JPH03238266A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To sort image bearing media to which images have been formed in an arbitrary manner by storing image bearing media into storage sections in accordance with instructions stored in a memory means. CONSTITUTION:A RAM 403 includes a sorting table 403 on which sorting data composed of page numbers and sorter bin numbers are stored during a series of image data corresponding to a plurality of pages being delivered from a house device 409. Further, a sheet having passed over a paper discharge switch is conveyed into a sorter section, and is stored in a predetermined bin corresponding to a charge-over of a gate in accordance with the sorting time table 403a. Thus, during successive printing operation, sheets are sorted into designated sorter binds in accordance with data on the sorting table 403a to which pages are fed from the host device 409, and accordingly, the pages can be respectively sorted into sorter bins at optional positions which are designated by the user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) This invention, for example, receives image data from an external device, prints a recorded image on paper from the received data, and processes the printed image. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser printer that discharges printed sheets to a multistage sorter.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, image formation in an image forming apparatus such as a laser printer is performed through various steps such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, peeling, cleaning, and fixing. In such an image forming apparatus, 1, a charging device, an exposure device, a developing device, a transfer device, a peeling device, a cleaning device, etc. are sequentially arranged around the photoreceptor drum, and a fixing device is further installed to receive paper from the peeling device. By driving each of the devices described above in accordance with the rotational movement of the photosensitive drum, each of the image forming steps described above is executed and an image is formed on the paper. A plurality of pages of paper on which images have been formed are discharged to a sorter section having multistage sorter bins, and are stacked page by page or collated in page order.

In such a laser printer, the sorter is synchronized with the ejection of sheets to a specific sorter bin or continuous ejection of the sheets.
This method has a disadvantage in that it is only possible to eject sheets to successive sorter bins starting from one specific sorter bin, and it is not possible to eject each page to an arbitrary position on the sorter specified by the user. That is, the sorter bins to be sorted during sorting and non-sorting are determined. for example,
When sorting, the items are sorted in order from the top sorter bin, and when non-sorting, the items are accumulated in the top sorter bin.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the present invention is an apparatus for sequentially forming an image on an image forming medium using image data for a plurality of pages from an external device. This eliminates the drawback that image forming media cannot be sorted arbitrarily, and is used to form images on image forming media sequentially using multiple pages of image data from an external device. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can sort media on which image formation has been performed in an arbitrary manner.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) This image forming apparatus of Tanemei includes an image forming means that sequentially forms an image on an image forming medium using a plurality of pages of image data from an external device; a plurality of storage sections for storing image forming media on which images have been formed by the image forming means; and a plurality of storage sections for storing image forming media on which images have been formed by the image forming means, for each page. an instruction means for instructing to store the medium in the storage section of the image forming means; a storage means for storing the instruction contents of the instruction means; and a storage means for storing the medium to be imaged by the image forming means according to the instruction contents stored in the storage means. It is composed of storage means for storing in each storage section.

(Operation) This invention sequentially forms an image on an image forming medium using image data for a plurality of pages from an external device, and stores the image forming medium on which the image has been formed in a plurality of storage units for each page. The storage unit instructs the storage unit to store the image forming medium in any storage unit in the storage unit, stores this instruction content, and stores the image forming medium on which image formation has been performed in accordance with the stored instruction content in each storage unit. This is what I did.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, for example, an image forming unit apparatus including a laser printer with optional equipment.

That is, the image forming unit device includes a multi-cassette feeder 2 that feeds paper (plain paper) P of a predetermined thickness such as cut paper as an image forming medium into a printer 1, and a multi-cassette feeder 2 that feeds paper (plain paper) P of a predetermined thickness such as cut paper as an image forming medium into the printer 1; Optional devices such as an envelope feeder 3 that feeds paper (cardboard) A that is thicker than paper into the printer 1, and a jogger 4 that distributes the paper P or paper A after image formation into predetermined number of sheets are equipped with a laser. It is configured by being connected to a printer 1. The multi-cassette feeder 2, envelope feeder 3, and jogger 4 are connected online to a control section (not shown) in the main body of the laser printer 1. An operation panel 100 is provided on the upper surface of the laser printer 1.

Further, inside the laser printer 1, a laser optical system 12, a photosensitive drum 17, a charging device 18, a developing device 19, a transfer device 20, a static eliminator 21, a peeling device 35, a fixing device 37,
In addition to process systems such as a cleaning device 45, a paper feed cassette 22, a delivery roller 23, and an aligning roller pair 25
, conveyor belt 36, gate 38, paper ejection roller pair 39.4
2 etc. are arranged. The laser optical system 12 includes a semiconductor laser oscillator (not shown) that generates laser light;
A collimator lens (not shown) corrects the laser beam from this oscillator into parallel light, and a polygon mirror as a rotating body that has a part of an octahedral mirror that reflects the laser beam from the second lens twice for each scanning line ( rotating mirror) 13
, the f-theta lens 14, the mirrors 15 and 16, and a mirror motor 60 that rotates (drives) the polygon mirror 13.
It is composed of etc.

During the image forming operation, the laser beam from the laser optical system 12 corresponding to an image signal from an external device (not shown) or the operation panel 100 is transmitted to the photoreceptor drum 10.
imaged on the surface of The photosensitive drum 17 rotates in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure, and the surface thereof is first charged by the charging device 18, and then exposed by the laser optical system 12 in accordance with an image signal. That is, the laser beam generated from the semiconductor laser oscillator is scanned at a constant speed from the left to the right of the photosensitive drum 17 as the polygon mirror 13 is rotated by the mirror motor 60, thereby generating electrostatic charges on the surface of the photosensitive drum 17. A latent image is formed. This electrostatic latent image is made visible by applying toner by the developing device 19.

On the other hand, the paper P serving as the image forming medium from the paper feed cassette 22 is taken out one by one by the delivery roller 23, and
4, and is guided to a pair of aligning rollers 25, and sent to a transfer section by this pair of rollers 25.

Also, to the transfer section, the paper P or the paper feed that is taken out one by one by the feed roller 32 from the paper feed cassette 30 in the multi-cassette feeder 2 and guided to the aligning roller pair 25 through the paper guide path 34.29. paper cassette 3
The paper P1 is taken out one by one by the delivery roller 33 from 1 and guided to the aligning roller pair 25 through the paper guide path 34.29, or the paper P1 is taken out one by one from the stacker 26 in the envelope feeder 3 by the delivery roller 27. The aligning roller pair 2 passes through the paper guide path 28 and 29.
In addition, the paper A1 guided to the aligning roller pair 25 via the paper guide path 29 after being fed from the manual paper feed section 44 or the paper P guided to the pair of aligning rollers 25 according to the specification from the external device or the operation panel 100. It is designed to be sent by

Then, the paper P or paper A sent to the transfer section is brought into close contact with the surface of the photoreceptor drum 17 at the transfer device 20, and the toner image on the photoreceptor drum 17 is transferred by the action of the transfer device 20. . This transferred paper P or paper A is peeled off from the photosensitive drum 17 by the action of a peeling device 35, and is sent to a fixing device 37 by a conveyor belt 36, where it passes through a heat roller that generates heat for fixing. 371, the transferred image is thermally fixed. This heat roller 371 has a built-in heater lamp 37a for heating. After fixing, the paper P or paper A passes through the gate 38 and is delivered to the sorter section 61 by a pair of paper ejection rollers 39.
The sheet is then sent to an upper conveyance path 41 by the gate 38, and is discharged onto a paper discharge tray 43 by a pair of paper discharge rollers 42.

The sorter section 61 includes a plurality of gates (not shown) through which sheets are sorted and a plurality of sorter bins 62a, 82b, . . . where sheets are accumulated.

Further, the photosensitive drum 17 after the transfer is cleaned by a cleaning device 4.
After the residual toner is removed in step 5, the afterimage is erased by the static eliminator 21, thereby making the next image forming operation possible.

Note that the fixing device 37 is formed into a unit (user unit), and is configured to be able to be attached to and detached from the printer 1 independently. Further, in front of the pair of aligning rollers 25, there is an aligning switch 48 for detecting a paper feeding error to the transfer section by the pair of aligning rollers 25, etc., and in front of the pair of paper ejecting rollers 39, 42, an aligning switch 48 is provided. , are provided with paper ejection switches 49a and 49b for detecting paper ejection errors by the paper ejection roller pairs 39 and 42, respectively.

In addition, the paper feed cassette 22, 30, 31 has paper P
Paper detectors 50, 51, and 52 are arranged to detect the presence or absence of paper P in the paper feed cassettes 22, 30, and 31, respectively.

Further, above the laser optical system 12, there is an engine control board equipped with an engine control circuit 70 that controls each electrical device provided in the apparatus main body 1 to control operations for completing the electrophotographic process. A board mounted with a printer control circuit 71 that controls the operation of the engine control circuit 70 is arranged.

Up to three boards for the printer control circuit 71 can be installed depending on the degree of function addition (for example, adding more types of fonts, kanji, etc.). Further functions can be added by inserting a function-adding IC card 517 into three IC card connectors 72 arranged on the front edge of the board 71. Furthermore, a connector (not shown) for connecting to a host device 409 (described later), which is an external output device such as a computer or word processor, is provided on the left end surface of the printer control circuit 710 board located at the bottom. .

As shown in FIG. 4, the operation panel 100 has a number of panels,
Liquid crystal display 100 that displays the mode, guidance messages, etc.
a. LED indicator 10 that lights up and displays various statuses using LEDs.
0b, . . . a menu next item key 100c and a previous menu item key 100d for instructing various operations.

Value next item key 100e, value previous item key 10
0f, and an online key 10 for switching between online and offline with the host device 409, which is an external output device.
It is composed of 0g. The above LED indicator 100b
, ... indicates whether an external device is connected or not, that is, "online" indicating online/offline mode.
, "Ready" to indicate that the main unit 1 is ready for operation, "Data" to indicate that the image is being transferred, "Operator" to request an operator call, "Service" to request a service call, and "Indicating auto/manual". It consists of indicators for each mode.

A plurality of menu information displayed on the left half of the liquid crystal display 100a is incremented each time the menu next item key 100c is pressed,
Each time 0d is pressed, each value is decremented and displayed, and these display operations are cyclically repeated. Further, a plurality of pieces of value information corresponding to the menu information displayed on the left half of the liquid crystal display 100a are incremented each time the value next item key ID0e is pressed, and decremented each time the value previous item key 100f' is pressed. are displayed on the right half of the liquid crystal display 100a, and these display operations are cyclically repeated.

The operator presses the menu next item key 100c.

Menu previous item key 100d, value next item key 10
By operating 0es and the value pre-item key 100r, a desired action is selected and instructed.

Next, the configuration of the engine control section will be explained.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of main parts of the engine control section 300. In the figure, 302 is a power supply device;
By turning on the main switch 301, power supply voltages of +5V and +24V are output. The power supply voltage of +5V is supplied to the engine control circuit 70, and is further supplied to the printer control circuit 7 via this engine control circuit 70.
1.

On the other hand, +24■ power supply voltage is cover switch 303.30
4 is sequentially supplied to the engine control circuit 70. Then, the power is supplied to the scanner control circuit 101, the high voltage power supply 305, and the mechanism drive circuit 306 via the engine control circuit 70, respectively. A semiconductor laser 90 and a mirror motor 92 are connected to the scanner control circuit 101.
From the mechanism drive circuit 306, the pre-exposure device 21, main motor 307, manual paper feed solenoid 308, cassette paper feed solenoid 309, aligning solenoid 31
0, toner supply solenoid 311, bin control circuit 313
, cooling fan 500, etc., and is used as a driving power source for these. The bin control circuit 3H switches and controls each gate (not shown) in the sorter unit 61 to change the paper discharge position, that is, the sorter bin 62a1 to which the paper is discharged.

Further, the power supply device 302 is provided with a zero-cross switch type heater lamp drive circuit (not shown) consisting of, for example, a phototriac coupler and a triac, which drives the heater lamp 501 inside the fixing device 33. The above +24V is used as a driving power source for the light-emitting side LED of the coupler. In the heater lamp drive circuit with this configuration, as is well known, the light emitting side L
When the ED is turned on/off, the phototriac on the light emitting side is turned on/off at the zero cross point of the AC power supply, thereby turning on/off the triac, which is the main switch element in the next stage, and supplying the AC power S1 to the heater lamp 37a. It is designed to turn on or cut off electricity. And the light emitting side LED
A heater control signal S2 for turning on/off is supplied from the engine control circuit 7o to the power supply device 302, and a temperature signal detected by the thermistor 37b provided in the fixing device 37 is supplied to the engine control circuit 7o. It is now possible to do so.

Further, the cover switch 303 is turned off when the top cover (not shown) is rotated upward, and the cover switch 304 is turned off when the top cover (not shown) is opened. Therefore, when the top cover or rear cover is opened, the switch 303.30
4 cuts off +24V, the semiconductor laser 90. Mirror motor 60, high voltage power supply 305, main motor 307, each solenoid 308.309.310.3
1], cooling fan 500.

The operation of the heater lamp 37a, etc. is also stopped, so that there is no problem even if the operator touches the inside of the apparatus main body 1.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the engine control circuit 70. In the figure, the CPU 350 is the engine control unit 3
It controls the entire 00, and operates according to a control program stored in the ROM 351. RAM 352 is used as a working buffer for CPU 350. E2PRC1i
353 stores the total number of prints and the like. The printer interface circuit 354 receives an interface signal S with the printer control circuit 71.
It is designed to mediate the delivery of 3 items. The laser modulation control circuit 355 controls the semiconductor laser 90 to be forced to turn on periodically in order to generate a laser light detection signal S4, which will be described later, and also controls the interface signal S.
3 modulates the semiconductor laser 90 according to the image data sent from the printer control circuit 71, and transmits the laser modulation signal S5 to the scanner control circuit 101.
It is designed to output to .

The output register 35B receives control signals S6, S7, which control the mechanism drive circuit 306, the high voltage power supply 305, the scanner control circuit 101, and the heater lamp drive circuit, respectively.
S8 and S2 are output. The voltage signals S9 and SIO generated by the thermistor 37b and the toner sensor 324 are input to the A/D converter 357, and these voltage values are converted into digital values. The input register 358 includes status signals S11, S12, S13, S14 from the vapor empty switch 320, manual feed switch 321, paper ejection switch 49a149b1 mounting switch 323, aligning switch 48, and paper detector 50.51.52. S15 and
The +24 V on/off status signal 816 is input.

Further, the internal bus 359 connects the CPU 350, ROM
351, RAM 352, E2 FROM 353, printer interface circuit 354, laser modulation control circuit 355, output register 358, A/D converter 35
7. Data is exchanged with the input register 358.

The mechanism drive circuit 306 is provided with a drive circuit for driving various motors, solenoids, etc.
On/off is controlled by a binary control signal S6 output from the output register 356. That is, for example, each drive circuit is turned on when it is "1" and turned off when it is "0", and the pre-exposure device 21, main motor 307, solenoids 308 to 3111 and cooling fan 500
V is energized or cut off. The scanner control circuit 101 is provided with a semiconductor laser 90 and a mirror motor 60'' drive circuit.
is on/off controlled by the 1 laser modulation signal S5 output from the laser modulation control circuit 355, and
The mirror motor 6D is controlled to be turned on or off by a control signal S8 output from the output register 356. Furthermore, the laser light detection sensor 312 has a PIN.
A diode is used, and when the laser light a passes through the laser light detection sensor 312, a current proportional to the energy flows therethrough.

This current signal is sent to the laser modulation control circuit 355 as a laser light detection signal S4. Further, from the high voltage power supply 305, a developing bias power supply section (not shown), a charging device 18, and a wire high voltage power supply section (not shown) of the transfer device 20 are connected to a developing bias power supply section (not shown), respectively.
High voltage signals for charging S22 and transfer 824 are output.

These on/off states are controlled by a control signal S7 of 1.0 output from the output register 356.

As described above, within the engine control section 300, power is supplied to each electric circuit via the engine control circuit 70, and each section is controlled by a binary control signal output from the engine control circuit 70. It has become. This engine control section 300 and a printer control section 400, which will be described later, are connected by an interface signal S3.

Next, the configuration of printer control section 400 will be explained.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of main parts of the printer control section 40 [11]. In the figure, a CPU 401 controls the entire printer control unit 400.

The ROM 402 stores a control program, and the CPU 401 operates according to this program. Further, the ROM 402 stores data related to the paper P such as a password to be checked when changing data, top margin, left margin, vapor type, etc., message information to notify the operator, and the like. The RAM 403 is used as a page buffer for temporarily storing image data sent from the host device 409.
3 is a sorting correspondence table that stores the sorting data (instruction contents) consisting of page numbers and sorter pin numbers, which is supplied when a series of multiple pages of image data is sent from the host device 409. 403a is provided.

For the second sorting, the correspondence table 403a shows, for example, as shown in FIG. The sorter bin Ei2a corresponds to "1", and the sorter bin 62c corresponds to "3" for the fourth page.
The sorter bin 82d "4" corresponds to the fifth page, the sorter bin 82e "5" corresponds to the sixth page, and the sorter bin 62e "5" corresponds to the seventh page. The extended memory 404 is a large-capacity memory used when the RAM 403 cannot store one page of data when the image data sent from the host device 409 is a large amount of data such as bitmap data. be. Video R
AM405 stores image data developed into a bit image, and its output is supplied to a serial-parallel conversion circuit 40f3. The serial-parallel conversion circuit 406 is a video RAM.
At step 4051, one bit image is developed, and the image data sent as parallel data is converted into serial data and sent to the engine control circuit 70.

When the CPU 401 sends one page of image data to the engine control circuit 70, the CPU 401 reads out the number of the sorter bin corresponding to that page, that is, to be sorted (sorted) from the sorting table 403a, and sends it to the engine control circuit 70. It is supposed to be done.

The host interface 408 exchanges data between the printer control unit 400 and a host device 409, which is composed of, for example, a computer or an image reading device, and has two types: a serial transfer line 410a and a parallel transfer line 410b. We are prepared. Then, it can be used appropriately depending on the type of data transferred to and from the host device 409. The engine interface 411 mediates the exchange of an interface signal S3 between the printer control circuit 71 and the engine control circuit 70. The connection circuit 413 cuts off the power and signal lines supplied to the IC card 517 when the IC card 517 is inserted into or removed from the connector (not shown). This prevents the data stored in the IC card 517 from being destroyed due to generated noise.

The operation panel control circuit 407 controls displaying a guidance message on the liquid crystal display 100a of the operation panel 100;
Control of lighting, turning off, and blinking of the LED display 100b, next menu item key 100c, previous menu item key 1oad
, value next item key 100e, value previous item key 1
00f: Performs control such as sending data input from the online key 100g to the CPU 401. In addition, the internal bus 412 is connected to the CPU 2O5R.
This bus is used to exchange data between the AM 403, RAM 403, expansion memory 404, video RAM 405, operation panel control circuit 4o7, host interface 4o8, engine interface 411, and connection circuit 413.

Further, the IC card 517 is a non-volatile memory, for example, a static RAM with battery backup, an E2P
It is composed of ROM, EPROM, mask ROM, or the like. These IC cards 517 store, for example, character fonts, emulation programs, and the like.

Next, the configuration of the interface signal S3 will be explained.

FIG. 8 shows each signal of the interface signal S3. In the figure, DO-D7 is a carrot control circuit 70
It is a bidirectional data bus that transmits status from the printer control circuit 71 to the printer control circuit 71 and commands from the printer control circuit 71 to the engine control circuit 70, and is used by switching between status and commands at the timing shown in FIG. It has become. That is, the engine control circuit 70
When the bus direction signal DIR is set to a low level when the busy signal BSYO output from the DO-D7 is at a high level (not busy), the DO-D7 is switched in the direction of transmitting a signal from the engine control circuit 70 to the printer control circuit 71. The status is output on DO-D7. This allows the printer control circuit 71 to read the status.

On the other hand, when the printer control circuit 71 sends a command, when the busy signal BSYO is at a high level (not busy), the lot direction signal DIR is set to a high level, and Do-D7 is a signal sent from the plink control circuit 71 to the engine control circuit 70. The direction is switched to transmit the command, and the command is output on the Do-D7. When the strobe signal 5TBO is set to a low level in this state, the engine control circuit 70 reads the command on DO-D7 while the strobe signal 5TBO is at a low level, and the busy signal BSYO is set to a low level (busy state). . In this busy state, the engine control circuit 70 performs processing such as command analysis. When the busy signal BSYO is set to a low level, the printer control circuit 71 returns the strobe signal 5TBO to a high level and ends the command transmission. Then, when the command processing in the engine control circuit 70 is completed, the busy signal B
SYO is returned to high level again. In addition, busy signal B
Commands sent while SYO is low are not received by the engine control circuit 7°. Furthermore, the status on the data bus Do-D7 does not change immediately when a state change occurs in the engine control unit 300, but is updated only when the status is returned in response to a command received after the state change. There is.

The attention signal ATN1 is output when the basic status on the print sequence between the engine control circuit 70 and the printer control circuit 71 changes, and the attention signal ATN1 is output when the basic status on the print sequence between the engine control circuit 70 and the printer control circuit 71 changes.
It is set to a high level when a SYNC command can be received and when one page of image data has been received, and is reset to a low level when an attention reset command is received. When the attention signal ATN1 changes from a low level to a high level, the printer control circuit 71 sends an attention reset command to the data bus Do-D7 to reset the attention signal ATN1, and then the data bus DO-
It is now possible to read the status on D7 and know the changed basic status. In addition, the above basic status is also output on the data bus by the basic status request command that requests the basic status, so the content of the changed basic status can be known by the basic status request command prior to the above attention reset command. It is now possible to do so.

The ready signal PRDYO indicates that the engine control unit 300 is in a ready state when it is at a low level, and indicates that the engine control unit 300 is in a ready state when it is at a high level. When this signal is at a low level, a print operation by the engine control unit 300 is possible. It is.

System clear signal 5CLRI is printer control circuit 71
200~ after +5V rises with the reset signal of
The level remains high for 500 rnsec, during which the printer control circuit 71 enters the reset state.

The prime signal PRIMEO is a reset signal to the engine control circuit 70. While this signal is at a low level, the busy signal SYO is at a low level, the ready signal PRDYO is at a high level, and the engine control circuit 70 is set to a predetermined initial state. return.

The horizontal synchronization signal HSYNCO is a signal generated every time one line is scanned by the laser exposure unit 22.
The number of lines corresponding to the effective print length in the transport direction of the paper P after receiving the NC command is output in synchronization with the laser light detection signal S4.

The video clock VCLKO is the horizontal synchronization signal HSY
This is a synchronization clock for manually inputting one line of video data (image data) VDO to the engine control circuit 70 following the NCO, and is output in a number corresponding to the effective print width of the paper P in the horizontal scanning direction. Then, the video data VDO is taken into the engine control circuit 70 in synchronization with the falling edge of the video clock VCLKO.

In accordance with the video data VDO, the laser exposure unit 22 performs exposure scanning on the photoreceptor drum 17 to form a latent image on the photoreceptor drum 17. In addition,
When the video data VDO is at a low level, it is visualized on the paper P as a dot image.

Next, in the above configuration, regarding the operation of the printer control circuit 4 [10] according to the data transfer procedure, the first
This will be explained with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS. 0(a) and 0(b).

For example, now a laser printer is offline and C
When the PU 401 determines that it is in the offline state (step 5T1), the host device 40
It is checked whether the printing process for the received data from 9 has been completed (step 5T2). If it has not been completed, the process branches to step 5T12 to continue the printing process. - On the other hand, if the printing process has been completed, steps STI and Sr1 are repeated to create an idling state and wait for the laser printer to be placed on-line.

When the laser printer is brought online in this state, it is checked whether the data sent from the host device 409 is a command (step 5T3), and if it is a command, it performs the operation corresponding to the command. (Step 5T4) If it is not a command, the execution of the above command is skipped and the process proceeds to step ST5. The above commands, for example, define the attributes of the following data or control the printer without sending or receiving data. Next, it is checked whether the page buffer provided as a buffer for data reception in the RAM 403 is full (step 5T5), and if it is not full, the data sent from the host device 409 is transferred to the image data. It is checked whether it is (step 5T6). and,
If it is not image data, the process returns to step STI and waits for the command or image data to be received by repeatedly executing the above series of steps. In such a state,
When it is determined in step ST6 that image data has been received, the received image data is sequentially stored in the page buffer (step 5T7).

Also, a command specifying the sorter bin is received (step 5T30). Then, the CPU 401 receives the page number and sorter bin number as corresponding data for sorting, as shown in FIG.
a (step 5T31).

Next, it is checked whether storage for one page has been completed or not (step 5T8), and if it has not been completed, the operation panel 100
The "data" lamp of the LED display 100b provided in the controller starts blinking (step 5TIO). Next, the process returns to step STI and executes the series of steps described above, thereby waiting until one page's worth of image data is accumulated in the page buffer. When it is determined that storage of one page of image data is completed by repeatedly executing the above series of steps, the "data" lamp is turned off (step 5T9), and the data reception process is ended. Then, the process moves to the print processing from step STI 2 onwards. Note that if it is determined in step ST5 that the page buffer is full, the data reception operation is stopped (step STI 1), and in this case as well, the process moves to step 5T12 and subsequent print processing.

In this way, during the data reception operation, the "data" lamp is blinked to notify the operator.

Next, when one page of image data has been stored in the page buffer, it is checked whether the scan buffer provided on the video RAM 405 is full (step 5T12). Here, if it is determined that the scan buffer is not full, the CPU 401 first sends the sorter bin number to the engine control circuit 70 as sorting data.
Send to.

Further, the CPU 401 converts the image data corresponding to 64 lines of image data stored in the page buffer into bit image data of a character image, and stores it in the video RAM 405 as a scan buffer (step 5T13).

On the other hand, if the scan buffer is full, step STI 3 is skipped.

Next, it is checked whether the VSYNC command has been sent (step 5T20). and VSY, N.C.
If it is determined that the command has not been sent, it is checked whether or not a VSYNC request has been issued from the engine side (step 5T21).If it is determined that no VSYNC request has been issued, the process returns to step STI. , wait for a VSYNC request to be issued without executing the above series of steps again. and,
When it is determined in step 5T21 that a VSYNC request has been issued, a VSYNC command is sent to the engine side.Step 5T22) Returning to step STI, horizontal synchronization signal H8YNCO and video clock VC are
Shifts to a state where it waits for LKO to be input.

In this state, in step 5T20 above, VSY
When it is determined that the NC command has already been sent, it is checked whether the transfer of one page of image data has been completed (step 5T26), and if the transfer of image data has not been completed, the scan buffer is The image data of the bit image for 64 lines stored in the horizontal synchronizing signal H
It is sent to the engine side in synchronization with 8YNCO and video clock VCLKO (step 5T25). On the other hand, C.P.
The U 401 returns to step 5T13, executes the above series of steps again, and then waits for the transfer of one page of image data to be completed. When the transmission of the image data for one page is completed in this way, the process returns to step STI, and the printer control circuit 71 returns to its initial state and becomes ready to transfer the image data of the next page. However, before transferring the image data of the next page, the sorter bin number corresponding to that page is sent from the sorting correspondence table 403a to the engine control circuit 70 as data.

Next, the operation of the engine control section 300 of the laser printer will be explained with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 11(a) to 11(e).

First, when the main switch 301 is turned on, a reset signal (not shown) is generated in synchronization with the rise of the +5V power supply.
occurs, and the engine control circuit 70 enters a reset state. In addition, this reset signal causes the printer control circuit 71 Heliset 5CLRI (see Figure 8) to
is output, and the printer control circuit 71 is also reset. Then, after the +5V power supply is turned on, 200 to 50
After 0 m5ec, the value of the reset signal is inverted, the reset state is released, and the CPU 350 starts executing the program stored in the ROM 351.

That is, first, data such as the RAM 352 is initialized (step 5T50). Then input register 358
The state of each switch is read and it is checked whether an operator call state such as paper jam, cover open, process unit not installed, or paper empty has occurred (step 5T51). Here, if an operator call is occurring, it is checked whether only paper empty is occurring (step 5T).
52) If an operator call other than paper empty is occurring, the process returns to step 5T51 and waits for the operator call state to be released. On the other hand, step 5T
When only paper empty occurs at step 5T52, or when no operator call occurs at step 5T51, heating of the fixing device 37 is started (step 5T52).
T53) Next, in order to initialize the electrophotographic process, the main motor 307 and the pre-exposure device 21 are turned on (step 5T54), and then the charging S22 is turned on sequentially at time intervals determined by the program. (Step 5T55), the developing bias S20 is turned on (Step 5T56), and remains in this state for a certain period of time (approximately 30
sec) has elapsed (step 5T57), and until a certain period of time has elapsed, it is checked whether the cover has been opened or not (step 5T90). And when a cover open occurs,
Each output turned on in steps 5T53 to 5T56 is turned off (step 5T91), and the process returns to step ST51. On the other hand, when it is confirmed in step 5T57 that a certain period of time has passed, the charging S22 is turned off (step 5T58).
Then, the developing device S20 is turned off sequentially at the timing determined by the program (step 5T5).
9) The main motor 307 and the pre-exposure device 21 are turned off (step 5T60). Step 5753 above
Through a series of operations from S60 to S60, the warming-up operation of the image forming apparatus is completed.

Then, the ready signal PRDYO is output (changed from high level to low level), a print request is set on the data bus DO-07, and the attention signal ATN1 is output (changed from low level to high level).
and becomes ready for printing (step 5T61). Note that the fixing device 37, which has started heating in step 5T53, reaches a temperature sufficient for the fixing operation in the process leading to step 5T61. Further, when an operator call occurs, its contents are written on the data bus as operator call status. Meanwhile, in the state of step 5T61, the printer control circuit 71 sends the above-mentioned attention reset command to reset the attention signal ATNI to a low level, and then recognizes the print request by reading the status on the data bus according to the above procedure. At the same time, a command indicating the sorter bin number of the paper ejection light can be received and recognized. By recognizing this sorter bin number, the mechanism drive circuit 306
By driving the bin control circuit 313 and switching the gates, the sorter bins 62a, . . . of the discharge light are switched.

In FIGS. 11(a) to 11(e), the attention reset command, the process of resetting the attention signal ATN1 (changing from high level to low level), and the printing operation for the second sheet are omitted.

Next, it is checked whether a print command has been received (step 5T62). If a print command is not received, it is checked whether an operator call has occurred (step 5T92), and if an operator call has occurred, the print request is canceled and the operator call status is set. The ready signal PRDYO is set to high level (step 5T94). Then, it is checked whether or not a cover open has occurred among the causes of the operator call (step 5T95), and if a cover open has occurred, the process returns to step 5T51. On the other hand, if the cover has not been opened, the process returns to step 5T92 and waits for the operator call to be released. In step 5T92,
When no operator call occurs, ready signal P
It is checked whether RDYO is low level (step 5T93), and if this signal is low level, step 5
The process returns to T62 and waits for a print command. When the level is high, the not-ready state has already been reached in step 5T94, so the process returns to step 5T61 and the ready state is returned again.

That is, the above steps 5T62-5T92→5T93
→The flow of 5T62 is a state of waiting for a print command, a so-called standby state.

When it is determined in step 5T62 that a print command has been received, the print request is reset and a series of print operations are performed. That is, first, the mirror motor 60 is turned on (step 5T63).
, then sequentially at predetermined time intervals, the main motor 3
07 and the pre-exposure device 21 are turned on (step 5T64
), the charging S22 and the cassette paper feed solenoid 309 are turned on, and the basic status ``Paper conveyance'' is set (Step 5T65). Furthermore, the developing bias S20 is turned on (step 5T66), and the cassette paper feed solenoid 309 is turned off (step 5T6).
7).

Here, while the cassette paper feed solenoid 309 is on, the feed roller 23 rotates once, and the paper P is taken out from the paper feed cassette 22 and conveyed toward the aligning roller pair 25. . Then, after a certain period of time has elapsed since the paper P was fed, it is checked whether or not the aligning switch 48 is on (step 5T68). When the aligning switch 48 is not turned on, it is determined that the paper P has not reached the aligning roller pair 25, and paper jam occurs. will be processed.

That is, the operator call status (jam) is set and the ready signal PRDYO is set to 1 (step 5T96). Furthermore, each device that was turned on in the process from step 5T63 to step 5T66 is turned off in sequence at a timing determined by the program (step 5T97), and the process returns to step 5T92 to wait for the jam to be cleared. - power, when the aligning switch 48 is on in step S68, the above VSYN
C request is set, and the attention signal ATN1 is output (changed from low level to high level) (step 5T69).

Then, it is checked whether or not the VSYNC command has been received (step 5T70). When the VSYNC command is received, the VSYNC request is reset, data transfer in progress is set, and laser exposure is started. That is, while transmitting the horizontal synchronization signal H8YNCO and the video clock VCLK□, the video data VD
Then, an image pattern based on the video data VDO is exposed onto the photosensitive drum 17 (step 5T71). It should be noted that until step ST71, the pair of aligning rollers 25 remains stopped, so that the sheet P stops when its leading edge reaches the pair of aligning rollers 25. Then, after a certain period of time t2 has elapsed, the aligning solenoid 310 is turned on (step 5T72), and as a result, the aligning roller pair 25 begins to rotate and the paper P is conveyed toward the transfer device 201. In addition, aligning parnoid 310
is turned on at a timing such that the leading edge of the image on the photosensitive drum 17 whose exposure is started in step 5T71 coincides with the leading edge of the paper P. Then, the transfer S24 is turned on at the timing when the leading edge of the paper P reaches the transfer device 20 (step 5T73). The formed toner image is transferred to the transfer device 20 (at a temperature of 1°C).
At the timing when the next paper P can be fed after completely exiting the SOTO 22, the quest for the second paper P is set (attention 1 word ATN 1). The paper is output (changes from low level to high level by 1) (step 5T74).Meanwhile, after a certain period of time has elapsed since the paper has been conveyed from the pair of aligning rollers 25, the paper output switch 49a is turned off. It is checked whether it is turned on (step 5T75), and if it is not turned on, it is determined that the leading edge of the paper P has not reached the paper ejection roller unit 42, the print request is reset, and the operator call status (jam ) is set, and the ready signal PRDYO is set to 1 (step 5T98).Then, each device that has been turned on up to step 5T74 is sequentially turned off (step 5T).
99), return to step 5T92. On the other hand, if the paper ejection switch 49a is on, the process waits until one page of image data, which has started to be received in step ST71, is captured (step 5T76). When the reception of the image data is completed, the data transfer status is reset and the attention signal qATN1 is output (changed from low level to high level) (step 5T77). Next, the aligning solenoid 310 is turned off at the timing when the rear end of the paper P passes the aligning roller pair 25 (step 5T78), and the aligning roller pair 25 stops. Further, the transfer S24 is turned off at the timing when the trailing edge of the paper P passes the transfer device 20 (step 5T79).

Next, after a certain period of time has elapsed since the aligning solenoid 310 was turned off, it is checked whether the paper ejection switch 49a is turned off (step ST80). If it is not turned off, it is determined that the trailing edge of the paper P has not passed the paper discharge roller unit 42, and the process branches to step 5T98, where jam processing is performed. On the other hand, when the switch is off, it is determined that the paper P is being ejected normally. At the same time as the paper transport center is set,
Charging S22 is sequentially turned off (step 5T82),
The developing bias 520 is turned off (step 5T83)
, the mirror motor 60 is turned off (step 5T84).
Then, the pre-exposure device 21 and the main motor 307 are turned off (step 5T85), a series of printing operations is completed, and the process returns to step 5T62 to enter the standby state.

At this time, the paper P that has passed through the paper discharge switch 49a is conveyed into the sorter section 61, and is stored in a predetermined sorter bin 62a (62b, . . . ) by switching the gate.

Therefore, if 7 consecutive pages are printed and the sorting shown in FIG. 7 is performed according to the contents of the correspondence table 403a, the 12th
As shown in the figure, the first and third pages of paper P are stored in the sorter bin 62a, and the second page of paper P is stored in the sorter bin 62b.
is stored, the fourth page of paper P is stored in the sorter bin 62c, the fifth page of paper P is stored in the sorter bin 82d,
The seventh page of paper P is stored in the sorter bin e2e, and the sixth page of paper P is stored in the sorter bin 82f.

As described above, in continuous printing, the sorting that is supplied (instructed) from the host device is such that each sheet is sorted into a designated sorter bin according to the corresponding data. As a result, each page can be sorted into a sorter bin at an arbitrary position specified by the user, and arbitrary sorting can be easily performed.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, in a device that sequentially forms images on an image forming medium using image data for a plurality of pages from an external device, An image forming apparatus that can sort image forming media in an arbitrary manner can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main parts of the printer control section, Fig. 2 is an external perspective view of the laser printer, and Fig. 3 shows the internal structure of the laser printer. 4 is a plan view showing the structure of the operation panel, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of the main parts of the engine control section, FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the structure of the engine control circuit, and FIG. The figure shows an example of storing a correspondence table for sorting, FIG. 8 shows each signal that makes up the interface signal, FIG. 9 is a timing chart for explaining data bus switching timing, and FIG. 10 shows a printer FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control circuit, FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the engine control section, and FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the state of storage in each sorter bin during continuous printing. 17... Photosensitive drum, 21... Charging device, 12...
Laser exposure unit, 19...Developing device, 20...
・Fixing device, 22... Paper feed cassette, 23... Delivery roller, 25... Aligning roller pair, 48...
Aligning switch, 70...engine control circuit,
71...Printer control circuit, 100...Operation panel, ID0a...Liquid crystal display section, 100b...LED display, 100c...Menu secondary item key 1oad...
・Pre-menu item key 1one...Paris secondary item key 100f...Pre-value item key 100g...
Online key, 300...engine control unit, 306
...Machine rear drive circuit, 400...Printer control section,
401...CPU, 402 ROM, 403
-RAM, 403a-・Sorting table, 405
...Video RAM, 405a...Day live font area, 405b...Bit image development item area, 409
...Host device, 420 E2PROM (storage means>420b...Abnormality history area, P...Paper (
imaged media).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An image forming device that sequentially forms images on a medium to be imaged with image data for multiple pages from an external device, and a medium to be imaged on which the image is formed by the image forming device is stored. a plurality of storage units; an instruction unit for instructing to store the image forming medium on which the image has been formed by the image forming unit page by page in any one of the plurality of storage units; and the instruction unit storage means for storing instruction contents stored in the storage means; and storage means for storing the medium on which an image is formed by the image forming means into each storage section according to the instruction contents stored in the storage means. image forming device.