JP2009229733A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus capable of stabilizing the service life of toner in a toner cartridge. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus 100 is constituted in such a manner that; when the toner stored in a toner storing part 13 of the toner cartridge 6 is conveyed to a developing machine 5 by a toner conveying member 7 so that printing may be performed, a total operating amount of the toner conveying member 7 is measured by a control part 11, and also the total number of pixels of printing data which have been printed is calculated by the control part 11, and when the total operating amount exceeds a first threshold and the total number of pixels exceeds a second threshold, it is determined as a situation that the toner storing part 13 of the toner cartridge is empty. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

  Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus that prints on paper, a developer used for printing is replenished by a removable cartridge.

  In recent years, the accuracy requirement for the life of the developer of this cartridge has become more severe. ISO / IEC 24711: 2006 defines ink and toner cartridge test methods for inkjet printers and all-in-one printers.

  In order to meet the accuracy requirement for the cartridge life, the manufacturer has improved the accuracy by improving the detection accuracy of the developer concentration and stabilizing the consumption / remaining amount.

In Patent Document 1, toner is used as a developer, the number of black dots included in page dot data to be printed is accumulated from the replacement of the toner cartridge to the present, and the total number of dots that can be printed with one toner cartridge is calculated. There has been proposed a toner usage status display device that calculates the toner usage rate based on the rate of the integrated value.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-105009

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that stabilizes the life of a cartridge.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an image forming unit that forms an image according to input image data, and a developer storage unit that stores a developer that develops the image. A developer supplying means for supplying the image forming means with the developer accumulated in the developer accumulating means, an operation amount measuring means for measuring an operation amount of the developer supplying means, and the number of pixels of the image data. A first pixel calculating unit for calculating the total operation amount of the developer supplying unit supplied from the developer accumulating unit based on the operation amount measured by the operation amount measuring unit; A second calculating unit that calculates the total number of pixels of the print data based on the number of pixels calculated by the pixel number calculating unit; and the total operation amount calculated by the first calculating unit has a predetermined first threshold value. And the second calculation If the total number of pixels calculated in step exceeds a predetermined second threshold value, the developer accumulated in the developer storing means configured to have a determining means and emptied.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the determination unit is configured such that when the total motion amount calculated by the first calculation unit exceeds a predetermined third threshold, Regardless of whether or not the total number of pixels calculated by the second calculation means has exceeded a predetermined second threshold value, it is determined that the developer accumulated in the developer accumulation means has become empty. The

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the developer accumulation unit includes a total operation amount calculated by the first calculation unit and a total calculation amount calculated by the second calculation unit. The storage unit stores the number of pixels.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the remaining amount of the developer accumulated in the developer accumulation unit is determined based on the total operation amount calculated by the first calculation unit. It is comprised so that it may have remaining amount determination means.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the operation amount of the developer supplying unit is measured based on a driving time of the developer supplying unit.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the operation amount of the developer supply unit is measured based on the number of rotations of the developer supply unit.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, variations in cartridge life can be suppressed as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.

  According to the invention of claim 2, even if the total number of pixels is equal to or smaller than the second threshold value, the sky determination is made based on the third threshold value.

  According to the invention of claim 3, there is an effect that the total operation amount and the total number of pixels are stored in the developer storage means.

  According to the invention of any one of claims 4 to 6, there is an effect that variation in cartridge life can be suppressed as compared with the case where this configuration is not provided.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  First, the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an outline of the image forming apparatus 100.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a photosensitive member 1, a cleaning device 2, a charging member 3, an exposure device 4, a developing device 5, a toner cartridge 6, an operation amount measuring unit 8, an image processing unit 9, and the number of pixels. A calculation unit 10, a control unit 11, an operation / display unit 12, and a memory 14 are included.

  The photoreceptor 1 conveys the toner transferred to the paper.

  The cleaning device 2 removes the toner remaining on the photosensitive member 1 after the toner conveyed by the photosensitive member 1 is transferred to the sheet.

  The charging member 3 charges the photosensitive member 1 to a predetermined potential.

  The exposure device 4 forms an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 1.

  The developing machine 5 imparts toner to the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 1 formed by the exposure device 2 to form a toner image on the photoconductor 1.

  The toner cartridge 6 includes a toner storage unit 13 that accumulates toner as an example of a developer, a toner transport member 7 that includes a transport auger that transports toner to the developing device 5, and toner that is stored in the toner storage unit 13. A customer replacement unit memory (CRUM) (15) that is a rewritable nonvolatile memory that stores the number of pixels of print data and the operation amount of the transport auger at the time of printing.

  The operation amount measuring unit 8 measures the driving time of the toner conveying member 7 and the rotation speed of the conveying auger.

  The image processing unit 9 performs processing for converting image data of a print job from PDL data to bitmap data and generating image data to be printed.

  The pixel number calculation unit 10 performs a process of calculating the number of pixels (pixel number) of image data to be printed, which is processed by the image processing unit 9.

  The control unit 11 performs overall control of the image forming apparatus 100 and makes various determinations regarding toner out of the toner cartridge 6.

  The operation / display unit 12 includes a liquid crystal touch panel, displays information to the user, and receives instructions from the user.

  The memory 14 is configured by a non-volatile memory, and is referred to when the control unit 11 performs a toner cartridge out-of-toner check (corresponding to a “third threshold value” in the claims), a caution threshold value (patent number) Various threshold values such as “first threshold value” in claims, semi-attention threshold, and pixel empty threshold (corresponding to “second threshold” in claims) are stored.

  Next, the peripheral configuration of the toner cartridge 6 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the peripheral configuration of the toner cartridge 6.

  When printing is performed by the image forming apparatus 100, the toner accommodated in the toner accommodating portion 13 is conveyed to the developing device 5 by the toner conveying member 7. The toner conveying member 7 conveys the toner accommodated in the toner accommodating portion 13 to the developing device 5 by the rotation of a conveying auger having a spiral blade at the axis. The operation amount measuring unit 8 measures the driving time or rotation speed of the transport auger when the toner is transported. The toner conveying member 7 may be a film-like conveying film affixed to the shaft center or a belt-like toner conveying belt. In short, the toner conveying member 7 conveys toner toward the developing device 7. I just need it.

  The CRUM (15) of the toner cartridge 6 stores the number of pixels of print data printed by the toner stored in the toner storage unit 13 and the operation amount of the transport auger, and prints using the toner stored in the toner storage unit 13. In this case, the total number of pixels in which the number of pixels of the printed print data is accumulated and the total amount of movement in which the amount of movement of the transport auger is accumulated are stored. In the storage process, the control unit 11 receives the total number of pixels and the total operation amount stored in the CRUM (15), and receives the number of pixels received from the pixel number calculation unit 10 and the operation received from the operation amount measurement unit 8. The total number of pixels is added to the total number of pixels to calculate a new total number of pixels, and the total amount of movement is added to the total amount of movement to calculate a new total amount of movement. Then, the value of the calculated total number of pixels and the total operation amount is written in the CRUM (15).

  By such processing, the control unit 11 uses the total number of pixels of print data printed by the toner stored in the toner storage unit 13 of the toner cartridge 6 and the toner stored in the toner storage unit 13 of the toner cartridge 6. The total operation amount of the toner conveying member 7 when printing is performed is calculated.

  Then, the control unit 11 determines the remaining amount of toner and the toner exhaustion based on the calculated total number of pixels and total operation amount and various threshold values stored in the memory 14.

  Then, the result determined by the control unit 11 is displayed on the operation / display unit 12.

  The determination of the remaining toner amount and the toner exhaustion in the control unit 11 is performed in three stages according to the amount of toner assumed to remain in the toner cartridge 6, and accompanying each determination. The displayed messages are “Toner is running low”, “Toner out warning”, and “Toner out”.

  Next, a process in which printing is performed by the image forming apparatus 100 and a toner out check (including toner remaining amount determination and toner out determination) of the toner cartridge 6 is performed will be described with reference to FIG. .

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing for checking whether the toner cartridge 6 is out of toner.

  The control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 100 uses the empty threshold (the empty threshold is “third” in the claims) in which the total operation amount calculated from the operation amount sent from the operation amount measuring unit 8 is stored in the memory 14 in advance. It is determined whether or not the threshold is exceeded (step 301).

  Here, the empty threshold value to be compared is a value at which the toner cartridge becomes sufficiently empty when the total operation amount reaches that value.

  If it is determined in step 301 that the total operation amount has exceeded the empty threshold value (YES in step 301), it is determined that the toner has run out sufficiently, and the operation / display unit 12 displays “toner out”. Is called.

  If it is determined in step 301 that the total motion amount does not exceed the empty threshold (NO in step 301), the control unit 11 next calculates the total amount calculated from the motion amount sent from the motion amount measurement unit 8. It is determined whether or not the amount of movement exceeds the attention threshold value stored in advance in the memory 14 (the attention threshold value corresponds to the “first threshold value” in the claims) (step 302).

  If it is determined in step 302 that the total motion amount has exceeded the attention threshold value (YES in step 302), then the control unit 11 determines that the total number of pixels calculated from the number of pixels sent from the pixel number calculation unit 10 is It is determined whether or not the pixel empty threshold value stored in advance in the memory 14 (the pixel empty threshold value corresponds to the “second threshold value” in the claims) has been exceeded (step 305).

  If the total number of pixels exceeds the pixel empty threshold in step 305 (YES in step 305), the total drive time of the toner conveying member 7 did not exceed the empty threshold, but the total number of pixels of the printed image is pixel empty. Since the threshold value is exceeded, it is determined that the toner is sufficiently emptied, and “out of toner” is displayed on the operation / display unit 12.

  If it is determined in step 305 that the total number of pixels has not exceeded the pixel empty threshold (NO in step 305), “notice out of toner” is displayed on the operation / display unit 12, and the toner is displayed to the user. There is a warning that the toner will run out soon.

  If the total motion amount does not exceed the attention threshold value in step 302 (NO in step 302), the control unit 11 then calculates the total motion amount calculated from the motion amount sent from the motion amount measurement unit 8. Then, it is determined whether or not the semi-caution threshold value stored in advance in the memory 14 has been exceeded (step 303).

  If it is determined in step 303 that the total operation amount has exceeded the semi-caution threshold (YES in step 303), the operation / display unit 12 displays “toner is low”, and the toner is displayed to the user. An alert is made to inform you that the amount of is decreasing.

  As described above, the remaining amount of toner and the determination of running out of toner such as “toner run out”, “care of running out of toner”, and “toner is running low” are performed according to the operation amount of the toner conveying member 7 and the like.

  If it is determined in step 303 that the total motion amount has exceeded the semi-caution threshold (NO in step 303), the toner-out check process is terminated.

  As described above, since the toner out check is performed based not only on the operation amount of the toner conveying member 7 but also on the number of pixels of the printed image, as shown in FIG. Compared with the reference number 401), when the toner exhaustion check according to the present invention is performed (reference number 402), the variation in the remaining toner at the time of empty determination becomes a value close to the catalog specification, which is improved.

  The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and can be applied to an inkjet image forming apparatus.

  The ink jet type image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied includes a developing device 5, a toner cartridge 6, a toner conveying member 7, an operation amount measuring unit 8, an image processing unit 9, and the number of pixels described with reference to FIG. The calculation unit 10, the control unit 11, the operation / display unit 12, the toner storage unit 13, the memory 14, and the CRUM (15) are the same as those in which functions limited to the electrophotographic method are replaced with functions that can be printed by the inkjet method. It has the same function as the configuration of

  The present invention can be used in an image forming apparatus.

1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of an image forming apparatus 100. FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a peripheral configuration of the toner cartridge. 5 is a flowchart illustrating processing for performing a toner out check. The graph which shows the dispersion | variation in remaining toner compared with the case where a toner out check is not performed by the number of pixels.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photoconductor 2 Cleaning apparatus 3 Charged body 4 Exposure apparatus 5 Developing machine 6 Toner cartridge 7 Toner conveyance member 8 Operation amount measurement part 9 Image processing part 10 Pixel number calculation part 11 Control part 12 Operation / display part 13 Toner storage part 14 Memory 15 CRUM
100 Image forming apparatus

Claims (6)

Image forming means for forming an image in accordance with input image data;
Developer storage means for storing a developer for developing an image;
Developer supply means for replenishing the image forming means with developer accumulated in the developer accumulation means;
An operation amount measuring means for measuring an operation amount of the developer supplying means;
A pixel number calculating means for calculating the number of pixels of the image data;
First calculation means for calculating a total operation amount of the developer supply means supplied from the developer accumulation means based on the operation amount measured by the operation amount measurement means;
Second calculating means for calculating the total number of pixels of the print data based on the number of pixels calculated by the pixel number calculating means;
When the total motion amount calculated by the first calculation means exceeds a predetermined first threshold value, and the total number of pixels calculated by the second calculation means exceeds a predetermined second threshold value An image forming apparatus comprising: a determination unit that determines that the developer accumulated in the developer accumulation unit is empty. The determination means includes
If the total motion amount calculated by the first calculation means exceeds a predetermined third threshold value, the total number of pixels calculated by the second calculation means exceeds a predetermined second threshold value. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus determines that the developer accumulated in the developer accumulation unit has become empty regardless of whether or not the developer accumulation unit has accumulated. The developer accumulation means includes
3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit that stores the total operation amount calculated by the first calculation unit and the total number of pixels calculated by the second calculation unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a remaining amount determining unit that determines a remaining amount of developer accumulated in the developer accumulating unit based on a total operation amount calculated by the first calculating unit. The amount of operation of the developer supply means is
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is measured based on a driving time of the developer supply unit. The amount of operation of the developer supply means is
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is measured based on a rotation speed of the developer supply unit.

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