JPH03214185A - Electrophotographic recording system page printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce power consumption by turning off current feeding to a heater of a fixing unit part by instruction from a mechanism control part when printing process is not carried out for more than a fixed period of time, and by feeding the current to the heater again when a command is received from a host device or a control panel by the mechanism control part. CONSTITUTION:Every time a printing process is carried out, the lapse of time after the completion of the printing process is measured by a timer 2. Then, if the command is not received from the host device 5 or the control panel 6 after a fixed period of time is passed by the mechanism control part 1, or the printing process is not carried out, an instruction is put out by the mechanism control part 1, and the current feeding to the heater 4 of the fixing unit part 3 is stopped. After that, when the command is received by the mechanism control part 1 from the host device 5 or the control panel 6, the instruction is put out again by the mechanism control part 1, and the state is returned to one where printing can be carried out by carrying out feeding of current to the heater 4 of the fixing unit part 3. Thus, the power consumption is reduced and the running cost can be decreased.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to an electrophotographic page printer.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, the temperature of the fixed unit of this type of printer has been kept constant during printing, while receiving command data from a host device, or while waiting for command processing to be rounded due to operation input from the operation panel. was controlled by firmware.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional page printer described above, the temperature t1 of the fixing unit remains constant both during printing operation and during standby for command processing by the operator from the υ operation panel that has received command data from the host device. However, since it is controlled by firmware, power consumption increases, which is one of the factors that increases running costs.

[Means to solve the problem]

The electrophotographic page printer of the present invention includes a fixing unit that thermally fixes toner on paper, a timer that measures the elapsed time during which no print processing is performed, and an operation panel that receives command data from a host device and and a mechanism control section having a function of processing a command based on an operation input from the fixing unit and turning on/off the current supply to the heater of the fixing unit section according to the type of measurement time.

〔Example〕

Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, each time the print process is performed, the elapsed time from the end of the print process is counted by a timer #j, and
If the mechanism control section 1 does not receive a command from the host device 5 or the operation panel 6 or does not perform printing processing even after a certain period of time has passed, the mechanism control section 1 issues a command to control the fixing unit section 3. The current supply to the heater 4 is stopped.

Thereafter, when the mechanism control section 1 receives a command from the host device 5 or the operation panel 6, the mechanism control section 1 issues a command again to supply current to the heater 4 of the fixing unit section 3 to perform printing. Get back to the state you can.

In this way, it is possible to limit power consumption and reduce running costs.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention turns off the current supply to the heater of the fixing unit section in response to a command from the mechanism control section when printing processing is not executed for a certain period of time or more, and then turns off the current supply to the heater of the fixing unit section. By providing a function that supplies current to the heater again when the control unit receives a command from a host device or operation panel, power consumption can be eliminated and running costs can be reduced. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...mechanism control part, 2...-timer, 3...fixing unit part, 4...heater, 5...host device, 6...
·control panel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A fixing unit that heats the toner to the paper, a timer that measures the elapsed time during which no print processing is performed, and a timer that receives command data from a host device and processes commands input from the operation panel. An electrophotographic page printer comprising: a mechanism control section having a function of turning on/off current supply to the heater of the fixing unit section according to a measured time.