KR20050006399A - A color image forming apparatus and a control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A color image forming device and a method for controlling the device are provided to enable a print operation even though a toner of a cartridge having a certain color has been drained when the print data does not include the certain color. CONSTITUTION: A cartridge whose toner has been drained is detected(S320). Print target data received from the outside is divided into each color data(S330). A color which does not exist in the divided color data is detected(S340). The detected color is compared with a color corresponding to the cartridge of the drained toner(S350). If the compared colors are equal to each other, the data divided by each color is printed through a print engine part(S370).

Description

A color image forming apparatus and a control method

The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a print job in a case where there is no data for a corresponding color in data to be printed even when a toner of a predetermined color is depleted in each color developing cartridge. A color image forming apparatus capable of performing the above and a control method thereof.

The color image forming apparatus is a device that receives predetermined print target data from a computer or an external storage device and prints the same on a printing paper in a multicolored color. Such a color image forming apparatus includes an inkjet method and a laser printing method according to a printing method of a printing engine.

The color image forming apparatus to which the laser printing method is applied includes a photoreceptor, a photosensitive medium for forming an electrostatic latent image corresponding to light emitted from the optical scanning device, a developing device and a developing device for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive medium. And a transfer device for transferring the image developed on the photosensitive medium to the recording medium. The developing apparatus includes a plurality of developing devices each supplying color toners of yellow (Y: Yellow), cyan (C: Cyan), magenta (M: Magenta), and black (K: Black) colors for color image development. .

The printing operation of the color image forming apparatus having the above configuration is as follows.

First, the print target data input to the color image forming apparatus is separated into color-specific data for Y, C, M, and K colors. Color data for each of the separated Y, C, M, and K colors is stored in a predetermined memory area for each color. Color data for Y, C, M and K colors stored in each color memory area is output to the optical scanning device.

Gwangju president irradiates the surface of the photosensitive medium with light corresponding to yellow color among the color-specific data on Y, C, M and K colors received. Therefore, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive medium. Then, a yellow toner image is formed on the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive medium by a yellow developing device. The yellow toner image is transferred by the transfer belt.

Afterwards, Gwangju Sagi irradiates the surface of the photosensitive medium with light corresponding to cyan color. Thus, a new electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive medium. In the electrostatic latent image forming portion of the photosensitive medium, a cyan toner image is formed by toner discharged by a cyan developer. Then, the cyan toner image is transferred by the transfer belt and overlaps the yellow toner image on the transfer belt.

The same is repeated for the magenta and black toner in the same manner as described above. Thus, the transfer belt has a final image in which yellow, cyan, magenta and black toner images are superimposed. This final image is transferred to the printing paper to be supplied and then fixed by the fixing unit, thereby completing the printing operation.

Such a conventional color image forming apparatus detects the toner amount of each color developing cartridge provided in each color developing unit before printing the print target data transmitted from the outside. When the toner of one of the developer cartridges for each color is depleted, the printing operation process for the data to be printed is stopped.

Therefore, even if the user recognizes that there is no cartridge toner of a certain color and the document is processed to print only in the color of the toner in the application, the color image forming apparatus itself does not perform the printing process, so the user may have unexpected results. Is provided. Therefore, in order to print it, it is inconvenient to purchase a toner separately and perform a printing operation again. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an image forming apparatus which prints in consideration of the colors forming the data to be printed.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to print the data to be printed when there is no data for the corresponding color in the data to be printed even if the toner of the cartridge of a predetermined color is exhausted among the plurality of developing cartridges for printing the data to be printed. The present invention provides a color image forming apparatus and a control method thereof.

1 is a block diagram showing a video data control unit and a printing engine unit in a color image forming apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

2 is a flowchart illustrating a control method for the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

100: video data control unit 110: color data separation unit

120: frame buffer 130: color data detection unit

140: first interface unit 200: printing engine unit

210: second interface unit 220: Y developer cartridge

230: C developer cartridge 240: M developer cartridge

250: K developing cartridge 260: second control unit

In order to solve the above technical problem, the control method of the color image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises the steps of: detecting a toner-depleted toner cartridge out of each color developer cartridge, each of the print target data transmitted from the outside; Separating into color-specific data, detecting colorless data that does not exist in the color-specific data of each of the separated color-specific data, comparing the color of the colorless data and the color of the toner cartridge with each other And when the color of the colorless data and the color of the toner cartridge are the same as the result of the determination, printing the separated data for each color through a print engine unit.

The colorless data detecting step may include storing the separated color-specific data in each color memory area, and detecting the colorless data among each color data stored in the color-specific memory area. do.

In addition, in order to solve the above technical problem, the color image forming apparatus according to the present invention, separates the print target data transmitted from the outside into the data for each color, and the data for each color of the separated color-specific data A video data control unit for detecting colorless data that does not exist, and a printing engine unit for detecting colorless toner cartridges in which the toner is depleted among the developer cartridges for each color, and transmitting color information of the non-toner cartridges to the video data control unit; The video data controller, when comparing the color of the colorless data and the color of the non-toner cartridge, when both colors are the same, controls to print the separated data for each color to be transmitted to the print engine.

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

As described above, the print target data input to the color image forming apparatus (not shown) from a host computer (not shown) or an external storage device (not shown) is printed by the print engine 200. It is input to the video data controller 100 before. The video data controller 100 processes the print target data transmitted from the outside to be applicable to the print engine 200 to form video data. Here, the formation of the video data includes the concept of separating the data to be printed into data for each color.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a video data control unit and a printing engine unit in a color image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The video data control unit 100 according to the present invention includes a color data separation unit 110, a frame buffer 120, a color data detection unit 130, a first interface unit 140, and a first control unit 150. .

First, the print target data transmitted from the outside is processed by the color data separating unit 110. That is, the color data separating unit 110 separates the print target data into data for each color under the control of the first controller 150. As described above, each color data is divided into yellow (Y: Yellow), cyan (C: Cyan), magenta (M: Magenta), and black (K: Black) data. On the other hand, when the print target data is transmitted separately from the host computer for each color data, the first control unit 150 does not drive the color data separation unit 110.

The frame buffer 120 stores data for each color separated by the color data separating unit 110 under the control of the first controller 150. That is, the first controller 150 stores the data for each color separated by the color data separator 110 in the memory area for each color allocated in the frame buffer 120.

The color data detector 130 detects colorless data in which data for each color does not exist among data for each color stored in each color memory area of the frame buffer 120. In other words, the color data detector 130 examines memory areas of each color and determines whether color data exists in each memory area. The color of the memory area in which no color data exists is referred to as color of the colorless data hereinafter. When there is no color-specific data, the second controller 260 of the printing engine 200 controls the developer (not shown) for supplying the toner of the corresponding color of the colorless data to not be driven. This makes it possible to print the current print target data even if there is no corresponding toner in the developer cartridge. On the contrary, when the color-specific data is present, the second control unit 260 of the printing engine 200 drives the developer for supplying the toner of the color corresponding to the memory area in which the color-specific data exists.

The first interface unit 140 transmits and receives printing related information to and from the second interface unit 210 of the printing engine unit 200 under the control of the first control unit 150. Examples of print related information to be transmitted are color-specific data separated for each color, and examples of received print related information include jam information, paper presence information, paper size matching information, cover opening / closing information, Fixing temperature matching information, consumable life information, developer cartridge toner depletion information, and the like.

The first controller 150 generally controls the inside of the video data controller 100. The first controller 150 receives information about whether the developer cartridge toner is depleted from the print engine 200 through the first interface 140. The developer cartridge from which toner is depleted is referred to as a toner cartridge. If there is no toner cartridge and there is no colorless data, the first controller 150 determines that this is a printing stop state, and the message " toner no message " 'Is displayed. When there is no toner cartridge and colorless data, the first controller 150 compares the color information of the toner cartridge and the color information of the colorless data. When the comparison results are the same, the first controller 150 determines the case as a printable state and prints the data for each color stored in the frame buffer 120 through the first interface 140 through the print engine 200. ) And make it printable. If not equal to each other, the first control unit 150 determines that the case is a printing stop state, and processes the display unit (not shown) of the image forming apparatus or the 'toner-free message' to be displayed on the user interface of the host computer. .

The printing engine 200 generally includes a photosensitive drum, a charger, a light scanning device, a developing device, a transfer device, a fixing unit, a paper feed unit, and the like. Each of these components is controlled by the second controller 260.

A developing device (not shown) is a Y, C, M, and K developing device (not shown) for attaching four toners of Y, C, M, and K to an electrostatic latent image forming portion of a photosensitive drum (not shown) to form a toner image. C). Each developing unit is selectively driven according to the selection signal of the second control unit 260. Each developing device includes a Y developing cartridge 220, a C developing cartridge 230, an M developing cartridge 240, and a K developing cartridge 250 as each color developing cartridge for supplying four toners. The second controller 260 detects the amount of internal toner of the developer cartridges 220, 230, 240, and 250 for each color. Examples of the time for detecting the amount of toner include a case in which a print command is input, a case in which a predetermined period of time corresponds to a detection time, and the like. The second controller 260 transmits the color information of the detected toner cartridge to the video data controller 100 when the toner in the developer cartridge for each color is depleted.

Hereinafter, a method of controlling a color image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

First, after a predetermined document operation is performed in an application program of a host computer (not shown), a print command is input to the worked document (S310). The print target data of the worked document is processed into data recognizable by the color image forming apparatus through the printer driver, and transmitted to the color image forming apparatus. The transmitted print target data is input to the video data controller 100 in the color image forming apparatus.

When a print command is input, the color image forming apparatus recognizes this and detects the amount of toner of the developer cartridge for each color in the print engine 200. As a result of the detection, it is determined whether there is a non-toner cartridge among the developer cartridges for each color (S320). As a result, when there is no toner cartridge, the print target data is printed through a normal printing operation (S370).

However, when it is determined that there is no toner cartridge, the color information of the toner cartridge is transmitted to the video data controller 100.

The video data control unit 100 receiving the color information of the non-toner cartridge separates the input print target data into color data by the color data separating unit 110 (S330). The separated color-specific data is stored in each color memory area in the frame buffer 120. Then, the color data detector 130 detects data for each color stored in the memory area for each color. As a result of the detection, it is determined whether there is colorless data in which color-specific data does not exist (S340). As a result, when there is no colorless data, the print job can no longer be performed and the print job is stopped (S360).

However, as a result of the determination, when there is no color data, the video data control unit 100 determines whether the color information of the colorless data of the input toner cartridge and the colorless data is the same (S350). As a result, when both color information is the same, the video data controller 100 transmits the image data for each color stored in the frame buffer 120 to the print engine 200 in a conventional manner. The transmitted image data for each color is printed on printing paper (S370).

However, as a result of comparison, when both color information is not the same, the video data control unit 100 can no longer perform the print job and stops the print job (S360).

Although the present invention has been described in detail through the representative embodiments, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains can make various modifications without departing from the scope of the present invention. Will understand. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims below and equivalents thereof.

Conventionally, if at least one of the toner cartridges of each color cartridge is free of toner, the printing job is unconditionally stopped, but according to the color image forming apparatus and the control method thereof according to the present invention, the color data corresponding to the color of the toner-free cartridge If the print target data does not exist, it is possible to perform a print job. Therefore, when the user recognizes that there is no toner of a predetermined color and performs a document operation with a color except for the non-toner color, and starts a printing operation, the printing operation can be performed. As a result, printing can be performed without supplying the corresponding toner when there is no predetermined toner, so that user convenience can be attained.

Claims (5)

Detecting a toner depleted toner cartridge of each color developer cartridge; Dividing the print target data transmitted from the outside into data for each color; Detecting colorless data in which the color-specific data does not exist among the separated color-specific data; Comparing the color of the colorless data with the color of the toner cartridge; And And if the color of the colorless data and the color of the toner cartridge are the same, printing the separated color-specific data through a printing engine unit. . The method of claim 1, The colorless data detection step, Storing the separated color-specific data in each color memory area; And And detecting the colorless data from among the color-specific data stored in the color-specific memory areas. The method of claim 1, And if the color of the colorless data and the color of the toner cartridge are not the same as each other, the printing operation of the data to be printed is stopped. A video data controller which separates the print target data transmitted from the outside into data for each color and detects colorless data in which the data for each color does not exist among the separated data for each color; And And a printing engine unit which detects a toner depleted toner cartridge of each color developer cartridge and transmits color information of the toner cartridge to the video data controller. The video data control unit, When the color of the colorless data and the color of the non-toner cartridge is compared with each other, if both colors are the same, the color image forming apparatus characterized in that the control to print the separated data for each color to be transmitted to the print engine unit . The method of claim 4, wherein The video data controller, A color data separator for separating the print target data into data for each color; A frame buffer which stores the separated color-specific data in each color memory area; A color data detection unit for detecting the colorless data among the data for each color stored in the memory area for each color; And And a control unit for controlling to transmit the stored data for each color to the print engine, when the colors of the toner cartridge and the color of the colorless data are compared with each other. Forming device.