KR20010104832A - Method for improving image quality of image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for improving the print quality of an image forming apparatus by controlling the driving of the fan according to the use environment of the image forming apparatus, the driving time, and the position of the paper to prevent condensation and to improve print quality by improving transferability and fixability. It is about.

According to the present invention, when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is at room temperature and humidity, the fan is driven to keep the fan on, and from the time when the front end of the paper reaches 20 mm in front of the fixing unit, the end of the paper is placed in 100 mm front of the fixing unit. By stopping the driving of the fan motor until the time point when the fan motor is reached, the fan can be turned off, thereby preventing the temperature of the heat generated from the heating roller of the fixing unit from dropping and improving the image quality. In addition, when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is low temperature and low humidity, the fan is driven by driving the fan motor for 10 minutes after the power is applied. After 10 minutes, the front edge of the paper is placed 50 mm in front of the transfer roller. By keeping the fan on by driving the fan motor from the time point at which the front end of the paper reaches the rear 30 mm of the transfer roller, the resistance of the transfer roller can be prevented from rising so that the image quality can be improved.

Description

Method for improving image quality of image forming device

The present invention relates to a method for improving the printing quality of an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to control condensation of the fan according to the use environment, driving time, and paper position of the image forming apparatus, thereby preventing condensation and transferring and fixing properties. A printing quality improvement method of an image forming apparatus for improving a printing quality.

In general, a facsimile machine, a printer, a copier, or a multifunction device capable of complexly implementing these functions through a single device are all products manufactured based on a printing function, and thus, an image forming apparatus is provided.

Such an image forming apparatus is provided with a paper cassette on which the green chain paper is loaded, and picks up and transports the paper loaded in the paper cassette, and with a dye such as a toner on the paper transferred through the image forming means. Form and discharge the phase.

In addition, during the printing operation, a sensor for detecting a paper jam in which the paper is not fed smoothly and the printout is not obtained is mounted on the paper feed path. The sensor includes a paper feed sensor that detects that the paper is picked up and serves as a starting point of all timing operations, and a discharge sensor that detects whether the paper is discharged.

In addition, the fan is configured to control the internal temperature of the image forming apparatus and to circulate the internal air so that the image forming apparatus records the optimum image on the paper. On or off.

That is, when the internal operating environment of the image forming apparatus is divided into high temperature, high humidity, room temperature humidity, and low temperature and humidity stages to examine the driving state of the fan, the fan is not driven in the low temperature and humidity conditions, and the fan is operated at a predetermined cycle in the normal temperature and humidity conditions. The fan is driven on and off, and in a state of high temperature and high humidity, the fan is driven at a period longer than a period in which the fan is driven at room temperature and humidity.

However, in the related art, since the fan is continuously turned on or off for a predetermined period according to the use environment of the image forming apparatus, there is a limit in controlling the temperature of the image forming means that varies as the print job is performed.

In addition, since the fan is not driven in a low temperature and low humidity state, condensation occurs, which is a phenomenon in which moisture forms condensation on the surface of the photosensitive drum as an image forming means or the window of the laser scanning unit.

That is, since the fan is not driven because the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is low temperature and low humidity, and the heating roller, which is the image forming means, is heated by applying a predetermined voltage, and thus occurs between the heating roller and the photosensitive drum or the laser scanning unit. Condensation occurs due to temperature differences.

As such, when dew condensation occurs, a result of blurring or condensation of an image is output, and thus a problem of deterioration of image quality occurs.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to improve image quality by controlling the driving of a fan according to the use environment, driving time, and paper position of the image forming apparatus.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an image forming apparatus applied to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic internal configuration diagram of the printer engine shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

3 is an operation flowchart for improving the print quality of the image forming apparatus.

4 is a memory map illustrating a control method according to a usage environment of an image forming apparatus.

5 is an operation explanatory diagram for controlling the driving of the fan in a low temperature and low humidity environment.

6 is an operation explanatory diagram for controlling the driving of the fan in a normal temperature and humidity use environment.

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, the present invention prints the print data transmitted from the external device through the image forming means, the fan for circulating the internal air of the image forming means, and the transfer state of the paper on which the print data is recorded A method of improving image quality of an image forming apparatus having a sensor for detecting an image of the image forming apparatus, the method comprising: checking an operating environment of an image forming apparatus when power is applied to the image forming apparatus; After the fan is controlled to prevent condensation, the fan is controlled for transfer control of the image forming means. If the environment of the image forming apparatus is at room temperature and humidity, the fan is controlled for fixing the image forming means. do.

Hereinafter, an image quality improving method of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Looking at the configuration of the image forming apparatus applied to the present invention with reference to Figure 1, the control unit 10 controls the system as a whole, in particular the internal environment, driving time and paper of the image forming apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention By controlling the fan drive according to the position of, the overall control of each component to output the best image quality.

The operation panel (OPE) 11 includes a plurality of keys capable of generating key data of the system, and when the key data is generated, a display window for inputting to the control unit 10 and displaying the display data of the control unit 10. It includes.

The memory 12 stores the operation program of the controller 10, the general control program, and the data according to the program execution of the controller 10, and in particular, data for controlling the driving of the fan according to the use environment and the driving time of the image forming apparatus. Is stored in the form of a look-up table as shown in FIG.

Here, the data of the look-up table stored in the memory 12 is a result value obtained by performing a plurality of tests before performing the actual image forming operation.

Referring to FIG. 4, the internal use environment of the image forming apparatus is divided into three stages of high temperature, high humidity, room temperature and humidity, and low temperature and low humidity, and the driving time of the image forming apparatus is divided into 10 minutes and 10 minutes after applying power, respectively. The driving of the fan of the image forming apparatus is controlled according to the environment and the driving time.

Here, the reference driving time for dividing the driving time of the image forming apparatus is preferably set to 10 minutes, which is abrupt in the internal temperature when the power is applied in a state where the power of the image forming apparatus is turned off and left in a low temperature and low humidity state Condensation occurs as a change, because it is a good time to eliminate this condensation.

Therefore, the driving time of the image forming apparatus is controlled from the time when the power is applied to the reference driving time of 10 minutes to prevent condensation, and the fan is improved after 10 minutes of the reference driving time to improve transferability. To control the driving.

The usage environment detector 13 checks the internal usage environment of the image forming apparatus using a sensor and inputs the same to the controller 10.

The timing unit 14 checks the driving time after the power is applied to the image forming apparatus, and checks the time for checking the conveyance state of the paper when paper is detected by the paper feed sensor of the printer engine 16 which will be described later.

The fan motor driver 15 controls the fan on / off for circulating the internal air of the image forming apparatus under the control of the controller 10.

The printer engine 16 is a portion which actually performs an image forming job, and performs a print job according to print data stored in the memory 12.

Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic configuration of the printer engine 16 is described. In order to print predetermined image data on a sheet, a pickup roller 111, a charging roller 112, and an optical photoconductive (OPC) 113 are provided. , A transfer roller 114, a developing roller 115, a supply roller 116, a fixing unit 117, an exposure apparatus 118, and sensors 119, 120.

Here, the charging roller 112 has a charging voltage of -1.4 [kW], the developing roller 115 has a developing voltage of -300 [V], the transfer roller 114 has a +2.0 [kW] transfer voltage, and a supply roller ( 116) is supplied with a supply voltage of -500 [V]. That is, when the charging roller 112 charged by the high-voltage charging voltage rotates to evenly charge the photosensitive member formed on the outer circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 113, the photosensitive drum 113 with the light generated by the exposure apparatus 118 is charged. The electrostatic latent image to be printed is formed on the surface of the film. Thereafter, a potential difference is generated between the supply roller 116 to which the high voltage supply voltage is applied and the developing roller 115 to which the voltage of a level lower than the supply roller 116 is applied. Therefore, the toner that has negatively charged components from the feeding roller 116 to the developing roller 115 is moved, and the toner supplied to the developing roller 115 is applied to an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 113 to have a visible image. To form. The high pressure transfer roller 114 transfers the visible image formed by the toner applied to the surface of the photosensitive drum 113 onto the paper P to be transferred. The visible image transferred to the sheet P is fixed to the sheet 121 by the high heat of the heating roller 117a of the fixing unit 117 and the pressure of the pressing roller 117b, thereby completing the printing process.

In addition, the paper feeder 119 and the discharge sensor 120 for detecting a paper jam that does not get the desired output because the paper 121 is not smoothly fed (feeding) during the printing operation is mounted, the feed sensor 119 is mounted between the paper feed roller 111 and the photosensitive drum 113, the discharge sensor 120 is mounted between the fixing unit 117 and the discharge roller (not shown).

An operation of the present invention having such a configuration will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, when power is applied to the image forming apparatus (S100), the usage environment detecting unit 13 checks the internal temperature of the image forming apparatus using a sensor under the control of the controller 10 (S200). The control unit 10 checks whether the used environment checked by the use environment detecting unit 13 is included in three stages of high temperature, high humidity, room temperature and humidity, and low temperature and low humidity. Here, the reference range for dividing the internal use environment of the image forming apparatus into three stages is set in advance, and the controller 10 checks the range including the temperature checked by the use environment detector 13. .

As a result, when the use environment of the image forming apparatus is high temperature and high humidity (S300), the control unit 10 controls the high-pressure applying unit (not shown) to apply a corresponding voltage to each of the rollers 112, 114, 115, and 116 of the printer engine 16. The printer engine 16 is driven (S310), the controller 10 controls the fan motor driver 15 according to the look-up table stored in the memory 12, and the fan motor driver 15 is configured to control the image forming apparatus. The fan is turned on by driving the motor of the fan circulating the internal air (S320).

In addition, when the use environment of the image forming apparatus is a normal temperature and humidity (S400), the control unit 10 controls the high-pressure application unit to apply a corresponding voltage to each of the rollers 112, 114, 115, and 116 of the printer engine 16 to operate the printer engine 16. In operation S410, the fan motor driving unit 15 is controlled according to the look-up table stored in the memory 12 to drive a fan circulating the internal air of the image forming apparatus as a system for fixing control.

The controller 10 turns on the fan by driving the fan motor when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is at room temperature and humidity. However, when the fan is turned on, the internal air of the image forming apparatus is circulated so that the temperature of the heat supplied to fix the image transferred from the heating roller 117a of the fixing unit 117 to the paper falls, which affects the fixing performance. The quality is degraded.

Accordingly, the controller 10 controls the fan motor driver 15 to drive the fan for the fixing control, which will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 6.

The controller 10 controls the fan motor driving unit 15 to drive the fan motor to turn on the fan (S420), and check whether paper is detected by the paper feed sensor 119 of the printer engine 16 (S430).

If no paper is detected by the paper feed sensor 119, the controller 10 keeps the fan on, and when paper is detected by the paper feed sensor 119, the image forming operation is performed. Control 14 to start counting the paper transfer time (S440).

The control unit 10 checks whether the paper transfer time counted by the timing unit 14 is the time when the front edge of the paper reaches 20 mm in front of the fixing unit 117 as shown in FIG. 6A (S450).

As a result of the check, if the paper transfer time is the time when the front end of the paper reaches 20 mm in front of the fixing unit 117, the control unit 10 controls the fan motor driving unit 15 to stop driving the fan motor to turn off the fan ( S460).

Here, if the front end of the paper does not reach the front 20mm of the fixing unit 117, the fan motor drive unit 15 continues to drive the fan motor to keep the fan on.

The controller 10 controls the fan motor driver 15 to stop driving the fan motor, and as shown in FIG. 6B, the paper transfer time counted by the timing unit 14 is fixed to the end of the paper. Check whether it is the time to reach the front 100mm (S470).

As a result, when the paper transfer time is the time when the end of the paper reaches the front 100mm of the fixing unit 117, the control unit 10 controls the fan motor drive unit 15 to drive the fan motor to turn on the fan (S480) .

Here, if it is determined that the end of the paper reaches the front 100mm of the fixing unit 117, the fan motor drive unit 15 stops the driving of the fan motor to maintain the fan in the off state.

Therefore, when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is at room temperature and humidity, the fan is driven to keep the fan on, and the end of the paper is fixed at the time when the front end of the paper reaches 20 mm in front of the fuser 117. By stopping the driving of the fan motor only until the front 100 mm of the front panel is reached, the fan is kept off, thereby preventing the temperature of the heat generated from the heating roller 117a of the fixing unit 117 from dropping, thereby improving image quality. have.

In addition, when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus identified in step 200 (S200) is low temperature and low humidity (S500), the controller 10 controls the high pressure application unit to apply a corresponding voltage to each of the rollers 112, 114, 115, and 116 of the printer engine 16. Is applied to drive the printer engine 16 (S510), and controls the fan motor driver 15 according to the look-up table stored in the memory 12 to circulate the internal air of the image forming apparatus for transfer control. Drive into the system.

The controller 10 turns off the fan by stopping the driving of the fan motor when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is low temperature and low humidity. However, when the fan is turned off, dew condensation occurs on the surface of the photosensitive drum 113 or the window of the exposure apparatus 118 between the low temperature and low humidity environment and the heat generated by the fixing unit 117. The image quality deteriorates because of poor performance.

However, in order to prevent such condensation, when the fan is turned on despite the low temperature and low humidity of the image forming apparatus, the resistance of the transfer roller 114 is not easily lowered due to the influence of the fan. Degrades.

Accordingly, the controller 10 controls the fan motor driver 15 to drive the fan for the transfer control. A driving system of the fan will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

The controller 10 controls the timing unit 14 to start counting the driving time after power is applied to the image forming apparatus (S515), and controls the fan motor driver 15 to drive the fan motor to turn on the fan. (S520).

The controller 10 checks whether the driving time counted by the timing unit 14 reaches the reference driving time (S525). Here, the reference driving time represents the time that the fan is turned on in order to prevent condensation occurring in the low temperature and low humidity environment of the image forming apparatus, which is stored in advance by an experimental value. desirable.

When the driving time, which is a time for turning on the fan by controlling the fan motor driving unit 15, reaches the reference driving time, the controller 10 controls the fan motor driving unit 15 to stop the fan motor to turn off the fan (S530). In step S535, paper is detected by the paper feed sensor 119 of the printer engine 16.

As a result of the check, when the paper is detected by the paper feed sensor 119, the image forming operation is performed. Therefore, the controller 10 controls the timing unit 14 to start counting the paper transfer time (S540). As shown, it is checked whether the paper transfer time counted by the timing unit 14 is the time when the front end of the paper reaches 50 mm in front of the transfer roller 114 (S545).

In addition, if the paper is not detected by the paper feed sensor 119 as a result of the check in step 535 (S535), the controller 10 stops driving the fan motor to maintain the fan in the off state.

If the paper transfer time counted by the timing unit 14 is the time when the front end of the paper reaches 50 mm in front of the transfer roller 114, the control unit 10 controls the fan motor driving unit 15 to drive the fan motor to drive the fan. Turn on (S550).

Here, if the paper transfer time counted by the timing unit 14 is not the time when the front end of the paper reaches 50 mm in front of the transfer roller 114, the fan motor driving unit 15 stops driving the fan motor to turn off the fan. To keep.

The controller 10 turns on the fan after the front end of the paper reaches 50 mm in front of the transfer roller 114, and as shown in FIG. 5B, the front end of the paper transfer time sheet counted by the timing unit 14 is turned off. Check whether it is time to reach the rear 30mm of the transfer roller 114 (S555).

As a result of the check, when the front end of the paper reaches the rear 30 mm of the transfer roller 114, the control unit 10 controls the fan motor drive unit 15 to stop the drive of the fan motor to turn off the fan (S560).

Here, if it is determined that the front end of the paper does not reach the rear 30 mm of the transfer roller 114, the fan motor driving unit 15 drives the fan motor to keep the fan on while the front end of the paper is the transfer roller 114. Make sure you reach the rear 30 mm.

Therefore, when the internal environment of the image forming apparatus is low temperature and low humidity, the fan is driven by driving the fan motor for 10 minutes after the power is applied, and after 10 minutes, the front end of the paper is transferred to the transfer roller 114. By operating the fan motor only when the front end reaches 50mm from the time when the front end reaches the 30mm rear of the transfer roller 114, the fan is kept on, thereby preventing the resistance of the transfer roller 114 from rising. Image quality can be improved.

As described above, the present invention controls the driving of the fan circulating the internal air of the image forming apparatus according to the internal use environment of the image forming apparatus, the driving time and the position of the paper.

Then, condensation may be prevented and transferability may be improved in a low temperature and low humidity environment, and fixability may be improved in a high temperature and humidity environment, thereby improving image quality of the image forming apparatus.

Claims (7)

And a fan for printing the print data transmitted from the external device through the image forming means, circulating the internal air of the image forming means, and a sensor for detecting a transfer state of the paper on which the print data is recorded. In the image quality improvement method: If power is supplied to the image forming apparatus, checking a usage environment of the image forming apparatus; Controlling driving of the fan to prevent condensation of the image forming means when the use environment of the image forming apparatus is low temperature and low humidity; Controlling driving of the fan for transferring control of the image forming means when driving control of the fan for preventing condensation is completed; And controlling the driving of the fan to control the fixing of the image forming means when the use environment of the image forming apparatus is room temperature and humidity. The method of claim 1, wherein the driving control step of the fan for preventing condensation, Driving by applying a voltage to each roller of the image forming means, and counting a driving time of the image forming apparatus to which the power is applied; Driving the motor controlling the operation of the fan to turn on the fan; Comparing the counted driving time with a preset reference driving time; And comparing the driving time with the reference driving time to stop the fan motor to turn off the fan, and keeping the fan on until the driving time reaches the reference driving time. An image quality improving method of an image forming apparatus comprising. The image quality improving method of claim 2, wherein the reference driving time is 10 minutes. The driving control step of the fan for the transfer control, Checking whether the paper is detected by a paper feed sensor detecting that the paper is picked up from the sensor; Counting a transfer time of the paper when the paper is detected by the paper feed sensor; And turning on the fan by driving the fan motor if the conveyed time of the counted paper is within a predetermined range. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined range is, And a time point at which the front end of the paper reaches 50 mm in front of the transfer roller of the image forming means, and a time point in which the front end of the paper reaches 30 mm at the rear of the transfer roller. The driving control step of the fan for the fixing control, Driving the motor by applying a corresponding voltage to each roller of the image forming means and driving a motor to control the operation of the fan; Checking whether the paper is detected by a paper feed sensor detecting that the paper is picked up from the sensor; Counting a transfer time of the paper when the paper is detected by the paper feed sensor; And stopping the driving of the fan motor to turn off the fan when the counted sheet conveying time is within a predetermined range. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined range is And a time point at which the front end of the paper reaches 20 mm in front of the fixing unit of the image forming means, and a time point in which the end of the paper reaches 100 mm in front of the fixing unit.