JPH11202577A - Electrophotographic printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [Problem] In a print bookbinding system, the fastest processing in an individual printing / bookbinding system can be performed regardless of the difference between the print processing time in a printer and the bookbinding processing time in a bookbinding apparatus. Do. SOLUTION: In an electrophotographic printer 102 to which a bookbinding apparatus 103 is connected online, a time setting means 10 which becomes a set time exceeding a difference between a print processing time and a bookbinding processing time.
8, the setting time can be changed by a command from the operation panel 104 or the host 101, the time setting means is started from the feeding of the last sheet of the booklet, and the printing of the next booklet is started after the set time has elapsed. .

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic printer provided with a post-processing device such as a bookbinding device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, demand for on-demand printing has been increased, and these printing targets are often booklets with a small number of pages and printed matter with a small number of copies. For such printing, a post-processing device such as a bookbinding device is connected online after the printer, and the entire process from printing to bookbinding is performed. As a printer in this case, an electrophotographic cut sheet printer is suitable in that cut paper is used because of easy post-processing, printing density is high, and high-speed printing is possible. FIG. 6 shows an example of a printing mechanism of an electrophotographic printer.
FIG. 6 shows an example in which both sides of a sheet are printed. In an electrophotographic printer, recording data 601 from a host device or the like (not shown) is converted into an optical recording signal by a laser optical system 604, and the electrostatic charge is applied to a photosensitive drum 602 charged to a high potential by a charger 603. The recording of the latent image is performed.

Thereafter, the electrostatic latent image is toner-developed by a developing device 605 to become a visible image on a drum.

On the other hand, after the toner image is transferred from the drum to the surface of the paper supplied from the paper feeding mechanism 612 by the transfer device 606 (position 650), the toner image is heated at a high temperature by the fixing device 607. Fixing to the paper is performed, and printing is performed on the surface of the paper. Next, this sheet is passed to the path switching mechanism 61.
0 is sent in the direction of arrow a to switch back mechanism 6
09 (position 651). Further, the sheet is reversely fed from the switchback mechanism 609 in the direction of arrow b by the rotation of the path switching mechanism 610, and enters the return path 611 (position 652). The feed path 61 is formed by the return path.
The paper returned to position 3 (position 653) returns to position 650 at position
At this time, the front and back sides of the sheet are reversed due to the switching of the leading end in the traveling direction by the switchback mechanism 609, and printing is performed on the back side of the sheet.

[0005] The sheet on which the front and back sides have been printed in this manner is guided by the path switching mechanism 610 in the direction of arrow c, and is discharged from the discharge path 614 to the outside of the printer. (Position 655).

As described above, the paper travels through a series of paper transport paths such as a paper feed path, a transfer device, a fixing device, a switchback mechanism, a return path, and a paper discharge path in the printing process. This sheet transport path is extremely long in a medium-speed cut sheet printer compared to the sheet, and the traveling time is a delay time of the sheet from when the printer feeds the sheet to when the sheet is printed and discharged. In FIG. 6, a bookbinding apparatus (not shown) performs post-processing such as bookbinding of discharged sheets.

FIG. 7 shows an operation example of the printing / binding process.
The figure shows an example of three booklets. At the start of printing of the first booklet A, the printer follows a predetermined paper feed timing,
Papers A-1, A-2, and A-3 are fed, and after the printing process, are sequentially discharged from the printer to the bookbinding device after the delay time Td. The bookbinding apparatus performs an operation of aligning one book while sequentially receiving these three sheets.
In the binding process, staples are made for each book. The completed booklet is discharged from the bookbinding device. During each of these bookbinding steps, the bookbinding apparatus raises the BUSY signal and does not accept the next booklet. Printing of the next booklet B is BUSY of the bookbinding device
After confirming that the signal has dropped, the printer starts printing.

[0008]

In the electrophotographic printer, there is a delay time Td from when the leading sheet is fed to when the sheet is printed and discharged. Since the delay time Td is a non-operation time of the bookbinding apparatus, there is a problem that the bookbinding processing time T in the case of continuous processing becomes long. In the production of booklets with a small number of pages, the throughput of bookbinding is extremely low.

The printing processing time (Td) of the printer and the bookbinding processing time (Tb) of the bookbinding apparatus differ depending on the paper size of the booklet, the number of pages, or the bookbinding process. There is a problem that the processing of the bookbinding device cannot be performed in time.

[0010]

In order to solve these problems, time setting means for setting a time exceeding a difference (Tb-Td) between the paper delay time of the printer and the processing time of the bookbinding apparatus is provided. The time setting means is activated from the supply of the last sheet of booklet printing, and the next sheet supply is started after the set time has elapsed.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an electrophotographic printer 102 is connected to a host device 101 and a bookbinding device 103. The electrophotographic printer includes an operation panel 104, a printing mechanism unit 106, and a controller 105. The controller 105 further includes a panel IF block 11 for communicating with the operation panel 104.
0, host IF for communication with external host device 101
It comprises a block 109, a bookbinding apparatus IF block 111 for communicating with the external bookbinding apparatus 103, a printing mechanism IF block 112 for communicating with the printing mechanism unit 106, and a main block 107 having time setting means 108. . Examples of the time setting means include a timer.

In response to a print start command from the host device 101, the controller 105 instructs the print mechanism 106 to
A command for printing is issued through the printing mechanism IF block 112 to control printing. In addition, the bookbinding apparatus 103 is activated through the bookbinding apparatus IF block 111 in synchronization with paper discharge.

Referring to FIG. 2, the timing of bookbinding will be described. The drawing shows the processing of a booklet having a configuration of three sheets / book.

By starting printing and receiving print data from the host apparatus 101, the controller 105 sends three sheets C-1 to the printing mechanism unit 106 at a required timing for printing the first booklet C. , C-2, and C-3 are continuously fed.

On these sheets, data from the host is printed through each step of electrophotographic recording. As described above,
By passing through the long paper transport path, printing is completed after the print processing time td, and the
It is discharged to 03. The controller 105 generates a bookbinding start signal in synchronization with the sheet discharge timing by the bookbinding apparatus I.
By sending the bookbinding apparatus 103 through the F block 112 to the bookbinding apparatus 103, the bookbinding apparatus 103 starts a bookbinding operation. The bookbinding apparatus 103 performs sheet alignment while receiving the output sheets from the printer 102 one by one, and sends the booklet to the next binding step when one sheet of paper is accumulated. The booklet C stapled for each book in this process is a bookbinding device 1 as a finished product.
Emitted from 03.

On the other hand, the following booklet D from the host device 101
In response to the print instruction, the controller 105 feeds the paper for booklet D printing. This paper feeding process will be described with reference to the processing flow of FIG.

After starting printing of booklet D (step 301), the controller 105 confirms that the last sheet of the previous booklet C has been fed without depending on the BUSY signal of the bookbinding apparatus 103 (step 302). The timer which is the time setting means 108 is started (step 303). After the timer has elapsed (step 304), the first sheet D-1 is fed (step 30) while the print mechanism 106 checks the predetermined timing for the booklet D printing (step 305).
6) Yes. Thereafter, for the following sheets D-2 and D-3, the above (steps 305 and 306) are repeated to feed the sheets until the end of one book (step 307). After that, it waits for the start of the next job (step 308).

The timer compares the print processing time td of the printer with the processing time tb of the bookbinding apparatus 103 by (tb−t
d) It is set to a larger value. For this reason, when the first sheet D-1 of the booklet D is printed and ejected from the printer, bookbinding of the booklet C by the bookbinding apparatus 103 has already been completed, and the bookbinding apparatus 103 can process the booklet D. it can.

As described above, the electrophotographic printer and the bookbinding apparatus 1
03 enables parallel processing and eliminates waiting for mutual operation, so that the interval t between bookbinding processing can be minimized.
The printing bookbinding throughput is maximum.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a flow of changing the timer value which is a set time from the host device 101. In this way, the host issues a command to change the timer value to a predetermined timer value for each printing and bookbinding system, for example, every time the printing and bookbinding of one book is started (step 401). Block 109 receives the command (step 402) and updates the timer value (step 403). As a result, the timer value optimized for the system is used every time printing is performed, so that the printing and bookbinding system can achieve the maximum throughput regardless of the number of sheets in the bookbinding body and booklet.

FIG. 5 shows a flow of changing the timer value from the operation panel. For example, a new timer value (step 502) input by the operator is issued from a timer change routine provided in the operation panel unit by a timer value change command (step 503). 110 receives (step 510),
The timer value is updated (step 511). In this manner, by setting the timer value from the operation panel 104, the timer value can be fixed as a printing bookbinding system of a specific use.

As described above, since the timer value can be set by a command from the host or from the operation panel of the printer, it is possible to match the processing capacity of the bookbinding apparatus.

Similar effects can be obtained by using an ink jet printer as well as an electrophotographic printer as the printer.

[0025]

According to the present invention, the fastest printing of the printer can be performed in consideration of the processing time of the bookbinding apparatus, so that the processing speed of printing and binding can be improved for each system. Further, it can flexibly cope with bookbinding apparatuses having various processing speeds.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a sheet feeding operation of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a timer value change.

FIG. 5 is another flowchart showing a timer value change.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an engine configuration of the printer.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing a conventional operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Host device, 102: Electrophotographic printer,
103 ... bookbinding device, 104 ... operation panel, 105 ...
· Controller, 106 ··· Printing mechanism section, 107 ··· Main block, 108 ··· Time setting means, 109 ··· Host IF block, 110 ··· Panel IF block, 1
11: bookbinding device IF block, 112: printing mechanism I
F block.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Shoka Kawano 1060 Takeda, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture Within Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electrophotographic printer having a control device for outputting a series of printed sheets formed as a booklet by a bookbinding device and controlling an output interval between booklets, the control device comprising: An electrophotographic printer comprising a time setting means for starting printing of the next booklet after a set time has elapsed from the feeding of a sheet. 2. A time setting means for setting the set time to a value exceeding a difference (tb-td) between a print processing time (td) of a printer and a bookbinding processing time (tb) of a bookbinding processing apparatus. The electrophotographic printer according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The electrophotographic printer according to claim 1, further comprising a time setting means connected to the host device and changing a set time by a command sent from the host device. 4. An electrophotographic printer according to claim 1, further comprising an operation panel, and time setting means for changing a set time by operating the operation panel.