TWI532360B - Copying system - Google Patents

Description

Copy system

The present invention relates to a copying system, and more particularly to an elastic copying system comprising at least one printer and a plurality of scanners connected to each other via a cable or a network.

In the self-photocopying area of a general photocopying shop or a chain stationery store, merchants usually provide multiple photocopiers for consumers to use for themselves, or small and medium-sized photocopying shops can purchase or rent refurbished photocopiers to save equipment costs. . Because the photo printing machine's printing engine consumes a lot of power, about 300W or more, even in the standby state, it is about 70W or more, and many photocopiers cause a huge amount of electricity and burden for the merchant. If the merchant uses a refurbished photocopier, the main parts of the photocopier must be old, and the toner and consumables are not supplied by the original manufacturer, which makes the quality of printing and copying not only difficult to maintain, but also distortion. Once the parts of the photocopier are broken, the maintenance is also difficult and the cost is increased.

In addition, when small and medium-sized photocopying shops perform photocopying functions, most of them use only one-page photocopying files of the photocopying machine platform. The speed and performance of the printing engine in the photocopying machine cannot be played, but they have to be in a hot state. As mentioned above, the print engine is a power consuming device. Such inefficient use is a waste of power and an increase in cost.

Therefore, the present invention provides a copying system that can replace the photocopier by using a low-power scanner, which not only solves the power consumption problem, but also fully utilizes the performance of the printing engine, and can also reduce the space occupied by the machine.

An object of the present invention is to provide a copying system in which a printing device in a system collectively prints a document image obtained by a scanning device to improve printing efficiency and achieve energy saving and carbon reduction effects.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a copying system that performs a copying job. The copying system includes a first scanning device, a second scanning device, and a printing device. The first scanning device performs a scanning operation to obtain a document image. The first scanning device includes a temporary register, a data processor and a controller. The data processor converts the image of the file obtained by performing the scanning operation into a printed data, and transfers the printed data to the temporary storage for storage. The controller receives a transfer instruction after the scan job is completed, and correspondingly issues a print request and transfers the print data stored in the scratchpad to the printing device. The printing device is coupled to the first scanning device and the second scanning device, and receives a plurality of printing operations from the first scanning device and the second scanning device, and sorts the printing operations. After the printing device receives the printing request from the first scanning device, a printing job is initiated.

The copying system of the present invention can improve work efficiency and reduce operating costs for photocopying shops; the copying system allows multiple copying operations to be performed simultaneously on a plurality of scanning devices, and all copying results are output from the same printing device. In this way, not only can the performance of the printing engine be fully utilized, but also because a plurality of scanning devices use a printing device in common, the cost of the copying device is greatly reduced, and the electricity cost is also saved.

The copying system of the invention can be configured differently according to different needs: a printing device can be combined with a general flatbed scanner, and can also be combined with an automatic paper feeding scanner to quickly scan multiple pages of documents. Or use a zero-margin scanner that scans books to make copying books easier. The copying system of the invention breaks the concept of scanning and printing integration of the conventional copying machine, and changes to a modular design, so that the user can make an optimal arrangement according to his own needs. By reducing the purchase of printing engines, it not only reduces operating costs, but also responds to the government's policy of energy conservation and carbon reduction to achieve environmental protection.

In order to make the above description of the present invention more comprehensible, a preferred embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic illustration of a copying system 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1. In this embodiment, the copying system 1 is composed of two flatbed scanners 100 and 200, an automatic paper fed scanner 300, a multifunction printer 400, and a printer 500. The scanners 100, 200, and 300 are scanning devices, and the multifunction printer 400 and the printer 500 are printing devices. The multifunction printer 400 can also be a scanning device, and the scanned data is transmitted to the printer 500. Output. The MFP 400 can also be considered as a combination of the scanner 410 and the printer 420, thus having the functions of both devices. However, the copying system of the present invention basically requires only two scanning devices and one printing device to achieve the object of the present invention.

In order to achieve the goal of saving resources and cost, the best implementation of the copying system is a plurality of single-function scanners, such as the scanners 100, 200, and 300 in this embodiment, with a printer or multifunction. Transaction machine. In this embodiment, the scanners 100, 200, and 300 are connected to the printer 500 and the multifunction printer 400 through the network 1000 (such as Ethernet); however, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the scanners 100, 200, 300 can also pass electricity The cable is directly connected to the printer 500 and the multifunction printer 400.

In the copy job performed by the copying system, the scanners 100, 200, 300 are responsible for performing the scanning operation, and the printer 500 and the multifunction printer 400 are responsible for executing the printing job. When the scanners 100, 200, 300 respectively complete the scanning operation, the scanners 100, 200, 300 individually generate a printing job, so the printer 500 successively receives a plurality of slave scanners 100, 200, 300. Print the work. The printer 500 can arrange the order of printing according to the time of receiving the printing work, or arrange the printing order according to the nature, importance, and the like of the printed materials in the printing work.

2 is a functional block diagram of a copying system 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , the scanner 100 includes a controller 110 , a data processor 120 , a register 130 , and a communication interface module 160 . The data processor 120 converts the file image obtained by performing the scan job into a print data, and transfers the print data to the temporary storage 130 for storage. In this embodiment, the register 130 is a removable memory, such as the SD memory card shown in FIG. 1, but can also be replaced by a fixed type of volatile or non-volatile memory. The communication interface module 160 is used to connect to the network 1000 or directly output data and signals to devices in other copying systems. When the scan job is completed, if the controller 110 receives a transfer command, the controller 110 correspondingly issues a print request and transfers the print data stored in the register 130 to the printer 500. Upon receipt of the print request from the scanner 100, the printer 500 initiates a print job and begins printing the print data received from the scanner 100. That is, if the controller 110 does not receive the transfer instruction, the print data will be stored in the scratchpad 130 and will not be transferred to the printer 500.

The transfer command can be generated by a user input. Therefore, the scanner 100 further includes an operation panel 140 to provide a data transfer option. The data transfer option can be a physical button or trigger, or an option on the touch screen. After the scan job is completed, when the user selects or presses the data transfer button, the controller 110 receives the transfer command and correspondingly transmits the print request and the print data stored in the register 130 to the printer 500. . The operation panel 140 may also include a notification module, such as a display screen, to provide information related to the user's copy job.

Alternatively, the scanner 100 further includes a timer 150. The timer 150 sends a transfer command to the controller 110 after the scan job is completed, and when the controller 110 receives the transfer command, the print request and the print data stored in the register 130 are correspondingly transmitted to the timer 110. Printer 500. For example, if the timer 150 detects that the scanner 100 has no action within one minute after the scan job is completed, the timer 150 sends a transfer command to the controller 110. In addition, the timer 150 can also send a print command to the controller 110 at a certain time, for example every ten minutes. After receiving the print command, the controller 110 transmits a print request to the printer 500 to start printing. The watch machine 500 prints the print jobs in the queue. The printing work in the printer 500 array is from other scanners 200, 300. The printer 500 can also be provided with an automatic printing function: it is set at a certain time to start the printing operation in the printing queue.

3 is a flow chart of a copy job in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to Figure 3, the steps of the copy job are as follows.

Step S310: The scanner 100 scans the file and obtains a file image.

Step S320: The scanner 100 converts the document image into a print data, and transfers the print data to the temporary storage 130 for storage.

Step S330: Whether the controller 110 has received the transfer instruction. If a transfer command is received, step S342 is performed. If not, then returning to step S310, the user can continue to scan other files, and the scanner 100 stores the print data of the files in the temporary storage 130 one by one. Therefore, the printing work transmitted by the scanner 100 to the printer 500 may include printing of a plurality of documents.

Step S342: The scanner 100 issues a print request and transfers the print data stored in the register 130 to the printer 500. In order to reduce the operation steps, after receiving the transfer instruction, the scanner 100 transmits all the print data on the scratchpad 130, and the user does not need to select the print data to be transferred. After the print data is transmitted, the scanner 100 deletes the print data.

When the controller 110 receives the transfer instruction, it can simultaneously issue a transfer request to the scanners 200, 300, as in step S344; the scanner 200, 300 transmits a print job to the printer 500 upon receipt of the transfer request. Therefore, the operation panel 140 in FIGS. 1 and 2 provides a scanning device option for the user to select the scanner 200, 300; if the user selects the scanner 200, the controller 110 issues a transmission request to the scanner 200 if the user The scanner 300 is selected and the controller 110 issues a transfer request to the scanner 300, which in turn transmits the print job to the printer 500.

Step S350: After the printer 500 receives the print request from the scanner 100, the print job is started.

According to the copying workflow described above, the scanner 100 can be executed in succession The scanning operation of multiple documents does not need to immediately transfer the printed data of multiple documents to the printer for printing, but the temporary storage 130 generally has a capacity limitation, and the temporary storage 130 is used for preventing copying operations. The display screen in the operation panel 140 also provides a storable capacity message of the register 130 of the scanner 100.

In the present embodiment, a scanner 100 in the copying system is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and all or a part of the scanners in the copying system may have the same functions as those of the scanner 100.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the invention, and those skilled in the art can make a few changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of protection of the present invention is therefore defined by the scope of the appended claims.

100, 200‧‧‧ flatbed scanner

110‧‧‧ Controller

120‧‧‧data processor

130‧‧‧ register

140‧‧‧Operator panel

150‧‧‧Timer

160‧‧‧Communication interface module

300‧‧‧Automatic Paper Feed Scanner

400‧‧‧Multifunctional machine

410‧‧‧Multifunction machine scanner

420‧‧‧Printer for multifunction printer

500‧‧‧Printer

1000‧‧‧Network

S310, S320, S330, S342, S344, S350‧‧‧ steps

1 is a schematic illustration of a copying system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a functional block diagram of a copying system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flow chart of a copy job in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

100, 200‧‧‧ flatbed scanner

130‧‧‧ register

140‧‧‧Operator panel

300‧‧‧Automatic Paper Feed Scanner

400‧‧‧Multifunctional machine

410‧‧‧Multifunction machine scanner

420‧‧‧Printer for multifunction printer

500‧‧‧Printer

1000‧‧‧Network

Claims (15)

A copying system, performing a copying operation, comprising: a first scanning device for performing a scanning operation to obtain a document image, the first scanning device comprising: a temporary register; a data processor for performing Converting the document image obtained by the scanning operation into a printed data, and transmitting the printed data to the temporary storage; and a controller receiving a transfer instruction after the scanning operation is completed, and correspondingly issuing a printing request And transmitting the print data stored in the register; and a printing device coupled to the first scanning device and receiving the printed material from the first scanning device; wherein the printing device is from the first After the scanning device receives the printing request, it starts a printing job. The copying system of claim 1, wherein the first scanning device further comprises an operation panel, and provides a data transmission option for the user to select after the scanning operation is completed, wherein the data transmission option is corresponding to Optionally, the controller receives the transfer instruction and correspondingly transmits the print request and the print data stored in the register to the printing device. The copying system of claim 1, wherein the first scanning device further comprises a timer, after the scanning operation is completed, sending the transfer command to the controller after a predetermined time, the controller receives the After the instruction is transmitted, the print request and the print data stored in the register are correspondingly transmitted to the printing device. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing jobs, wherein the first scanning device further comprises a The timer sends a print command to the controller at a certain time. After receiving the print command, the controller transmits the print request to the printing device to start the printing device in the printing device. Print the work. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing jobs, wherein the printing device is set to start printing work in the printing queue at a certain time. The copying system of claim 1, wherein the controller deletes the printed material after the controller transmits the printed material stored in the temporary register to the printing device. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing jobs, wherein after receiving the transfer instruction, the controller of the first scanning device further sends a second scanning device to transmit the request to the second scanning device; and the first The second scanning device transmits a printing job to the printing device after receiving the second scanning device transmission request. The copying system of claim 7, wherein the first scanning device further comprises an operation panel, and a scanning device option is provided for the user to select the second scanning device, wherein the selection of the scanning device option is corresponding to And the controller transmits the second scanning device to transmit the request to the second scanning device. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing jobs, wherein the printing device, the first scanning device, and the second scanning device are separate entities. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device is from the first A scanning device and the second scanning device receive a plurality of printing jobs and sort the plurality of printing operations, wherein the printing device and the second scanning device are combined into a multifunction printer. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing operations, wherein the printing device is connected to at least one of the first scanning device and the second scanning device through a network. The copying system of claim 1, wherein the temporary storage device is a removable memory. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing jobs, wherein the first scanning device and the second scanning device are each a flatbed scanner and an automatic paper fed scanner. The copying system of claim 1, further comprising a second scanning device connected to the printing device, wherein the printing device receives a plurality of printings from the first scanning device and the second scanning device Working, and sorting the plurality of printing jobs, wherein the first scanning device and the second scanning device comprise a notification module for providing a user with the related information of the copying operation. The copying system of claim 14, wherein the information related to the copying operation comprises a storable capacity message of the temporary storage device of the first scanning device.