JPH04253046A - Printer device and method for displaying remaining amount of printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correctly display the remaining amt. of each of plural magazines by discriminating the types of the recording materials to be loaded and displaying the remaining amt. in the magazine according to the size subjected to assignment for printing. CONSTITUTION:The presence or absence of the loading and kinds of the material receiving magazines and the remaining amts. of image receiving materials are displayed on a display section 98 of an operation panel 88 connected to a controller 80. The remaining amts. are stored in a controller 80 by each of the kinds of the recording materials housed in the material receiving magazines discriminated by a sensor 86 and the display contents are changed over by the loaded material receiving magazines. The recording material is cut by a cutter 18 in accordance with the assigned size and is positioned to a printing position. The cut length and the amt. subjected to printing processing in accordance with the discriminated recording material type are subtracted from the remaining amt. and are stored and displayed. Then, the remaining amts. of the recording materials corresponding to the respective magazines are correctly displayed even if the printing processing is executed while the recording material magazines are replaced.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printer device that pulls out recording material from a magazine containing rolled recording material and prints it, and a printer that displays the remaining amount of recording material in the magazine loaded in this printer device. This invention relates to a method for displaying remaining capacity of a device.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Printers, for example, image recording apparatuses that use photosensitive materials as recording materials and obtain color images, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 75247/1983, use a heat developing section after exposing an image to a photothermographic material. It is known that the image is transferred to the image-receiving paper by transferring the image to the image-receiving paper and bringing the image-receiving paper into close contact with the photosensitive material after heat development.

Image receiving paper used in such an image recording apparatus is wound into a roll and housed in a magazine in a light-shielded manner. When this magazine is loaded into the apparatus, it is pulled out from the leading end of the outermost layer of image-receiving paper, cut into a predetermined size, and transported to the exposure position.

By the way, when printing in large quantities using a printer device, the user may leave the work place after instructing a host computer or the like to perform the printing process. In such a case, the user needs to know in advance the amount of recording material remaining in the magazine so that the printing process is not interrupted midway due to running out of recording material (image receiving paper).

However, it is necessary to maintain a light-shielded state inside the magazine, making it difficult to easily recognize the remaining amount. For this reason, it is conceivable to memorize the state of full capacity, subtract the amount of processing each time printing is performed, and display the remaining capacity. This allows the user to recognize the amount of recording material remaining in the magazine before printing in large quantities.

However, today, presentations using OHP (overhead projector) are common, and printers also use plain paper and OHP paper interchangeably as recording materials, and There are also many different types. In such cases, it may be possible to provide multiple magazine loading ports depending on the type and size of each magazine, but this would result in a larger device and a more complex mechanism.
Preferably, the magazines are reloaded into a single magazine loading port.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, as described above, when reloading a single magazine loading slot with an OHP recording material magazine or a recording material magazine of a different size, the recording material in the magazine may be partially used. It may be removed. This causes a problem that the remaining amount cannot be displayed correctly.

In consideration of the above facts, the present invention provides a printer device and a method for displaying the remaining amount of recording material in the printer device, which can correctly display the remaining amount of recording material corresponding to each magazine even when printing is performed while replacing recording material magazines. The purpose is to obtain.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The invention as set forth in claim 1 provides a magazine that stores recording material in a rolled-up state and that can be loaded into a main body of a printer device; a discriminating means for discriminating the type of recording material; a cutter for cutting the recording material pulled out from the magazine into a predetermined length; a print control means for positioning the recording material cut by the cutter at a print position and printing; a calculation means for calculating the remaining amount of recording material in the magazine for each recording material type based on the length cut by the cutter and the recording material type determined by the determination means each time the control means prints; It has a storage means for storing the calculated results, and a display means for displaying the calculated results by the calculating means.

[0010] The invention according to claim 2 is used for a printer device that pulls out recording material from a magazine containing rolled recording material and prints, and the remaining amount of the printer device is used to display the remaining amount of the recording material. The display method determines the type of recording material by loading the magazine into the printer main body, displays the remaining amount of recording material corresponding to the determined magazine, and displays the recording material type from the magazine according to the specified size. Each time a material is pulled out, cut, transported to a printing position, positioned, and printed, the amount corresponding to the size of the cut recording material is subtracted from the determined remaining amount for each type of recording material, and the amount of records in the loaded magazine is calculated. It is characterized by displaying the remaining amount of material.

[0011]

[Operation] According to the invention described in claims 1 and 2,
When the magazine is loaded, the type of recording material contained in the magazine (for example, plain paper or OHP paper) is determined, and the remaining amount of the determined recording material up to the previous time is displayed. Next, the recording material is cut with a cutter according to the specified size and positioned at the printing position. The positioned recording material is printed by the print control means.

[0012] Here, the amount of print processing is subtracted from the remaining amount based on the length cut by the cutter and the determined recording material type, and the result is stored and displayed. As a result, when the same magazine is loaded next time, the value obtained by subtracting the amount processed up to the previous time is displayed, allowing the user to correctly recognize the remaining amount of recording material in the magazine.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an image recording apparatus 10 to which a thermal development transfer apparatus according to the present invention is applied.

A photosensitive material magazine 14 is arranged on the machine base 12 of the image recording apparatus 10, and a photosensitive material 16 is wound up into a roll and stored therein. The photosensitive material 16 includes photosensitive silver halide, a binder, a dye-donating substance, and
It has a reducing agent.

A control device 80 is located near the photosensitive material magazine 14.
A cutter 18 controlled by a cutter (see FIG. 3) is disposed, and the photosensitive material 1 drawn out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 is
6 to a predetermined length. The cut photosensitive material 16 is conveyed to an exposure section 20.

An exposure device 22 is provided directly above the exposure section 20. The exposure apparatus 22 is provided with a light source 14, a plurality of mirrors 26a, 26b, and a lens unit 28, and a mounting plate 30 is provided on the top of the machine stand 12 above these parts. The light source 14 and the plurality of mirrors 26a are movable along the mounting plate 30, and the control device 80 turns on the light source 14 and displays the image of the document 32 placed on the mounting plate 30 on the exposure section. The photosensitive material 16 located at 20 is scanned and exposed.

A reversing roller 34 is disposed on the side of the exposure section 20, and a water application section 36 is further disposed on the side of the reversing roller 34. The photosensitive material 16 on which the image has been exposed in the exposure section 20 is reversed and conveyed by a reversing roller 34, and is coated with water as an image forming solvent by a water coating section 36.

A thermal development transfer section 38 is arranged downstream of the water application section 36. The thermal development transfer section 38 is composed of a heating drum 40 and an endless pressure belt 42.
Furthermore, a halogen lamp 44 is arranged within the heating drum 40.

The surface of the heating drum 40 is coated with Teflon, and further heated to about 90° C. by a halogen lamp 44.

On the other hand, the machine 1 on the opposite side from the photosensitive material magazine 14
A receiving material magazine 46 is disposed at 2, and an image receiving material 48 as a recording material is wound up into a roll and stored therein. The image forming surface of the image receiving material 48 is coated with a dye fixing material having a mordant. A plurality of types of receiving material magazines 46 are prepared and can be replaced in the loading port 12A. Each receiving material magazine 46 contains different recording materials. For example, a white-based image receiving paper and a transparent-based image receiving paper are prepared, and when used for OHP, a magazine 4 containing the transparent-based image receiving paper is prepared.
6 is loaded into the loading port 12A, and image recording is performed.

As shown in FIG. 4, each magazine loaded into the loading port 12A has a notch 82 formed in the vertical wall on the side in the loading direction. The number of cutouts 82 is determined depending on the type and size of the recording material to be accommodated. On the other hand, a sensor 86 composed of a plurality of limit switches 84 is disposed on the rear vertical wall of the loading port 12A, and corresponds to the notch 82. Therefore, the contact point of the limit switch 84 is switched depending on the presence or absence of the notch 82, and the type of recording material stored in the receiving material magazine 46 to be loaded can be determined.

There are also cutters 5 near this receiving material magazine 46.
0 is arranged to cut the image receiving material 48 drawn out from the receiving material magazine 46 into a predetermined length. The cut image receiving material 48 is conveyed to the thermal development transfer section 38.

A bonding roller 52 is arranged near the heating drum 40 on the upstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction. The pasting roller 52 overlaps the transported photosensitive material 16 and image receiving material 48 and transfers them to the heating drum 4.
0, and guided and supplied between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42 in the overlapping state.

The photosensitive material 16 on which the image has been exposed is superimposed on the image receiving material 48 by the laminating roller 52 and wound around the heating drum 40, and is wrapped around the heating drum 40 between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42. It is designed to be pinched and conveyed over 2/3 of the circumference and thermally developed.

Further, the photosensitive material 16 is transferred to a heat development transfer section 38.
When heated while superimposed on the image receiving material 48 (between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42), a mobile dye is released and at the same time this dye is transferred to the dye fixing layer of the image receiving material 48. Images are now available.

A peeling claw 56 is arranged below the heating drum 40 on the downstream side of the endless pressure belt 42 in the material supply direction. Further, a peeling roller 58 is arranged between the peeling claw 56 and the endless pressure belt 42.

The tip of the peeling claw 56 is normally in contact with the heating drum 40, and when the photosensitive material 16 is conveyed, it engages with the tip of the photosensitive material 16 and removes the photosensitive material 16 from the heating drum. The peeling roller 58 presses the photosensitive material 16 onto the heating drum 40 and wraps the photosensitive material 16 in a peeled state with a peeling claw 56 and bends it downward. It is supposed to be done. The separated photosensitive material 16 is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 provided below the heating drum 40.

On the other hand, a peeling roller 62 and a peeling pawl 64 are arranged near the heating drum 40 above the peeling pawl 56, and separate the image receiving material 48 from the photosensitive material 16 and moving together with the heating drum 40 onto the heating drum 40. It is designed to be peeled off from the outside. The image receiving material 48 peeled off from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40 is collected on a tray 66.

As shown in FIG. 3, an operation panel 88 connected to a control device 80 is provided on the machine base 12. The operation panel 88 is provided with a recording start key 90, a recording number designation key 92, a magnification designation key 94, a cancel (reset) key 96, and the like. After the recording magnification is specified in , the recording start key 90 is operated. This operation panel 88 is provided with a display section 98 . This display section 98 displays whether or not the receiving material magazine 46 is loaded, the type thereof, the specified number of recording sheets, the magnification, and the like. The display section 98 also shows the image receiving material 48 in the receiving material magazine 46.
The remaining amount is now displayed.

Here, each time the image receiving material 48 is used,
The remaining amount decreases, and the remaining amount (number of recordable images) can be recognized. Note that this remaining amount is determined by the sensor 8.
Each type of recording material stored in the receiving material magazine 46 determined by 6 is stored in the control device 80, and the display contents are changed depending on the receiving material magazine 46 loaded.

In this embodiment, the image receiving materials 48 housed in the receiving material magazine 46 are shared in sizes whose aspect ratios are reciprocals (for example, A3 and A4, B4 and B5); for example, A3- When an A4 size receiving material magazine 46 is loaded and A3 is specified, the long side of A3 is pulled out and cut, and when A4 is specified, it is pulled out and cut by the short side of A4. become. At this time, the remaining amount displayed on the display section is displayed according to the specified size. That is, the number of recordable sheets displayed when A4 is specified is twice the number of recordable sheets displayed when A3 is specified.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained according to the flowchart of FIG. In step 150, when the power is turned on, the process moves to step 152 and the receiving material magazine 4 is turned on.
6 is loaded. If a negative determination is made, that is, it is determined that the receiving material magazine 46 is not loaded in the loading port 12A, the process proceeds to step 154, where the flag F is set (1), and then the process proceeds to step 156, where the display section 98 is displayed. ``No received material magazine'' is displayed on the screen, and the process moves to step 152. If it is determined in step 152 that the receiving material magazine is loaded, the process proceeds to step 158, where "material magazine present" is displayed, and the process proceeds to step 160, where the magazine type is determined based on the output signal from the sensor 86. After determining the magazine type, the program moves to step 162 to display the determined magazine type, and then moves to step 164. In step 164, it is determined whether flag F is set. Here, if it is determined that the flag F is set, the process moves to step 166 and the leading end cut is carried out. This process is performed because when replacing the receiving material magazine 46, the receiving material is removed from the loading port 12A while being slightly pulled out from the receiving material magazine 46.
This part becomes unusable. The task is to remove this unusable part. In this case, by cutting the image-receiving material 48 with a dimension longer than the dimension between the rollers of the conveyance system (B5 size in this example), the image-receiving material 48 is conveyed along the conveyance path of the apparatus.
Can be discharged. In the next step 168, the flag F is reset (0) and the process moves to step 170. Note that if flag F has been reset in step 164, steps 166 and 168 are skipped and the process proceeds to step 170.

In step 170, it is determined whether or not a recording size has been specified. If the recording size has not been specified, the process moves to step 152 and the above steps are repeated.

Further, when the recording size is specified in step 170, the process moves to step 172, and the remaining amount of recording material in the receiving material magazine 46 is displayed. In addition, immediately after replacing the receiving material magazine 46, the remaining amount of recording material stored up to the previous time is displayed on the display section 98.

At the next step 174, when the number of recording sheets is designated by the recording number designation key 92, the process proceeds to step 17.
6, it is determined whether or not the specified size or number of sheets to be recorded is to be canceled. If there is a cancellation, that is, if the cancel key 96 has been operated, the process moves to step 170 and the process starts again from the size instruction. If there is no cancellation, the process moves from step 176 to step 178 and waits for the recording start key 90 to be operated. When the recording start key 90 is operated, the process moves to step 180 and recording processing is performed. The image recording processing procedure of step 180 will be explained below.

When the photosensitive material 16 pulled out from the photosensitive material magazine 14 is cut by the cutter 18 and then conveyed to the exposure section 20, the exposure device 22 is activated to remove the original 32 placed on the placement plate 30. The image is scanned and exposed onto the photosensitive material 16 located in the exposure section 20.

After exposure, the photosensitive material 16 is reversed and conveyed by a reversing roller 34, water is applied as an image forming solvent by a water coating section 36, excess water is removed by a squeeze roller 37, and then heat is applied. Development transfer section 3
8.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 48 is also pulled out from the receiving material magazine 46 and cut into a predetermined length by the cutter 50, and then sent to the thermal development transfer section 38, overlapping with the photosensitive material 16.

In the thermal development transfer section 38, the endless pressure belt 4
A bonding roller 52 is disposed near the heating drum 40 on the upstream side in the material supply direction of No. 2, and the photosensitive material 16 and image receiving material 48 are supplied to this bonding roller 52.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 48 is attached to the bonding roller 5.
The second image-receiving material is supplied to the bonding roller 52 while being pressed and guided to the outer periphery of the heating drum 40 by a leaf spring 54 disposed on the upstream side in the transport direction of the second image-receiving material. Therefore, the image receiving material 48 is supplied to the bonding roller 52 in a uniform state with wrinkles etc. forcibly stretched out.

The photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 48 supplied to the bonding roller 52 are
The sheets are uniformly overlapped by the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42 in the overlapping state.

When the photosensitive material 16 is heated while superimposed on the image-receiving material 48 in the thermal development transfer section 38 (between the heating drum 40 and the endless pressure belt 42), it releases mobile dye, and this dye is transferred to the dye fixing layer of the image receiving material 48 to obtain an image.

When the photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 48 are sandwiched and conveyed and reach the lower part of the heating drum 40, the peeling claw 56 engages the tip of the photosensitive material 16 and peels the photosensitive material 16 from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40. , separated from the image-receiving material 48, a peeling roller 58 presses the photosensitive material 16 against the heating drum 40, and a peeling claw 56 winds the peeled photosensitive material 16 and bends and guides it downward.

The separated photosensitive material 16 is transferred to the heating drum 4.
The photosensitive material is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 provided below.

On the other hand, the heating drum 4 is separated from the photosensitive material 16.
The image-receiving material 48 moving together with the image-receiving material 48 is peeled off from the outer periphery of the heating drum 40 by a peeling roller 62 and a peeling claw 64, and is accumulated on a tray 66.

When the above recording process is completed for the specified number of sheets, the process moves from step 180 to step 182.
The remaining amount is subtracted according to the specified size and number of recording sheets, and in step 184, the subtracted remaining amount is displayed on the display section 9.
Display on 8. In the next step 186, it is determined whether or not the processing has ended, and if the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step 152.
Move to. Furthermore, if the determination is affirmative, the process ends.

As described above, in this embodiment, even if there are a plurality of magazines to be loaded and images are recorded by replacing them, it is possible to correctly display the remaining amount of recording material contained in each magazine. This allows you to check the remaining amount of recording material when you instruct a large amount of image recording and leave the work area. Therefore, problems such as running out of recording material during processing do not occur, and work efficiency is improved.

[0048] In this embodiment, a device is used which exposes an image onto a heat-developable photosensitive material, sends it to a heat development section, and transfers the image to a receiver paper by bringing the image-receiving material into close contact with the photosensitive material after heat development. However, there are other printer devices in which the recording material used is stored and loaded in a roll-shaped magazine, such as a device that records an image on a heat-developable photosensitive material using an image signal, or a device that exposes an exposure drum. It can also be applied to a normal copying device that applies toner to make copies.

[0049]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the printer device and the remaining amount display method of the printer device according to the present invention correctly display the remaining amount of recording material corresponding to each magazine even when printing is performed while replacing the recording material magazines. It has the excellent effect of being able to

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a control flowchart showing a processing procedure of an image recording apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of the image recording apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the positional relationship between a notch provided in the magazine and a limit switch.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Image recording device (printer device) 12A
Loading port 46 Receiving material magazine 48 Image receiving material (recording material) 80 Control device 86 Sensor 88 Operation panel 98 Display unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A magazine that stores recording material in a rolled state and can be loaded into a printer main body; a determining means for determining the type of recording material stored in the magazine when loading; a cutter for cutting the drawn-out recording material into a predetermined length; a print control means for positioning the recording material cut by the cutter to a printing position and printing; and a cutter for cutting the recording material cut by the cutter into a predetermined length; a calculation means for calculating the remaining amount of recording material in the magazine for each recording material type based on the length and the recording material type determined by the determination means; a storage means for storing the result calculated by the calculation means; and a calculation means. A printer device comprising: display means for displaying calculation results obtained by the printer. 2. A remaining amount display method for a printer device for displaying the remaining amount of recording material, which is used in a printer device that pulls out recording material from a magazine in which a roll-shaped recording material is stored and prints, the method comprising: By loading a magazine into the printer main body, the recording material type is determined, the remaining amount of recording material corresponding to the determined magazine is displayed, and the recording material is pulled out from the magazine according to the specified size, cut, and printed. To display the remaining amount of recording material in the loaded magazine by subtracting the amount corresponding to the size of the cut recording material from the determined remaining amount for each type of recording material each time the cutting material is conveyed to a position and printed. A method for displaying remaining capacity of a printer device, characterized by: