BOOKBINDING APPARATUS AND BOOKBINDING METHOD

Abstract

When printing is interrupted, the selection between the use of a sheet bundle stacked on an accumulating tray and no use thereof is appropriately made. A bookbinding system includes a bookbinding apparatus having the accumulating tray for stacking a plurality of printed sheets thereon as the sheet bundle. When an interrupting factor is generated for interrupting a printing job, the printing is interrupted. Upon restarting the printing after the interrupting factor is cancelled, the printing apparatus determines whether the sheet bundle stacked on the accumulating tray is used for forming a bound book or not.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate numerous embodiments, features and aspects of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a drawing showing an exemplary configuration of a bookbinding system (bookbinding apparatus) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing components of a printing apparatus 105 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the printing apparatus 105 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a drawing showing the configuration of an operation unit 204 included in the printing apparatus 105 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 5A to 5D are drawings showing examples of operating screens displayed in the liquid crystal display shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A to 6C are drawings showing examples of operating screens displayed in the liquid crystal display shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 7A to 7D are drawings showing examples of operating screens displayed in the liquid crystal display shown in FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a drawing showing the configuration of a casing-in bookbinding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a drawing showing a configuration of a computer terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a drawing of a software configuration of a computer terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a drawing of a display screen for setting printing conditions by a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a drawing of a screen displayed when a property button is pushed down in a property setting screen of the printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a drawing of a screen displayed when a finish tab is selected in the property setting screen of the printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a bookbinding process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of the bookbinding process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a printing restart process when the printing is interrupted according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a table showing the printing interruption factors and treating methods for the factors according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a table showing the number of sheets stacked on an accumulation tray during the printing interrupting and treating methods for the number according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a table showing the number of sheets stacked on an accumulation tray during the printing interrupting and treating methods for the number according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a drawing showing a display screen for allowing a user to designate whether the sheets stacked on the accumulation tray are used or not according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. A bookbinding apparatus comprising: an inputting unit configured to input a printing job including image data for a plurality of pages;a printing unit configured to print images on a plurality of sheets based on the printing job inputted by the inputting unit;an accumulating unit configured to accumulate the plurality of the sheets printed by the printing unit as a sheet bundle;a bookbinding unit configured to form a bound book using the sheet bundle accumulated by the accumulating unit;a counting unit configured to count the number of the sheets accumulated by the accumulating unit;a control unit, when an interrupting factor for interrupting the printing is generated, configured to restart the printing, if the number of sheets counted by the counting unit is a first number or less, from the top page of the printing job as well as for restarting the printing, if the number of sheets counted by the counting unit is a second number or more, from the page associated with the interrupting factor; anda selecting unit, when the interrupting factor is generated and if the number of sheets counted by the counting unit is larger than the first number as well as smaller than the second number, configured to select a priority, upon restarting the printing, between the use of the sheet bundle accumulated by the accumulating unit for forming a bound book and no use of the sheet bundle, wherein when the interrupting factor is generated, the control unit restarts the printing, if the number of sheets counted by the counting unit is larger than the first number as well as smaller than the second number and when the selecting unit selects the use of the sheet bundle, from the page associated with the interrupting factor, and when the selecting unit selects no use of the sheet bundle, the control unit allows the printing unit to restart the printing from the top page of the printing job.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing job includes processing condition information designating processing conditions executed by the printing unit, and wherein the selecting unit selects the priority between use of the sheet bundle for forming a bound book and no use of the sheet bundle based on the processing condition information.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a receiving unit, upon restarting the printing, configured to receive an input of the information, which designates whether the sheet bundle stacked by the accumulating unit is used for forming a bound book or the sheet bundle is not used, from an operator of the bookbinding apparatus, wherein the selecting unit selects the priority between use of the sheet bundle and no use of the sheet bundle for forming a bound book based on the information inputted by the operator.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selecting unit selects the priority between use of the sheet bundle and no use of the sheet bundle for forming a bound book in accordance with the interrupting factor.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the printing unit executes the printing by forming developer images corresponding to the image data on a sheet, and the printing unit includes a holding unit configured to hold the developer, and wherein the selecting unit selects the no use of the sheet bundle when the interrupting factor is a shortage of the developer held by the holding unit.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a detecting unit configured to detect a generation of a sheet conveying defect on a conveying path of the printing unit, wherein the selecting unit selects the no use of the sheet bundle when the interrupting factor is the generation of the sheet conveying defect.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a sheet stacking unit configured to stack the sheet, wherein the selecting unit selects the use of the sheet bundle when the interrupting factor is a shortage of the sheet stacked by the sheet stacking unit.

8. The apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a feeding unit configured to feed a cover sheet with a laid-out book cover, wherein the bookbinding unit forms the bound book by bonding one end of the sheet bundle to a portion of the cover sheet to be a spine of the bound book.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first number of sheets is differentiated from the second number of sheets in accordance with a type of the sheet.

10. A method comprising: receiving a printing job including image data for a plurality of pages;printing images on a plurality of sheets based on the received printing job so as to accumulate the sheets on an accumulating unit for forming a bound book using a sheet bundle accumulated on the accumulating unit;counting the number of the sheets accumulated on the accumulating unit;interrupting the printing when an interrupting factor for interrupting the printing is generated during the printing;when the interrupting factor is generated, restarting the printing, if the counted number of sheets accumulated on the accumulation unit is a first number or less, from a top page of the printing job while restarting the printing, if the counted number of sheets accumulated on the accumulation unit is a second number or more, from the page associated with the interrupting factor; andwhen the interrupting factor is generated and if the counted number of sheets accumulated on the accumulation unit is larger than the first number as well as smaller than the second number, selecting a priority, upon restarting the interrupted printing, between the use of the sheet bundle accumulated on the accumulating unit for forming a bound book and no use of the sheet bundle,wherein, when the interrupting factor is generated, the interrupted printing is restarted, if the counted number of sheets accumulated on the accumulation unit is larger than the first number as well as smaller than the second number and when the use of the sheet bundle is selected, from the page associated with the interrupting factor.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein, when the interrupting factor is generated, the interrupted printing is restarted from the top page of the printing job if no use of the sheet bundle is selected.