JPH0717112A - Image output device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide an image output apparatus that executes page return processing with the correct number of returned sheets. [Structure] When a trouble is detected by the jam detecting unit 5b or the like, the CPU 1 determines the validity of the count value read from the remaining number counter 5a according to the page state stored in the page management table 4b that indicates printed / unprinted. judge. If the count value is valid, the CPU 1 sets the count value to the number of returned sheets, and if the count value is inappropriate, the CPU 1 adjusts the count value according to the page state, and then returns the number of returned sheets. , Page return processing is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image output device, for example, an image output device for performing double-sided printing by an alternate paper feeding method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to output images on both sides at high speed, there is a printing apparatus of an alternating paper feeding type which does not print in the order of front, back, front, ... Hereinafter, the basic operation of the printing apparatus based on the alternate paper feeding method will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus based on the alternate paper feeding method.

In FIG. 1, the recording paper supplied from the paper feed table 11 has the image of the front page transferred to the upper surface of the image transfer section 12, and the fixing section 13 fixes the image, and then the reversing section 1
The intermediate tray 14 is reached via 6. At this time, the recording paper on one side of which is printed is accumulated in the intermediate tray 14 by the reversing unit 16 so that the already printed surface faces upward.

When the printing of the front page is completed, the intermediate tray 14
The recording paper accumulated in is fed again to the image transfer unit 12 by the paper feeding unit 15, the image of the back page is transferred to the upper surface (unprinted surface) by the image transfer unit 12, and the fixing unit 13 fixes the image. After being ejected, the paper is ejected to the paper ejection unit 17. Double-sided printing is performed by repeating the above-described operation. However, in the alternating-feeding type printing apparatus, a page management table 21 and a page buffer 22 as shown in FIG.
And a page pointer 21c. The page buffer 22 is a buffer for storing print contents of each page,
The page management table 21 manages the page number 21a of the print content stored in the page buffer 22 and its printing surface 21b, and the page pointer 21c stores it in the page buffer 22 by pointing to a predetermined position of the page management table 21. Specify the printed content.

In order to perform printing by the alternate paper feeding method, the page pointer 21c needs to point to the page to be printed at present for each of the front page and the back page. 6A shows the current position of the front page, and FIG. 6B shows the current position of the back page. After the printing of the corresponding page is completed, the pointer 21c advances by two pages so as to indicate the front page or back page to be printed next.

In the above printing apparatus, if a jam or misprint occurs during printing, the operator removes all the recording paper remaining on the intermediate tray 14 in the printing apparatus, and then restarts the printing apparatus. To do. As a result, the printing apparatus continues the printing processing after performing the page returning processing by the counter indicating the remaining number of sheets in the apparatus. Next, the page returning processing will be described.

In the situation where the page pointer 21c is as shown in FIG. 6, the page numbers "1" and "2" are printed on the first sheet of recording paper and it is already ejected.
The second recording paper on which the page number “3” is printed and the third recording paper on which the page number “5” is printed remain.
To count the number of remaining sheets, the sensor 18 detects the recording paper fed from the paper feed table 11 and increments the count value by 1, and the sensor 19 detects the recording paper ejected to the paper ejection unit 17 to calculate the count value. Since it is obtained by subtracting -1, the counter value is 2 in the situation of FIG. When a jam occurs in such a situation, (A) of the page pointer 21 is returned by the value of the remaining number counter and is set to the position of page number "3". When printing is restarted, the printing device will restart printing from the page position.

[0008]

However, the above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems. In the method of counting the number of remaining sheets in the apparatus described in the above-mentioned conventional example, the actual remaining number of sheets may not match the count value due to various factors (for example, noise). For example, when a jam occurs and the count value becomes 1 in the situation of FIG.
Since 1c indicates page number "5", the content of page number "3" was not printed even when printing was restarted.

That is, in the page returning process according to the above conventional example, the number of pages to be returned is set only by the count information from the printing unit. However, there is a problem in that the sheets are returned to print duplicate pages, or the number of sheets to be returned is insufficient to cause missing pages. If misprinting due to conveyance failure such as skew occurs at the time of backside printing, reprinting only the relevant page causes the order of printing to be out of order due to the relationship with the recording paper remaining in the intermediate tray 14. Once all the remaining recording paper in the machine is forcibly ejected, the page return processing is performed, but if a misprint occurs during front side printing,
Since the recording paper remaining on the intermediate tray 14 remains as it is and only the recording paper that has been misprinted is ejected, only the relevant page needs to be reprinted. That is, in misprinting at the time of front surface printing, if the page returning process is always performed, there is a problem that page duplication occurs.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and has the following structure as one means for solving the above problems. That is, an image output device for outputting image information to both sides of a recording medium, storage means for storing the image information in page units, management means for managing the image information stored in the storage means in page units, Output means for outputting the image information read from the storage means by the management means to a predetermined surface of the recording medium; and first detecting means for detecting a trouble in the output means,
A second detection means for detecting the number of recording media in the image output process, and the management means provides a detection result of the second detection means when a predetermined trouble is detected by the first detection means. Based on this, the image output device determines the first page of the image information read from the storage means after the trouble is resolved.

[0011]

With the above construction, when a predetermined trouble is detected, the image output device for determining the first page of the image information to be read from the storage means after the trouble is solved, based on the number of recording media in the image output process. Can be provided. For example,
With the above configuration, when a trouble occurs, it is possible to provide an image output device capable of executing the page return processing with the correct number of returned sheets according to the content of the trouble.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An image output apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Note that this embodiment is a printing apparatus using an alternate paper feeding method, and the image output operation on recording paper is substantially the same as the operation described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control configuration example of this embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a printer main body of this embodiment, which includes the following components. Reference numeral 2 denotes a CPU, which is, for example, a microcomputer, and controls the entire operation of this embodiment via the CPU bus 2a according to a program stored in the ROM 3 or the like.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a printer unit, which has, for example, the configuration of the alternate paper feeding system shown in FIG. 5, and prints an image sent via the CPU bus 2a on a recording paper. The printer unit 5
Includes a remaining number counter 5a for counting the number of recording sheets remaining in the apparatus, and a jam detecting section 5 for detecting a jam.
b, a misprint detection unit 5c for detecting misprint due to conveyance failure such as skew feeding.

A RAM 4 is used as a work area for the CPU 2. The RAM 4 has therein a page buffer 4a for storing print data in page units, a page management table 4b for managing the page buffer,
A page return processing flag 4e indicating whether or not to perform the page return processing, a front pointer 4c pointing to a printed page on the front side, and a back pointer 4d pointing to a printed page on the back side are included, and the page pointer 4c or 4d is from the page buffer 4a to the printer. It is incremented by 2 when the print data transfer to the copy unit 5 is completed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the page management table 4b. In the figure, 41 indicates a page number. Reference numeral 42 denotes a printing surface, which indicates whether the corresponding printing surface of the page number 41 is “front” or “back”. Reference numeral 43 is a start address, which represents the start address of the page buffer 4a in which the print data of the corresponding page number 41 is stored.

Reference numeral 44 is a page state, which represents the printing state of the corresponding page number 41. For example, the page state 44 becomes “R” when the print data of the corresponding page number 41 has been transferred to the print unit 5 (that is, has been printed), and the print data of the corresponding page number 41 is sent to the print unit 5. It is “P” when not transferred or being transferred (that is, being printed). In the figure, both sides of the first recording sheet, that is, page numbers “1” and “2” have been transferred, and have been discharged to the outside of the apparatus or are in the process of being discharged.
The printing of the front surface of the second to fourth sheets of recording paper is completed and remains in the apparatus. At this time, the remaining number counter 5a
Becomes 4 → 3 by discharging the first recording sheet, the front pointer 4c points to the page number “9”, and the back pointer 4d points to the page number “4”.

Next, the operation relating to the page return processing of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when a trouble occurs in this embodiment, and a program for realizing the processing procedure is stored in the ROM 3. When a trouble occurs, this embodiment identifies the trouble content occurring in step S1 and then executes step S2.
It is determined whether or not the page return processing is executed. That is, if a jam or misprint has occurred, the process proceeds to step S4 to execute the page return process, and if there is another trouble, after executing the process corresponding to the trouble in step S3, The process ends.

When a jam or misprint occurs, this embodiment determines in step S4 whether a misprint has occurred during front surface printing. That is, if a misprint occurs during front-side printing, the page return processing flag 4e is turned off in step S5 and the process jumps to step S9. Otherwise (misprint during jam or back-side printing), step S6. After the page return processing flag 4e is turned on, the process proceeds to step S7.

If a misprint occurs during printing on the jam or the back side, this embodiment reads the count value of the remaining number counter 5a and returns the value at the step S7.
Then, in step S8, from the page pointed to by the table pointer 4c,
The first page Pr of reprinting is obtained by tracing back the page management table 4b for the number N of returned sheets. Subsequently, in the present embodiment, step S
In step 9, the page return processing flag 4e is determined, and if the flag is on, the process proceeds to step S11. If the flag is off, the process proceeds to step S10. After instructing the user to remove the recording paper in the vicinity of the fixing unit 13), the process ends. That is, if a misprint occurs during front-side printing (that is, the page return processing flag is off), only the relevant page needs to be reprinted, and the page return processing need not be executed.

When the page return processing flag is on, this embodiment instructs the user to remove the recording paper from the printing section and the intermediate tray 14 in step S11, and determines in step S12 whether or not the number of returned paper sheets is appropriate. . That is, in this embodiment, there is no page whose page state 44 is "P" (untransferred), which is traced back from the first page Pr obtained in step S8, and the recording sheet is advanced from the first page Pr. If there is no page in which the page status 44 is “R” (transferred) on both sides of, the process jumps to step S14. If page management table 4b
Oldest page recorded in step S8 and the first page P obtained in step S8
If the above condition is not satisfied, such as a page having a page state of "P" between r and r, the process proceeds to step S13.

If the above conditions are not satisfied, the present embodiment corrects the number N of returned sheets to a correct value in step S13, and then proceeds to step S14. That is, step S
The number of sheets between the first page Pr obtained in 8 and the oldest page whose page state is "P" is added to the number of returned sheets N, or
And both sides of the recording paper, the number of pages between pages whose page state 44 is "R" is subtracted from the number of returned sheets.

Subsequently, in the present embodiment, in step S14,
The front pointer 4c and the back pointer 4d are set to -N, both pointers are returned to the first page Pr of the reprint, the remaining number counter is reset in step S15, and then the process ends. Figure 3
After the processing procedure shown in (3) is finished, when the user finishes the processing according to the trouble such as removing the recording paper stuck due to a jam, the present embodiment restarts the printing processing.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an operation example of this embodiment, and shows an example of the state of the page management table 4b.
In the figure, if a jam occurs during printing of page number "4", if the number N of returned sheets obtained in step S7 is 3, the table pointer 4c indicates page number "9", that is, the fifth sheet. Therefore, the leading page Pr obtained in step S8 is the page number "3" which is three pages back. Therefore, in step S12, since the page state 44 before the second sheet is "R" on both sides, it is determined that the number N of sheets is returned to a proper value.

However, if the number N of returned sheets obtained in step S7 is 2, the leading page Pr obtained in step S8 is the page number "5", which is two pages backward, and step S1
In No. 2, since there is a page whose page status 44 is “P” before the third sheet, the number N of returned sheets is determined to be inappropriate. Therefore, the number N of returned sheets is incremented by 1 in step S13. As described above, according to the present exemplary embodiment, in the alternating-feeding type printing apparatus or the like, by recording the page state 44 in the page management table 4b, a jam or a misprint (especially when printing on the back side) occurs. In this case, even if the count value of the remaining sheet number counter 5a in the apparatus is incorrect, printing can be restarted from the correct page, so that page skipping and duplicate printing can be prevented.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a predetermined trouble is detected, the first page of the image information read out from the storage means after the trouble is solved is determined based on the number of recording media in the image output process. Since it is possible to provide an image output apparatus for determining, for example, when a trouble occurs, it is possible to execute the page returning process with the correct number of returned sheets according to the content of the trouble.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration example of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of a page management table 4b of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when a trouble occurs in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an operation example of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation of a general alternating sheet feeding type printing apparatus.

6 is a diagram showing a configuration for controlling double-sided printing by the printing apparatus of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 2 CPU 3 ROM 4 RAM 4a Page Buffer 4b Page Management Table 4c Table Pointer 4d Back Pointer 4e Page Return Processing Flag 5 Printer Section 5a Residual Number Counter

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image output device for outputting image information to both sides of a recording medium, comprising: storage means for storing image information in page units; and management for managing the image information stored in the storage means in page units. Means, an output means for outputting the image information read from the storage means by the management means to a predetermined surface of the recording medium, a first detecting means for detecting a trouble in the output means, and a recording medium in the process of outputting an image. And a second detecting means for detecting the number of the second detecting means, the managing means, when a predetermined trouble is detected by the first detecting means, after the trouble is resolved based on the detection result of the second detecting means. An image output device, characterized in that a first page of image information read out from a storage means is determined. 2. The predetermined trouble is a trouble or a jam in outputting to the other surface of the recording medium on which image information is output on one surface.
The image output device described. 3. The management unit manages, for each page, output information indicating whether or not the image information stored in the storage unit is output by the output unit, and based on the output information, the second information is output. The image output device according to claim 2, wherein the detection result of the detection means is corrected.