JP3679552B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus applied to an image forming unit capable of duplex printing such as a printer and a copying machine.
[0002]
[Prior art]
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a schematic structure of the image forming apparatus. 1 is an image forming unit that performs an image forming process and printing operation for printing an image on a sheet, 2 is a sheet reversing unit that reverses the surface of the sheet, 3 and 3 are upper and lower two-stage paper feed trays for storing paper, 4 is a paper feed roller installed in each of the paper feed trays 3 and 3 for feeding paper, 5 is a paper discharge tray, and 6 is for long and large size paper. A door 7 that is opened at the time of reversing, 7 is a branch conveying unit that selectively conveys the paper on which the image is formed in the image forming unit 1 to the paper discharge tray 5 and the direction of the paper reversing unit 2; A reversing roller 9 is provided in the reversing unit 2 to switch back the paper, and 9 is a transporting roller for transporting the switched back paper to the image forming unit 1 again.
[0003]
In FIG. 6, in the case of single-sided printing, the paper fed from one of the paper feed trays 3 by the paper feed roller 4 is image printed on one side through the transport path a in the image forming unit 1, The paper is discharged to the paper discharge tray 5 by the branch conveyance unit 7.
[0004]
In the case of double-sided printing, the sheet on which the image is printed on one side through the conveyance path a in the image forming unit 1 is sent to the conveyance path b of the sheet reversing unit 2 by the branch conveyance unit 7 and reversed. The image is printed on the other surface by being switched back in the switchback path c of the roller 8 and sent again to the conveyance path a in the image forming unit 1 by the conveyance path d of the conveyance roller 9. After printing on both sides in this way, the paper is discharged to the paper discharge tray 5 by the branch conveyance unit 7.
[0005]
In addition, when a large-sized sheet is used for duplex printing, the entire sheet may not be inserted depending on the length of the switchback path c. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the door 6 of the paper reversing unit 2 is opened, and a part of the long and large size paper is taken out to enable switchback.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the paper feeding structure in the conventional image forming apparatus, when a long and large size paper is used for double-sided printing, it is necessary to open the door 6 of the paper reversing unit 2. If the door 6 is not opened, the conveyed paper is jammed. Will end up.
[0007]
However, opening and closing the door during double-sided printing is complicated, and there is a problem that jamming due to forgetting to open the door and troubles due to forgetting to close the door are likely to occur.
[0008]
An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to improve workability at the time of setting in duplex printing in an apparatus having a sheet reversing means having a door opened corresponding to duplex printing of a large size paper. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus which improves, prevents troubles in paper conveyance, and eliminates waste of paper.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing means for printing on a sheet , a switchback path for reversing the sheet by switching back at the time of printing, and a part of a sheet having a size longer than the switchback path. An image forming apparatus including a paper reversing unit having a door that is opened to take out the paper, and a unit that determines whether or not double-sided printing is possible by detecting a paper size and an open / closed state of the paper reversing unit door ; When the result of the judging means is that the paper size is not a printable size and the paper reversing means door is closed, it is judged that double-sided printing is impossible, and single-sided printing is performed or the paper reversing means determines whether to stop the printing operation until the door is opened and characterized in that a means for executing, by this arrangement, including the state in which the door is closed When single-sided printing is not possible, it automatically enters single-sided printing or stops printing, so you can forget setting work and prevent paper jams and other problems from occurring. Can do.
[0010]
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming processing unit that performs an image forming process based on data sent from a computer, a printing unit that performs printing on a sheet in response to the image forming process, and switches back the sheet during printing. In the image forming apparatus, comprising: a switchback path that is reversed by a sheet, and a sheet reversing unit that has a door that is opened to take out a part of a sheet having a size longer than the switchback path. Means for detecting whether or not double-sided printing is possible by detecting the open / closed state of the door, and the result of the judging means is that the paper size is not a printable size and the door of the paper reversing means is closed said computer whether judged impossible to double-sided printing, and stops the printing operation until the open door of the sheet reversing means whether to perform single-sided printing when you are And further comprising a means for performing the setting in, by this configuration, when the door is not possible duplex printing, including the state of being closed, the or printing operation performing single-sided printing from the computer Since it is automatically set as to whether to stop, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of problems such as forgetting the setting work and jamming of the paper due to the setting work. In addition, it is not necessary to change the setting on the image forming apparatus side.
[0011]
Further, according to the present invention, when performing single-sided printing based on the determination result, if the paper size for double-sided printing is larger than the maximum printable paper size, the paper for double-sided printing on both sides of the printable paper The image is divided and printed, and this configuration does not increase the area required for the printing, thereby eliminating paper waste.
In the present invention, when it is determined that double-sided printing is impossible based on the determination result, the printing operation is stopped while the paper reversing unit door is closed, and the paper reversing unit door is opened. Occasionally, printing is started, and with this configuration, it is possible to prevent problems such as paper jamming.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, members corresponding to those described in FIGS. 6 and 7 are assigned the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.
[0013]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 11 is connected to a host computer 12 and receives data sent from the host computer 12. The image forming processing means 13 for performing image forming processing based on the above, and the printing means 14 having the paper reversing unit 2 having the same configuration as that shown in FIG. And a storage means 15 such as a hard disk for storing settings of the printing method for one side and both sides, and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 16 for controlling the components.
[0014]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart relating to a double-sided printing operation in the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. Prior to printing, it is determined whether the printing method is double-sided printing, and if double-sided printing is set (S1-1), check whether the paper size is a printable size (S1-2) At the same time, the open / close state of the door 6 of the sheet reversing unit 2 is checked (S1-3). If the door 6 is not a printable size and the door 6 is closed, information on the handling mode set in advance in the storage means 15 is extracted (S1-4), and the duplex printing setting is ignored. When the mode is set (YES in S1-5), select the appropriate size of paper from the paper feed trays 3 and 3, feed it, change the setting to single-sided printing (S1-7), and print (S1-8). Also, when the coping mode is set so as not to ignore the duplex printing setting (NO in S1-5), the printing operation is stopped by displaying a warning or the like until the door 6 is opened (S1-6). When the is opened, printing is performed (S1-8).
[0015]
By performing double-sided printing control in this way, it is possible to prevent jamming due to paper feeding when double-sided printing is not possible. Further, when changing to single-sided printing ignoring the duplex printing setting, the operator does not need to open the door.
[0016]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart relating to a double-sided printing operation in the image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The main configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment is the same as the configuration shown in FIG.
[0017]
In FIG. 3, it is first determined whether or not the printing method is double-sided printing as described above, and if double-sided printing is set (S2-1), it is checked whether the paper size is a printable size. At the same time, the opening / closing state of the door 6 of the sheet reversing unit 2 is checked (S2-3). If the door 6 is not in a printable size and the door 6 is closed, information on the coping mode set in advance in the host computer 12 is extracted (S2-4). By doing so, it is not necessary to change the setting on the image forming apparatus side, and by setting the control code from the host computer 12, the subsequent countermeasure mode and the like are set.
[0018]
As described above, when the coping mode of ignoring the double-sided printing setting is set (YES in S2-5), an appropriate size paper is selected from the paper feed trays 3 and 3, and fed. The setting is changed to single-sided printing (S2-7), and printing is performed (S2-8). If the coping mode is set so as not to ignore the double-sided printing setting (NO in S2-5), a warning is displayed until the door 6 is opened to stop the printing operation (S2-6). When the is opened, printing is performed (S2-8).
[0019]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart relating to the main operation of duplex printing in the image forming apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. This flow is an operation in place of step (S1-7) in the flowchart of FIG. 2 or step (S2-7) of the flowchart in FIG. 3. Although not shown, other operations are the same as those in FIGS. Done by flow.
[0020]
In FIG. 4, when the setting is changed so as to ignore the set double-sided printing, the maximum size paper capable of double-sided printing is selected from the paper feed trays 3 and 3 (S3-7a). Then, according to the size of the selected paper, the image relating to the double-sided printing is divided and printed on the front and back sides of the selected paper (S3-7b).
[0021]
By performing such single-sided printing processing, for example, as shown in FIG. 5A, the paper that can be printed on both sides is A4 size (landscape), and the paper size that the user wanted to perform double-sided printing is shown in FIG. As shown in (b), when the image is A3 size, the image of the A3 size paper is divided into two vertically according to the A4 size (horizontal) (represented as a front page and a back page in the figure). The divided images are printed on the front and back sides of a single A4 size sheet. Therefore, rather than simply changing to single-sided printing and printing on two sheets, it is possible to divide the image and print on both sides of one sheet as described above, thereby reducing the area required for printing. It does not increase and paper resources are not wasted.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, is it possible to perform double-sided printing by detecting the paper size and the open / closed state of the paper reversing means by the apparatus itself or by a connected computer or the like ? If it is not possible to make double-sided printing, forgetting the setting work to make other appropriate settings such as automatically performing single-sided printing or stopping the printing operation, As a result, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of problems such as paper jams, and further, it is possible to perform printing processing that does not increase the area required for printing, thereby eliminating paper waste.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart relating to a double-sided printing operation in the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart relating to a double-sided printing operation in an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart relating to a main operation of duplex printing in an image forming apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a printing example by the apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a schematic structure of an image forming apparatus.
7 is an explanatory diagram when switching back a long and large paper in FIG. 6; FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image formation part, 2 ... Paper reversing part, 3 ... Paper feed tray, 4 ... Paper feed roller, 5 ... Paper discharge tray, 6 ... Door of paper reversing part, 7 ... Branch conveyance part, 8 ... Reverse roller, 9 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS ... Conveyance roller, 11 ... Image forming apparatus, 12 ... Host computer, 13 ... Image formation processing means, 14 ... Printing means, 15 ... Storage means, 16 ... Central processing unit.

Claims (4)

Paper reversal having printing means for performing printing on paper , a switchback path for reversing the paper by switching back during printing, and a door opened to bring out a part of the paper having a size longer than the switchback path to the outside An image forming apparatus comprising:
Means for detecting whether or not double-sided printing is possible by detecting the paper size and the open / closed state of the paper reversing means ;
When the result of the judging means is that the paper size is not a printable size and the paper reversing means door is closed, it is judged that double-sided printing is impossible, and single-sided printing is performed or the paper reversing means An image forming apparatus comprising: means for determining whether or not to stop the printing operation until the door is opened . Image forming processing means for performing image forming processing based on data sent from a computer, printing means for receiving the image forming processing and printing on paper , and a switchback path for reversing the paper by switching back during printing And an image forming apparatus comprising a sheet reversing unit having a door that is opened to take out a part of a sheet having a size longer than the switchback path .
Means for detecting whether or not double-sided printing is possible by detecting the paper size and the open / closed state of the paper reversing means ;
When the result of the judging means is that the paper size is not a printable size and the paper reversing means door is closed, it is judged that double-sided printing is impossible, and single-sided printing is performed or the paper reversing means an image forming apparatus comprising the means for performing or stopping the printing operation until the door is opened by setting in the computer.   When performing single-sided printing according to the determination result, if the paper size for double-sided printing is larger than the maximum printable paper size, the image of the paper for double-sided printing is divided on both sides of the printable paper. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein printing is performed. When it is determined that double-sided printing is impossible based on the determination result, the printing operation is stopped while the paper reversing unit door is closed, and printing is started when the paper reversing unit door is opened. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus.

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