Image recording system and program

Abstract

An image recording system includes two image recording apparatuses each capable of recording images independently. A color image recording apparatus is disposed with a bypass transporting path apparatus. A transporting path connecting apparatus is disposed between the front of a monochrome image recording apparatus and the back of the color image recording apparatus. A final processing apparatus that is common to the color and monochrome image recording apparatuses is disposed in the front of the color image recording apparatus. The system includes a process switching portion that, when arrival of a recorded item at the recorded item containing portion by one image recording apparatus on the side that executes an image recording process of the color image recording apparatus and the monochrome image recording apparatus is late for that by the other image recording apparatus, switches the process to a substitute image recording process by said other image recording apparatus.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view of the appearance of the configuration of an image recording system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an explanatory schematic view of exchanging of image data in the image recording system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an example of the configuration of the image recording system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a color image forming portion in the image recording system of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example of the main part that executes image recording control in the image recording system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory flowchart of an example of a switching and a recovering processes in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 5;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart continued from FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory schematic view of an example of a color engine substituting process for improving FCOT in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 7;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory schematic view of an example of a color engine substituting process executed when the fuser temperature is decreased in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 7;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory schematic view of an example of a color engine substituting process for improving the productivity during warming up in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 7;

FIG. 11 is an explanatory schematic view of an example of a selecting process of a warm-up-priority engine in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 7;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory schematic view of an example of energy-saving-mode entry and recovery processes for each engine in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 7;

FIG. 13 is an explanatory schematic view of an example of a trouble shutting-down and a trouble recovering processes for each engine in the image recording system described referring to FIGS. 1 to 7;

FIG. 14 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an example of the configuration of an image recording system according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an example of the main part that executes image recording control in the image recording system of FIG. 14.

Claims

1. An image recording system that comprises a first and a second image recording apparatuses disposed side by side and each capable of recording images independently, comprising: a common recorded item containing portion disposed next to the first image recording apparatus side by side, the portion containing recorded items outputted from the first image recording apparatus and recorded items outputted from the second image recording apparatus;a process switching portion that, in case arrival of a recorded item at the recorded item containing portion by one image recording apparatus on the side that executes an image recording process of the first image recording apparatus and the second image recording apparatus is late for that by the other image recording apparatus, switches the process to a substitute image recording process by said other image recording apparatus; anda process recovering portion that, after the execution of the switching by the process switching portion, in case arrival of a recorded item at the recorded item containing portion by said one image recording apparatus on the side that executes the image recording process is prior to that by said other image recording apparatus, recovers the image recording process from the substitute image recording process by said other image recording apparatus.

2. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein one image recording apparatus is a color image recording apparatus having a monochrome image recording function and the other image recording apparatus is a monochrome image recording apparatus, of the first image recording apparatus and the second image recording apparatus.

3. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein the process switching portion executes switching based on time periods to completion of warming up respectively of the two image recording apparatuses at the time when the image recording process is started to be executed.

4. The image recording system of claim 3, wherein warming up of one image recording apparatus of the first image recording apparatus and the second image recording apparatus is executed with priority.

5. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein the process switching portion executes switching based on a difference in transporting time period to the recorded item containing portion between the two image recording apparatuses.

6. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein image recording speed of each of the first image recording apparatus and the second image recording apparatus differs from that of each other, and whereinthe process switching portion executes switching based on a difference in the image recording speed between the two image recording apparatuses.

7. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein the process switching portion executes switching based on whether recording by one image recording apparatus is able to be continued.

8. The image recording system of claim 7, wherein whether the recording is able to be continued is judged based on whether the supplies necessary for outputting recorded items by an image recording apparatus are lacking.

9. The image recording system of claim 7, wherein whether the recording is able to be continued is judged based on whether fusing ability of a heat source to fuse toner on recorded items is degraded.

10. The image recording system of claim 7, wherein whether the recording is able to be continued is judged based on whether ink or toner to record and reproduce images on recorded items is able to be stably supplied.

11. The image recording system of claim 1, comprising: a number-of-pages detecting portion that detects the number of pages to execute the image recording process, whereinthe process recovering portion obtains the number of remaining pages to be processed based on the number of pages detected by the number-of-pages detecting portion and judges whether to execute recovering of the image recording process from the substitute image recording process based on the number of remaining pages to be processed.

12. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein a controlling portion of the first image recording apparatus as the process switching portion and the process recovering portion controls a controlling portion of the second image recording apparatus.

13. The image recording system of claim 1, wherein the controlling portions of the two image recording apparatuses respectively comprise a monitoring portion that monitors the other image recording apparatus through the controlling portion of the other image recording apparatus, the process switching portion, and the process recovering portion.

14. The image recording system of claim 1, comprising: a common controlling portion that is incorporated in a housing disposed between the first image recording apparatus and the second image recording apparatus and controls both of the controlling portion of the first image recording apparatus and the controlling portion of the second image recording apparatus as the process switching portion and the process recovering portion.

15. A program to be incorporated in the controlling portion of the first image recording apparatus in the image recording system of claim 12, wherein the program causes a computer to function as the process switching portion and the process recovering portion.

16. A program to be incorporated in the controlling portions respectively of the two image recording apparatus in the image recording system of claim 13, wherein the program causes a computer to function as the process switching portion and the process recovering portion.

17. A program to be incorporated in the common controlling portion in the image recording system of claim 14, wherein the program causes a computer to function as the process switching portion and the process recovering portion.