JPH0473773A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the automatization of a maintenance working and to save manpower in the work by providing a decision storing mechanism storing plural results decided by a discordance deciding mechanism. CONSTITUTION:The decision result storing mechanism 503 stores time informa tion at the time of check execution, counter information for the number of summed-up sheets, and the result decided by a deciding mechanism 501 as his tory information, every time a deciding action is executed by a discordance action deciding mechanism 501. A history information editing.display.output mechanism 509 edits the history information accumulated/stored on a cumulative mechanism 503 in an instructed form according to the contents of the editing.display.output instruction of the history information, or the editing information is displayed on a console for the maintenance 601, or the editing information is set to a printing information memory mechanism via an input switching mechanism 202 and simultaneously, control for carrying out printing on a printing sheet is executed by the same action as normal printing. An output mechanism 509 executes instructed editing or display or output actions according to the instructed contents stored in a history information editing.display.output instructing memory mechanism 508.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device equipped with a print quality checking mechanism.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in a printing device that electronically prints on paper by adhering toner using static electricity and baking the toner, a toner adhering mechanism using an electrostatic toner adhesion mechanism produces toner attached in a manner corresponding to information input to the printing device. Normally, the transfer and printing is performed by the transfer mechanism and printing without any checks, and the image is output onto actual paper.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention 1] However, with conventional printing devices, there was a problem in that it was difficult to quantitatively grasp the quality of the print quality in the printing device. Checking the extent to which print quality has deteriorated is often carried out by specialized maintenance engineers during regular maintenance, and the history of quality deterioration is also often managed manually by maintenance engineers. However, there were problems in that maintenance efficiency was poor and preventive maintenance was difficult.

The present invention was made to solve these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing device having a print quality checking mechanism.

[Means for Solving the Problem] The invention according to claim (1) of the present invention provides a method for printing from a plurality of types of character strings for checking printing quality, such as vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, one square type, nine character strings, and the like. It has a read-only memory that stores a plurality of check patterns, and further has an input switching mechanism that switches between selecting print information or selecting a check pattern in the read-only memory as input information to the print information memory mechanism. The apparatus further includes a determination result accumulation mechanism for accumulating a plurality of determination results obtained by the inconsistency determination mechanism.

Furthermore, the invention stated in claim (2) is defined in claim (1).
The apparatus has a check operation control mechanism for executing a print quality check on a plurality of sheets, and is further equipped with a check sheet number instruction memory mechanism that stores in advance instruction information for the check operation control mechanism.

Furthermore, the invention stated in claim (3) is defined as claim -)
The apparatus has a check start control mechanism for controlling the start of the print quality check, and further includes a check start timing instruction memory mechanism that stores in advance instruction information for the check start control mechanism.

Furthermore, the invention stated in claim (4) is defined in claim (1).
The judgment result by the inconsistency judgment mechanism accumulated in the judgment result storage mechanism is edited as history information and displayed on the maintenance console, or the print information memory mechanism, the charging mechanism, and the toner adhesion mechanism.

It has a history information editing/display/output mechanism that outputs to printing paper using a transfer mechanism and a fixing mechanism.
It is equipped with a history information editing/display/output instruction memory mechanism that stores instruction information for the display/output mechanism in advance.

[Operation 1] In the invention described in claim (1), a print quality check is performed in accordance with a check mode instruction, and the check results are accumulated.

In the invention of claim (2), the checking operation is repeated according to the instruction of the number of sheets to be checked.

In the invention of claim (3), the printing quality check is activated in accordance with the check activation timing instruction, and the check results are accumulated.

Further, in the invention of claim (4), the accumulated check results are displayed on the maintenance console or printed on printing paper.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, in which 101 is a photosensitive drum (or photosensitive bell h);
02 is an electrostatic charging mechanism, 103 is a toner adhesion mechanism, 10
4 is a transfer mechanism, 105 is a fixing mechanism, 106 is a clear brush, 201 is a print information memory mechanism, 202 is an input switching mechanism, 203 is a read-only memory (ROM), and as described later, there are multiple types of memory for checking print quality. A plurality of check patterns consisting of vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, one box shape, one curved line, and one character string are each stored. Reference numeral 204 indicates a memory mechanism for instructing the driver, and reference numeral 701 indicates a printing paper.

Further, 301 is a charging state detection mechanism, 302 is a toner adhesion state detection mechanism, and 303 is a transfer state detection mechanism, and all of these are not necessarily required, and it is sufficient to have at least one of them. And each state detection mechanism 301 to 303
Since various known detection means can be used for the configuration itself, the details thereof will be omitted. 304 is a switching mechanism; 305 is a state memory mechanism for the charging state, toner adhesion state, transfer state, etc.; 401 is a memory information comparison mechanism;
402 is a mismatch state memory mechanism, 403 is a calculation mechanism that counts a mismatch and calculates a mismatch rate, and 501 is a mismatch/action determination mechanism that determines a mismatch ratio and an operation instruction. It is expressed as a block. Reference numeral 502 denotes a threshold/operation information memory mechanism for storing threshold information and operation designation information, and for convenience, the threshold information memory mechanism and operation information memory mechanism are also represented by blocks. 5
03 is a judgment result accumulation mechanism, 504 is a check number instruction memory mechanism, 505 is a check operation control mechanism, 506 is a check start timing instruction memory mechanism, 507 is a check start control mechanism, 50B is a history information editing/display/output instruction memory mechanism , 509 is a history information editing/display/output mechanism, 6o1 is a maintenance console, and 602 is an operation instruction parameter input mechanism.

2(a) to 2(d) show examples of check patterns for checking print quality stored in the read-only memory 203 of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 2(a) shows vertical lines. The pattern shown in FIG. 2(b) is a horizontal line pattern, FIG. 2(C) is a diagonal line pattern, and FIG. 2(d) is a valve-shaped pattern. In the figure, W is the horizontal dimension of one sheet of paper (n bits), and L is the same (the vertical dimension of one sheet of paper, a, a+n, a+
2n,..., b, b+n, b+2n,...
...indicates an address.

To operate this, information in the print information memory mechanism 201 is applied as electrostatic charging information onto the photosensitive drum (or photosensitive belt) 101 by the electrostatic charging mechanism 102, toner is attracted by the toner adhesion mechanism 103, and the transfer mechanism 104 is transferred to the printing paper 701 by the fixing mechanism 10.
Fixing is performed in step 5.

When checking the print quality, use the charging state detection mechanism 30.
1 or the state memory mechanism 30 while switching the information on the charging state, the toner adhesion state, or the transfer state detected by the toner adhesion state detection mechanism 302 or the transfer state detection mechanism 303 using the switching mechanism 304.
Store in 5. After printing one or more sheets of print information, the memory information comparison mechanism 401 compares the contents of the print information memory mechanism 201 and the status memory mechanism 305, and stores the discrepancy status information in the discrepancy status memory mechanism 4.
02 and displayed on the maintenance console 601 according to instructions from the maintenance console 601. In addition, the discrepancy count and discrepancy rate calculation mechanism 403
A discrepancy count is performed for each sheet to calculate a discrepancy rate, and the discrepancy count and discrepancy rate are also displayed on the maintenance console 601 according to instructions from the maintenance console 601.

On the other hand, operation designation information that specifies the mismatch ratio threshold and the action to be taken when there is a mismatch is set in advance from the action instruction parameter input mechanism 602 of the maintenance console 601 and stored in the threshold/action information memory mechanism 502 . Further, if the discrepancy ratio calculated by the calculation mechanism 403 is larger than the threshold value, operation instruction information for whether to continue or stop the operation of the printing device is set in advance from the maintenance console 601, and the threshold value/operation is set in advance from the maintenance console 601. The information is stored in the information memory mechanism 502. The discrepancy/operation determination mechanism 501 compares and determines the threshold value stored in the threshold value/operation information memory mechanism 502 and the discrepancy ratio calculated by the calculation mechanism 403, and if the calculated discrepancy ratio is larger than the threshold value, the threshold value is determined. A message indicating that the value has been exceeded is displayed on the maintenance console 601 and a warning is issued. In addition, the threshold/operation information memory mechanism 502
The mismatch/operation determination mechanism 501 determines the operation instruction set in , continues or stops the operation of the printing apparatus, and displays a message to that effect on the maintenance console 601.

Further, the input to the print information memory mechanism 201 is normal print information or one pattern in the read-only memory 203 that stores a plurality of patterns for checking print quality, or the history information editing/display/output mechanism 509.
The information is written via a manual switching mechanism 202 that switches which of the history information is used. Use normal print information or read-only memory 203
A check mode instruction to use the pattern or history information is set in advance from the operation instruction parameter input mechanism 602 of the maintenance console 601 and stored in the check mode instruction memory mechanism 204. Further, an instruction as to which pattern to use among the plurality of patterns in the read-only memory 203 is also set in advance from the operation instruction parameter manual mechanism 602 of the maintenance console 601 and stored in the check mode instruction memory mechanism 204. .

Further, the check operation control mechanism 505 executes operation control to perform the check operation for a plurality of sheets of print information or to repeat the check operation multiple times. A check number instruction indicating how many copies of print information to check or how many times to repeat the check operation is set in advance from the maintenance console 601 and stored in the check number instruction memory mechanism 504.

The check operation control mechanism 505 executes the instructed check operation according to the instruction contents stored in the check number instruction memory mechanism 504.

Further, the check activation control mechanism 507 executes operation control to activate the check operation at a specified time or at a specified cumulative number of sheets. The check activation timing instruction, which instructs the timing of the check operation, is
It is set in advance from the maintenance console 601 and stored in the check start timing instruction memory mechanism 506. The check activation control mechanism 507 executes the instructed check activation according to the instruction contents recorded in the check activation timing instruction memory mechanism 506. The check start timing instruction can be specified by time, by the total number of printed sheets, or by both the time and the total number of printed sheets, and for this purpose, a clock mechanism, a cumulative number of sheets counter, and a comparison mechanism with the specified time are required. A detection/report mechanism, a comparison mechanism with the cumulative number counter, and a detection/report mechanism are included in the check activation control mechanism 507.

Furthermore, the determination result accumulation mechanism 503 stores the time information at the time of check execution, the cumulative number counter information, and the determination result of the discrepancy/operation determination mechanism 501 as history information each time the determination operation is executed by the discrepancy/operation determination mechanism 501. It is stored and stored as History information editing/display/output mechanism 5
In step 09, in accordance with the contents of the history information editing/display/output instruction, the history information cumulatively stored in the judgment result accumulation mechanism 503 is edited in the instructed format, or the edited information is displayed on the maintenance console 601, Alternatively, the editing information is set in the print information memory mechanism via the manual switching mechanism 202, and control for printing on printing paper is executed in the same manner as normal printing. The history information editing/display/output instructions include editing the history information in the specified format and then transmitting the edited information to the maintenance console 601.
or to print the edited information on the printing paper 701 in the same way as normal printing after editing the history information in the specified format, or to print the edited information on the printing paper 701 after editing the history information in the specified format. In addition to displaying the editing information on the maintenance console 601, it is possible to specify that the editing information be printed on the printing paper 701 using the same operation as normal printing. - Store in the output instruction memory mechanism 508. The history information editing/display/output mechanism 509 executes the instructed editing, display, or output operation according to the instruction content stored in the history information editing/display/output instruction memory mechanism 50B.

Further, the above-described check mode instruction function, check number of sheets instruction function, check activation timing instruction function, and history information editing/display/output function can be used in combination.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained in detail above, the invention as claimed in claim (1) is capable of printing from a plurality of types of character strings for checking printing quality, such as vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, 1 square type, 1 curved line, 8 character strings, etc. It has a read-only memory storing a plurality of check patterns, and further has an input switching mechanism for switching between selecting print information as manual information to the print information memory mechanism or selecting a check pattern in the read-only memory, Furthermore, since it is equipped with a judgment result accumulation mechanism that accumulates a plurality of judgment results from the mismatch judgment mechanism, the calculation mechanism can calculate the mismatch rate between the electrostatic charge state, toner adhesion state, transfer state, and print information. In addition to being able to quantitatively check the print quality in the process, it is also easier to isolate the part of the print quality deterioration mechanism.

Furthermore, the mismatch determination mechanism automates the comparison with a predetermined threshold value, and the motion determination mechanism allows the operation to be controlled in a predetermined manner when the mismatch ratio exceeds the threshold value.

Furthermore, since a plurality of threshold values and operation commands for them are prepared in advance, appropriate processing can be performed according to the mismatch rate.

In addition, since it is possible to check various printing patterns using multiple check patterns, a print information input switching mechanism, and a judgment result storage mechanism, it provides a means for more detailed quantitative checking of print quality using a variety of print information. Since the check results can be stored as a history and referred to, it becomes easier to identify and isolate the parts where the printing quality deteriorates.

In the invention described in claim (2), the memory mechanism for indicating the number of sheets to be checked and the check operation control mechanism enable quantitative comparison of print quality in time series, and it is possible to check the deterioration status of print quality and determine the degree of deterioration. Work becomes easier.

In the invention described in claim (3), the check start timing instruction memory mechanism and the check start control mechanism can automate the check start at a predetermined time or the cumulative number of printed sheets, and can continuously collect maintenance information. Periodic maintenance work becomes easier because it is possible to check the print quality after troubleshooting or by fixed-point observation.

In the invention described in claim (4), the history information editing/display/output mechanism can display or output the time at the time of execution of the check, the cumulative number of sheets counter value, and the results of discrepancy/operation determination. It is possible to memorize a quantitative check of printing quality or to check printing quality over a long period of time, and it can be used as powerful maintenance information for analysis when a failure occurs and for regular maintenance. It becomes possible to automate and ensure maintenance information recording during regular maintenance, making it easier to save labor and improve efficiency of maintenance work.

In this way, the present invention can quantitatively grasp the degree of print quality deterioration in a printing device, automate checking work, and automatically acquire history information of check results, making it possible for advanced maintenance engineers to This technology will be important in the future in terms of automating, labor saving, and increasing efficiency of maintenance work in a situation where maintenance work is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) to 2(d) show examples of check patterns for checking print quality stored in the read-only memory of the embodiment of FIG. FIG. In the figure, 101 is a photosensitive drum or photosensitive belt, 102 is an electrostatic charging mechanism, 103 is a toner adhesion mechanism, 104 is a transfer mechanism, 105 is a fixing mechanism, 106 is a clear brush, 2
01 is a print information memory mechanism, 202 is a manual switching mechanism, 20
3 is a read-only memory, 204 is a check mode instruction memory mechanism, 301 is a charging state detection mechanism, 302 is a toner adhesion state detection mechanism, 303 is a transfer state detection mechanism, 30
4 is a switching mechanism, 305 is a state memory mechanism, 401 is a memory information comparison mechanism, 402 is a mismatch state memory mechanism, 40
3 is a calculation mechanism, 501 is a discrepancy/operation determination mechanism, 502
503 is a threshold/operation information memory mechanism, 503 is a judgment result accumulation mechanism, 504 is a check number instruction memory mechanism, 505
is a check operation control mechanism, 506 is a check activation timing instruction memory mechanism, 507 is a check activation control mechanism,
508 is a history information editing/display/output instruction memory mechanism;
09 is a history information editing/display/output mechanism, 601 is a maintenance console, 602 is an operation instruction parameter input mechanism, 7
01 is printing paper.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) In a printing device that is equipped with a charging mechanism, a toner adhesion mechanism, a transfer mechanism, and a fixing mechanism, and that electronically prints by adhering and fixing toner using static electricity, one or more sheets of paper are used to store print information. a charging state information detection mechanism that reads the charging state information after static electricity is charged by the charging mechanism; and a charging state information detection mechanism that reads the toner adhesion state information after toner is deposited by the toner adhesion mechanism. It has at least one of a toner adhesion state detection mechanism and a transfer state detection mechanism that reads transfer state information after being transferred to printing paper by the transfer mechanism, and further includes the charging state information, toner adhesion state information, or transfer state information. at least one of
a memory information comparison mechanism that compares information while taking correspondence between the print information memory mechanism and the status memory mechanism; A calculation mechanism that calculates the mismatch state or mismatch ratio for each sheet and displays it on the maintenance console, and multiple threshold values for the mismatch ratio between print information and charging state information, toner adhesion state information, or transfer state information in advance. It has a threshold setting mechanism for setting different levels, it has a threshold memory mechanism for storing the plurality of thresholds, and it further has a threshold value memory mechanism for storing the plurality of thresholds, and further has a threshold value setting mechanism for setting the plurality of thresholds to different levels, and further has a threshold value memory mechanism for storing the plurality of thresholds, and further includes a threshold value setting mechanism for setting the plurality of thresholds to different levels, and a threshold value memory mechanism for storing the plurality of thresholds. It has a discrepancy determination mechanism that sequentially compares and determines the discrepancy ratio, and further has a read-only memory that stores a plurality of check patterns for checking print quality, and further includes print information as input information to the print information memory mechanism. or a check pattern of the read-only memory, and further comprising a determination result accumulation mechanism for accumulating a plurality of determination results by the inconsistency determination mechanism. printing device. (2) It is characterized by having a check operation control mechanism that executes a print quality check on a plurality of sheets, and further comprising a check sheet number instruction memory mechanism that stores instruction information for the check operation control mechanism in advance. The printing device according to claim (1). (3) A claim characterized in that it has a check activation control mechanism that controls the activation of the print quality check, and further comprises a check activation timing instruction memory mechanism that stores instruction information for the check activation control mechanism in advance. The printing device according to item (1). (4) Edit the judgment results by the discrepancy judgment mechanism accumulated in the judgment result accumulation mechanism as history information and display it on the maintenance console, or print information memory mechanism, charging mechanism, toner adhesion mechanism, transfer mechanism, and fixing mechanism. It has a history information editing/display/output mechanism that outputs the history information to printing paper by using the history information, and further includes a history information editing/display/output instruction memory mechanism that stores in advance instruction information for the history information editing/display/output mechanism. A claim characterized by comprising (
1) The printing device according to item 1).