the second image forming means 19, which is the inkjet printing unit, The feed motor which is a step motor maintains the constant speed drive while maintaining the LBP mode (i.e., the LBP print state as shown in FIG. 5).

[Case 3]

When color printing is performed because only the color data exists in the data to be printed

That is, when only the color printing is performed on the image bearing member, the inkjet print image signal (i.e., 1) is output and the LBP status signal is 0, so that it is input to each of the image processing 34 and the control unit 32. That is, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the composite printer transitions to a state of printing IJP print data with an input of 1 in the standby state.

Therefore, the fixing temperature only maintains the warm-up temperature from the initial stage of printing, and the conveying motor is driven at the constant speed in the LBP mode up to the printing area of the second image forming means 19 as described above, And operates in the print mode.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to develop a composite printer integrated with an existing independent ink-jet printer or laser printer without frequent replacement, and to provide a control unit of each of the detailed printers, And a black-and-white image of a laser printer are printed at the same time, thereby making it possible to develop economical efficiency, ease of use, and ease of development.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, modifications of the embodiments of the present invention will not depart from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (15)

A printer system for receiving data to be printed and a print command from a host computer and printing the data on an image recording medium, First printing means for printing black and white on the image recording medium in accordance with the received data; Second printing means for printing a color using the ink jetting method on the upper recording medium that has passed through the first printing means; And a plurality of conveying means for conveying the upper recording material to the first printing means and the second printing means for printing and conveying the upper recording material for discharging the upper recording material to the outside Multiple printers with different printing technologies. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, A laser printer image processing means for generating a control signal for printing in accordance with the data transmitted from the host computer and the print command; A first image forming means of an electrophotographic developing system for forming an image of monochrome printing on said image bearing member; And a fixing roller for fixing the toner of the fine powder on the image recording medium formed by the first image forming means by a high temperature and a high pressure. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, An inkjet printer control means for generating a control signal for printing in accordance with the data transmitted from the host computer and the print command; And And a second image forming means of an inkjet printing method for forming a color image by jetting color ink onto the image bearing member. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, A pick-up roller for picking up the image-recording medium one by one and feeding the picked-up image to the paper-feeding roller; A presence sensor for checking presence or absence of an image recording medium in the image recording medium storage cassette; A registration roller for aligning the leading edge of the upper recording medium and feeding the upper recording medium to the first image forming means for monochrome printing; A registration sensor for sensing the registration of the registration rollers of the registration rollers and controlling the alignment of the registration rollers; A second registration roller for transferring the image bearing member between the fixing roller and the second image forming means to the second image forming means; A second registration sensor for informing the upper recording body position and printing preparation to the second registration roller and informing the start position to the second image forming apparatus; And a discharge roller for discharging the upper recording material onto the upper recording material stack after color printing is completed by the second image forming means on the upper recording material. 5. The method of claim 4, Power switching means for switching the power of the respective part rollers; A conveying motor for supplying power to a plurality of rollers for conveying the image recording medium; And power transmission means as a power transmission element for transmitting power to the corner rollers. The method according to claim 1, Receiving the print command from the host computer in order to perform printing by two different printing means in the same-phase recording medium, activating one of the printing means to receive data to be printed and print the data, And the data is printed by receiving the data to be printed by activating the other one of the plurality of printers. 6. The host computer according to claim 5, Wherein when the data to be printed is transmitted, data for black-and-white printing is transmitted, and then data for color printing is transmitted to perform color printing after black-and-white printing. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, Wherein the first image forming unit feeds the image recording medium at a constant speed and maintains a constant speed until completion of monochrome printing by the first image forming unit, and at the time of color printing by the second image forming unit, Is a stepping motor which carries out a stepping drive for feeding the printing medium (1). 9. The method of claim 8, Wherein the conversion from the constant speed driving to the stepping driving of the step motor is controlled by the second registration sensor. 5. The method of claim 4, Wherein the length of the recording medium conveying path from the first image forming means to the second image forming means is longer than the length of the image recording medium. 5. The method of claim 4, The operation state of the composite printer is roughly divided into a standby state, an LBP (Laser Beam Printer) printing state, and an IJP (InkJet Printer) printing state, and the host computer prints to the laser print image processing means and the inkjet printer control means Wherein the operating state mode of the composite printer is set by inputting a status signal according to the nature of the data. 12. The method of claim 11, When the printing data only prints monochrome, even if the upper recording body operates the second registration sensor, the laser printer image processing means does not give any signal to the second image forming means, so that the feeding motor is in the LBP printing state And the constant speed driving is maintained while maintaining the mode. 12. The method of claim 11, Wherein the laser printer image processing means is enabled and the inkjet print control means is disabled to transit the operation mode to the IJP print state mode when the image is to be printed only on the image recording medium, wherein the feeding motor maintains only the warm-up temperature of the LBP printing state mode, and the feeding motor operates in the LBP printing state mode to the printing region of the second image forming means, and operates in the inkjet printing mode after the printing start operation. Multiple printers with different printing technologies. A first printing means for printing data to be printed from a host computer and a print command and printing data on the image recording medium and printing black and white through an electrophotographic developing method for printing black and white on the image recording medium in accordance with the received data; And second printing means for printing a color on the upper recording material which has passed through the first printing means by using an ink jetting method, A print waiting step of waiting for input of a print command transmitted from the host computer through a predetermined processing step; A data receiving step of receiving one page of data when a print command is input; And printing the print data on a laser printer engine if the transferred data is designated as a laser printer print; And printing the print data on an inkjet printer engine when the inkjet printer print designation is made on the transferred data. The method of controlling a hybrid printer having different printing techniques with different printing methods . 15. The method according to claim 14, A virtual page construction step of developing a print designation command and a printing section image of the first printing means if all the data to be printed are monochrome data; A virtual page construction step of developing a print designation command and a printing section image of the second printing means when the data to be printed is not monochrome data; Transmitting the developed print data to the printing means until printing of the print designation page is completed; And designating the printing of the next page. ≪ Desc / Clms Page number 24 >