A. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to image forming apparatuses such as photocopiers, facsimile machines, and printers, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for printing images when at least one of a plurality of color cartridges contains an insufficient amount of toner for printing an image.
B. Background of the Invention
Photocopiers, facsimile machines, and laser printers for printing images with a color toner are known. Examples of such devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,018 and Japanese Patent Publication No. JP 2001-16375, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
In many conventional color laser printers, all of four toner cartridges (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black/monochrome) must be installed and available for the printer to be operable. If one or more of the toner cartridges are either not installed or has an insufficient supply of toner, an error message is generated and the printer will not operate until the problem is addressed. If one or more of the color cartridges is nonfunctional, the error message can prevent printing by a user wanting to print only monochrome images using the monochrome toner cartridge, which is installed and fully operable.
Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus for printing images when one or more of the color cartridges contains an insufficient amount of toner for printing an image.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus is provided, including at least one color cartridge that supplies at least one color toner, a monochrome cartridge that supplies monochrome toner, an image formation unit configured to form an image on an image-transferring member using at least one of the at least one color toner and the monochrome toner, and a processor electrically coupled to the image formation unit. According to this embodiment, the processor is configured to determine whether the at least one color cartridge contains insufficient color toner for printing an image according to a first image job and to control the image formation unit to print a second image job before the first image job requiring the at least one color cartridge if the at least one color cartridge contains insufficient color toner for printing the image of the first image job.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of forming images on an image-transferring member is provided, including providing at least one color cartridge that supplies at least one color toner, providing at least one monochrome cartridge that supplies monochrome toner, determining whether the at least one color cartridge contains insufficient color toner for printing an image according to a first image job, and printing a second image job before the first image job requiring the at least one color cartridge if the at least one color cartridge contains insufficient color toner for printing the image of the first job.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus is provided, including at least one color cartridge means that supplies at least one color toner, a monochrome cartridge means that supplies monochrome toner, an image forming means for forming an image on an image-transferring member using at least one of the at least one color toner and the monochrome toner, and a processing means electrically coupled to the image forming means. The processing means is configured for determining whether the at least one color cartridge means contains insufficient color toner for printing an image according to a first image job, and for controlling the image forming means to print a second image job before the first image job requiring the at least one color cartridge means if the at least one color cartridge means contains insufficient color toner for printing the image of the first image job.
Further features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description of preferred embodiments that follows, when considered together with the accompanying drawing figures:
Reference will now be made in detail to presently preferred embodiments of the invention. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. Additionally, it should be appreciated that the method steps described in the following exemplary embodiments can be performed by appropriately programming processor 130 shown in
An exemplary image forming apparatus 100 is shown in
As shown, the image forming apparatus 100 also includes one or more sensors 110, 112, 114, and 116 (e.g., optical and/or magnetic sensors) for determining when a toner level within cartridge 120, 122, 124, or 126 respectively falls below a level sufficient for printing an image according to a particular image job. In this regard, the sensors 110, 112, 114, and 116 may detect an actual toner amount (e.g., 10% full, 20% full, 30% full, etc.), or detect when a minimum toner amount/threshold level remains (e.g., about empty). Further a single sensor unit may be used for detecting the toner levels of more than one cartridge. The sensors 110, 112, 114, 116 provide their outputs to the processor 130.
If an actual amount of toner is detected, the processor 130 can estimate the amount of toner needed for a given image job, and compare the estimated amount required to that available in cartridges 120, 122, 124, and 126. By way of example, a first image job and a second image job which both require a particular toner color (e.g., cyan) may require a different amount of that particular toner, so that sufficient toner exists in cartridge 124 for the second image job, but not the first image job. Such a situation can be dealt with by imaging only the second image job, without imaging the first image job.
When a given image is the next image to be printed (i.e., “next in line” within the queue) the image forming apparatus 100 determines the toner colors (e.g., black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) required for printing the image in step 220. With this determination, in step 230, the image forming apparatus 100 determines whether cartridges 120, 122, 124, and 126 contain sufficient toner for the image job. Sensors 110, 112, 114, and 116 may transmit a signal to processor 130 indicative of toner levels in cartridges 120, 122, 124, and 126 respectively, or may transmit an abnormal signal to processor 130 only when a toner level within cartridges 120, 122, 124, and 126 is below a predetermined minimum level. With the latter method, no need for constant querying of the toner levels exists.
If the cartridges 120, 122, 124, and 126 contain sufficient toner for printing the image, the image forming apparatus 100 proceeds with printing the image in step 250. However, if in step 230 the image forming apparatus 100 determines that one or more cartridges 120, 122, 124, and 126 do not contain sufficient toner to print the image, then in step 240, the image forming apparatus 100 re-queues image jobs to order them such that the image jobs for which sufficient toner exists are moved ahead of those image jobs requiring the insufficient toner. An exemplary re-queuing is shown in
One particular application of the method of
With the method of
If the black toner check in step 320 determines that there is an insufficient amount of toner available for printing an image, the image forming apparatus 100 then pauses all image jobs in step 330. Preferably, the image forming apparatus then repeatedly performs step 320 until the black toner has returned to a sufficient level (e.g., by a user refilling cartridge 126).
If black toner exists at step 320 for printing the next image in the queue, then in step 340, the image forming apparatus 100 then checks whether the next image job in the queue is a color image job or a black-and-white image job. If the next image job is a black-and-white image job, the image job is printed in step 360, and ends the printing process in step 390. At step 390, the printer may be returned to an idle condition waiting for a next image job to be received, or return to step 310 if additional image jobs are present in the queue.
If in step 340, the next image job is a color image job, then in step 350, the apparatus checks the color toner level(s) of cartridges 120, 122, and 124. If sufficient color toner is available for printing the next image job, it then prints the image job in step 360 and ends the printing process in step 390 (where the printer is returned to the idling condition or the method returns to step 310).
However, in step 350, if an insufficient amount of toner exists to print the next image job, the image forming apparatus 100 pauses color image jobs in step 370. By way of example, the image forming apparatus 100 may pause all color image jobs in step 370, only color image jobs that require the particular color toner (cyan, magenta, yellow) which has been determined to be of an insufficient quantity, or only color image jobs that require an amount of color toner greater than the level detected by sensor(s) 110, 112, and/or 114. The image forming apparatus 100 then queues image jobs not paused in step 370 before the paused image jobs in step 380. As a particular example, the apparatus may pause all color printing, and proceed with printing only the black-and-white images.
In this manner, the image forming apparatus 100 can continue printing some image jobs even though one or more color cartridges 120, 122, and 124 has an insufficient amount of toner available for other image jobs. The image forming apparatus 100 discern between color vs. black-and-white image jobs, or between two different color image jobs where one color job cannot be printed with the available toner while the other one can.
More specifically, in this embodiment, the user is queried in step 410 whether to print image jobs that can be printed with the available toner. If the user gives a positive input (or no input within a specified time period) the queue is adjusted in step 380. In this manner, a user may choose not to disturb the queue; e.g., when the user has a high priority for the next image job and is about to refill the cartridge. In addition, the user may be given the choice to print the color image jobs in black-and-white, to avoid the waiting time or the re-queuing moving the color image job back.
An image forming apparatus 100 operated in this manner provides a user with greater control of the printing function, while allowing the image forming apparatus 100 to continue printing images that can be printed with available toner, thereby increasing the functionality of the image forming apparatus.
Once the insufficient amount of toner has been detected, the image forming apparatus 100 stops Color Job 1, and notifies a user that the detected cartridge 120, 122, and/or 124 requires service (e.g., refilling, replacement or the like). The image forming apparatus 100 then re-queues the job data in the queue into B/W priority as shown in
In this manner, the queue may be re-queued as previously described in reference to the embodiments of
The foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and modifications and variations are possible in light in the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. The aspects of the embodiments may be combined with one another. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and a practical application to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications are suited to the particular use contemplated. By way of example, various method steps described may be combined in whole or in part, may be rearranged in order of performance, and/or may be omitted in some applications. Moreover, additional steps may be provided, such as notifying a user when one or more of cartridges 120, 122, 124, and/or 126 is running low on toner, and/or continuously checking a toner level while printing an image job in step 250 and/or step 360. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/635,612, filed Aug. 7, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,915,090 the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6029018 | Rogers et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
6266493 | Farrell et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
6285843 | Obata | Sep 2001 | B1 |
6314250 | Miyashiro | Nov 2001 | B1 |
6463224 | Phillips | Oct 2002 | B1 |
6738587 | Hoene et al. | May 2004 | B1 |
6915090 | Fukaya | Jul 2005 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2001-016375 | Jan 2001 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050238378 A1 | Oct 2005 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10635612 | Aug 2003 | US |
Child | 11169011 | US |