Patent Application
20240294020
The present disclosure relates to a print apparatus, a method of controlling the print apparatus, and a storage medium.
A recording medium used for a print operation (hereinafter representatively referred to as a “sheet”) is conveyed while the recording medium is statically charged due to residual charges generated during an electrophotographic process or due to slight friction with a conveyance roller or a guide, which is caused during conveyance of the sheet. Due to the static electricity, there is a case where sheets stick to each other or a sheet sticks to a roller, thereby causing a jam. Adherence of dust or paper dust to a printed product causes a decrease in quality of the printed product.
For example, plain paper or the like exhibits low electric resistance as electric resistance of a sheet itself, and charge transfer within the paper easily occurs. Thus, the plain paper has a small electric charge amount, and static charges are quickly eliminated. However, a sheet made of a synthetic resin (plastic), such as thick paper, synthetic paper, and coated paper, exhibits high electric resistance as electric resistance of the sheet itself, and charge transfer within the synthetic sheet hardly occurs. As a result, there is a tendency that the sheet, such as the synthetic paper and the coated paper, is more easily statically charged, and more residual charges remain on the sheet. It is generally known that the sheet is susceptible to the influence of an environment, especially the influence of a humidity, and is more statically charged due to the influence of a decreased amount of electric discharge into the air in a lower humidity environment.
If post-processing is performed in a state where sheets stick to each other, it affects processing of aligning sheets, which not only decreases the quality of the post-processing, but also triggers a jam due to a paper feeding defect or a sheet conveying defect at the time of the post-processing and may cause a damage on the sheet and an apparatus.
For this reason, to avoid such a risk, it is desirable that static electricity on the sheet after a print process before execution of the post-processing be eliminated. To address this issue, a proposal or the like is made for a technique of applying a voltage to a conveyance roller located on a downstream side in a sheet conveyance direction to eliminate static charges on the sheet (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-258881).
The static elimination implemented by a configuration in which a voltage is applied to the conveyance roller (hereinafter referred to as “static elimination roller”) cancels out charged static electricity by applying opposite charges of static charges on the sheet to the sheet via the static elimination roller. Hence, static elimination control with the static elimination roller (application of opposite charges of static charges on the sheet to the static elimination roller) needs to be appropriately performed according to a charge amount on the sheet. That is, this means that there is an optimum charge adjustment value for static elimination for each print environment, such as a humidity, and for each brand of a sheet.
If the static elimination control is performed on the sheet in an inappropriate charge adjustment state, there is a possibility that opposite charges are generated, thereby further causing sticking of sheets, and causing a jam due to sticking of a sheet to a roller. In a case where the jam occurs, this has been conventionally addressed by notification about a position of the paper jam to a user and removal of a sheet, but no consideration has been given of a possibility that an inappropriate charge adjustment value causes charging and the jam when a static elimination apparatus is connected. In this case, even if the jam is eliminated by removal of the jammed sheet, because the true cause of the error is not eliminated, a similar jam occurs when a job is executed again.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a print apparatus configured to convey a sheet to a static elimination apparatus configured to perform static elimination processing on the sheet includes a printer unit, at least one processor configured to, in a case where a jam of the sheet occurs, perform control to stop print processing being performed by the printer unit, and a display configured to display at least an occurrence position of the jam and information prompting a user to check a static elimination setting.
Further features of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings.
The claims are not limited to the following exemplary embodiments, and all combinations of features described in the exemplary embodiments are not necessarily essential to a means for solving the issues of the present disclosure.
A first exemplary embodiment will now be described.
The print system 1000 has a configuration that enables the sheet processing apparatus 200 connected to the print apparatus 100 to execute sheet processing on a sheet printed by the print apparatus 100. Alternatively, the print system 1000 can be constituted by only the print apparatus 100 to which the sheet processing apparatus 200 is not connected.
The sheet processing apparatus 200 is configured to be capable of communicating with the print apparatus 100. When receiving an instruction from the print apparatus 100, the sheet processing apparatus 200 is capable of executing sheet processing as described below.
A scanner unit 201 reads an image on a document, converts the image into image data, and transfers the image data to another unit.
An external interface (I/F) 202 transmits/receives data to/from another apparatus connected to the network 101.
A printer unit 203 prints an image based on the input image data onto a sheet.
An operation unit 204 has a configuration as illustrated in
A control unit 205 performs integrated control of processing, operations, or the like of various kinds of units included in the print system 1000. That is, the control unit 205 controls an operation of the print apparatus 100 and an operation of the sheet processing apparatus 200 connected to the print apparatus 100.
A read-only memory (ROM) 207 stores various kinds of computer programs executed by the control unit 205.
For example, the ROM 207 stores therein a program for causing the control unit 205 to execute various kinds of processing in flowcharts and a display control program necessary for displaying various kinds of setting screens. The flowcharts and the various kinds of setting screens will be described below. The ROM 207 stores therein a program for causing the control unit 205 to execute an operation of interpreting the PDL code data received from the PC 102 and expanding the PDL data into raster image data. In addition, the ROM 207 stores therein a boot sequence, font information, and the like.
A random-access memory (RAM) 208 stores therein image data and PDL code data transmitted from the scanner unit 201 or the external I/F 202, various kinds of programs loaded from the ROM 207, and setting information. The RAM 208 stores therein information regarding the sheet processing apparatus 200 (information regarding a type and function of each sheet processing apparatus 200 connected to the print apparatus 100 and other information). The control unit 205 can use the information regarding these sheet processing apparatuses 200 stored in the RAM 208 for control.
A hard disk drive (HDD) 209 includes a hard disk, a drive unit that reads/writes data from/to the hard disk, and the like. The HDD 209 is a high-capacity storage device to store image data that is input from the scanner unit 201 and that is compressed by a compression/decompression unit 210.
The control unit 205 is capable of printing the image data stored in the HDD 209 using the printer unit 203 based on an instruction from the user. The HDD 209 is also used as a spooler, and the control unit 205 is capable of managing the PDL code data received from the PC 102 as a print job and storing the PDL code data in the HDD 209. The control unit 205 is capable of managing print jobs stored in the HDD 209, and is also capable of acquiring the number of stored print jobs and setting information set in the print jobs.
The compression/decompression unit 210 performs a compression/decompression operation on image data or the like stored in the RAM 208 or the HDD 209 by various kinds of compression schemes, such as a Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group (JBIG) scheme and a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) scheme.
A hardware configuration of the print system 1000 is to be described with reference to
First, the print apparatus 100 is to be described. An automatic document feeder (ADF) 301 sequentially separates a document bundle set on a placement surface of a document tray from the first page of the document in the order of pages, and conveys each page of the document onto a platen glass for scanning by a scanner 302.
The scanner 302 reads an image of each page of the document conveyed onto the platen glass, and converts the image into image data with a charge-coupled device (CCD).
A rotary polygon mirror (polygon mirror or the like) 303 causes a light beam, such as laser light, which is modulated according to the image data, to be incident thereon, and irradiates a photosensitive drum 304 with the light beam as reflection scan light via a reflection mirror.
A latent image formed with laser light on the photosensitive drum 304 is developed with toner, and a toner image is transferred to a sheet that is attached onto a transfer drum 305. This series of image forming process is sequentially executed with respect to toner of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K), whereby a full color image is formed. After the image forming process is executed four times, the sheet on the transfer drum 305 on which the full color image is formed is separated by a separation pawl 306, and conveyed to a fixing device 308 by a pre-fixing conveyance device 307.
The fixing device 308 includes a combination of rollers and a belt, and a heat source such as a halogen heater is built in the fixing device 308. The fixing device 308 dissolves toner on the sheet onto which the toner image is transferred with heat and pressure, and fixes the toner image.
A discharge flapper 309 is configured to be pivotable about a pivot axis, and defines a sheet conveyance direction. When the discharge flapper 309 pivots in a clockwise direction in
On the other hand, in a case where images are formed on respective sides of the sheet, the discharge flapper 309 pivots in a counterclockwise direction in
The inversion flapper 311 pivots about a pivot axis, and defines the sheet conveyance direction. In a case of processing a double-sided print job, the control unit 205 controls the printer unit 203 to cause the inversion flapper 311 to pivot in the counterclockwise direction in
The print apparatus 100 includes a paper feed unit that stores sheets required for print processing. Examples of the paper feed unit include paper feed cassettes 317 and 318 (each capable of storing, for example, 500 sheets), a paper feed deck 319 (capable of storing, for example, 500 sheets), and a manual feed tray 320. Various kinds of sheets having different sizes and materials can be separately set in the paper feed cassettes 317 and 318 and the paper feed deck 319. Various kinds of sheets including a special sheet, such as an overhead projector (OHP) sheet, can be set in the manual feed tray 320.
The static elimination apparatus 200-3a will now be described.
An operation unit 502 has a configuration as illustrated in
A mode setting switch 601 illustrated in
An adjustment dial 602 composed of a thumb rotary switch is for adjusting the strength of the static elimination control when the mode setting switch 601 is ON, and is controlled by the control unit 501 so as to be enabled only when the mode setting switch 601 is ON.
The static elimination processing unit 503 includes a static elimination roller 322, which will be described below, an ionizer 323, and a voltage application controller 321 that applies a voltage to each of the static elimination roller 322 and the ionizer 323, and is a part that plays the role of performing static elimination processing on a conveyed sheet. The control unit 501 implements control of applying a voltage to each of the static elimination roller 322 and the ionizer 323 via the voltage application controller 321.
A boot program for the static elimination apparatus 200-3a, a control program for the operation unit 502, a static elimination processing program for the static elimination processing unit 503, and the like are stored in a ROM 504. The control unit 501 then loads a necessary program from the ROM 504 into a RAM 505 as appropriate and executes the program.
The static elimination processing executed in the static elimination processing unit 503 is now to be described with reference to
Going back to the description with reference to the cross-sectional view in
The saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus 200-3b is now to be described. Examples of sheet processing to be performed by the saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus 200-3b include saddle stitch bookbinding, punching processing, cutting processing, shifted sheet discharge processing, folding processing, and staple processing. These jobs are each referred to as a “saddle stitch bookbinding job”.
In a case of processing the saddle stitch bookbinding job, the control unit 205 first causes the saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus 200-3b to convey a sheet, as a target of the job, subjected to printing by the print apparatus 100, and thereafter causes the saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus 200-3b to execute the sheet processing on the sheet as the target of the job. The control unit 205 then causes a paper discharge destination Z of the saddle stitch bookbinding 200-3b to hold a printed product of the saddle stitch bookbinding job, which is subjected to the sheet processing performed by the saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus 200-3b. There is a plurality of candidates for the paper discharge destination Z. This configuration enables the saddle stitch bookbinding apparatus 200-3b to execute a plurality of types of sheet processing, and the candidates are used when sheets are separately discharged to different destinations depending on sheet processing. In the present exemplary embodiment, a description about a detailed procedure for conveying the saddle stitch bookbinding job is omitted.
Error display processing at the time of print processing executed by the print system 1000 is now to be described with reference to a flowchart in
In step S801, when a print job is input, the control unit 205 of the print apparatus 100 interprets the received print job and starts to execute printing.
In step S802, the control unit 205 detects the occurrence of a paper jam and an occurrence position of the paper jam in the sheet processing apparatus 200 during execution of printing based on a received error code. In a case where the control unit 205 determines that the paper jam occurs (YES in step S802), the processing proceeds to step S803. In a case where the control unit 205 determines that no paper jam occurs (NO in step S802), because the processing on the paper jam has been completed until the end without a problem, the processing ends.
In step S803, in a case where the paper jam occurs, the control unit 205 stops conveyance of the sheet.
In step S804, the control unit 205 of the print apparatus 100 displays an error notification screen for making notifications about the jam on the operation unit 204 of the print apparatus 100.
Thereafter, the processing ends.
As a result, it becomes possible to point out a possibility that the setting for the static elimination processing is not appropriately made when the paper jam occurs in the print system 1000, and to prompt the user to perform an appropriate operation.
A second exemplary embodiment is now to be described. The first exemplary embodiment is directed to the technique of displaying the error message in consideration of the influence of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a when the paper jam occurs. However, because the static elimination processing is not performed in a case where a setting value for the static elimination processing to be performed by the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is OFF, there is no influence on the paper jam. In consideration of this case, in the second exemplary embodiment, a description will be given of a case where error message display is switched depending on whether the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is operating, that is, whether the setting value for the static elimination processing is ON or OFF.
In step S901, the control unit 205 of the print system 1000 checks whether a static elimination setting of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is ON or OFF at the time of startup. Specifically, the control unit 501 of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a that has received an inquiry from the control unit 205 of the print apparatus 100 acquires a status of a mode setting switch 601 in the operation unit 502 of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a and makes a reply to the control unit 205 of the print apparatus 100.
In step S902, the control unit 205 starts to execute the print processing by being triggered by reception of a print job.
In step S903, the control unit 205 determines whether it has detected the occurrence of a paper jam by a notification of an error code. In a case where the control unit 205 has detected the occurrence of the paper jam (YES in step S903), the processing proceeds to step S904. In a case where no paper jam occurs (NO in step S903), because the processing on the paper jam has been completed until the end without a problem, the processing ends.
In step S904, the control unit 205 performs control to stop conveyance of the sheet.
In step S905, the control unit 205 determines whether a result of the checking of the static elimination setting (step S901) is ON (whether the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is operating). In a case where the result of the checking of the static elimination setting is ON (in a case where the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is operating) (YES in step S905), the processing proceeds to step S906. In a case where the result of the checking of the static elimination setting is OFF (in a case where the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is not operating) (NO in step S905), the processing proceeds to step S907.
In step S906, the control unit 205 displays, on the operation unit 204, an error message prompting the user to check the static elimination setting in addition to the position of the jam (as illustrated in
In step S907, the control unit 205 displays only the position of the jam on the operation unit 204, and the processing ends.
According to the present exemplary embodiment, it is possible to display an error in consideration of the static elimination setting, and prompt the user to perform a more appropriate operation.
A third exemplary embodiment is now to be described. Although the consideration is given to ON/OFF of the static elimination setting in the second exemplary embodiment, even if the static elimination setting is ON, if the paper jam occurs in a process before the process in the static elimination apparatus 200-3a, there is no influence on the static elimination processing. In this regard, in the third exemplary embodiment, a description will be given of a case where an error display is performed depending on a positional relationship between a connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a and the occurrence position of the paper jam.
Processing of displaying an error depending on the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a in the third exemplary embodiment is to be described with reference to
In step S1101, the control unit 205 of the print system 1000 checks the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a at the time of startup. Processing in steps S801 to S803 after the start of the print job is identical to the processing in the first exemplary embodiment, and thus a description thereof is omitted. The present exemplary embodiment utilizes that the occurrence position of the paper jam has been detected based on the error code in step S802.
In step S1102, after the paper jam occurs, the control unit 205 compares the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a and the occurrence position of the paper jam. In a case where the occurrence position of the paper jam is in a process after the process in the static elimination apparatus 200-3a (YES in step S1102), the processing proceeds to step S1103. In a case where the occurrence position of the paper jam is in a process before the process in the static elimination apparatus 200-3a (NO in step S1102), the processing proceeds to step S1104.
In step S1103, the control unit 205 displays, on the operation unit 204, an error message prompting the user to check the static elimination setting in addition to the occurrence position of the paper jam, and the processing ends.
In step S1104, the control unit 205 displays only the position of the jam on the operation unit 204, and the processing ends.
According to the present exemplary embodiment, it is possible to determine whether a cause of the paper jam is related to the static elimination processing based on the positional relationship between the occurrence position of the paper jam and the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a to display an error, and to prompt the user to perform a more appropriate operation.
A fourth exemplary embodiment is now to be described. A description will be given of error display in consideration of both ON/OFF of the setting of the static elimination processing to be performed by the static elimination apparatus 200-3a and the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a with reference to
In step S1201, the control unit 205 of the print system 1000 checks whether the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is operating (whether the static elimination setting is ON or OFF) at the time of startup.
In step S1202, the control unit 205 determines whether the checked static elimination setting is ON or OFF. In a case where the static elimination setting is ON (YES in step S1203), the processing proceeds to step S1203. In a case where the static elimination setting is OFF (NO in step S1203), the processing proceeds to step S902.
In step S1203, the control unit 205 checks the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a. Processing in steps S902 to S904 after the start of the print job is identical to the processing in the second exemplary embodiment (
In step S1205, the control unit 205 determines whether a result of the checking of the static elimination setting (step S1201) is ON (whether the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is operating). In a case where the result of the checking of the static elimination setting is ON (in a case where the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is operating) (YES in step S1201), the processing proceeds to step S1206. In a case where the result of the checking of the static elimination setting is OFF (in a case where the static elimination apparatus 200-3a is not operating) (NO in step S1201), the processing proceeds to step S1208.
In step S1206, in a case where the static elimination setting is ON based on the above-mentioned result of checking of the static elimination setting, the control unit 205 checks the positional relationship between the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a and the occurrence position of the jam. In a case where the control unit 205 determines that the occurrence position of the paper jam is in a process after the process in the static elimination apparatus 200-3a (YES in step S1206), the processing proceeds to step S1207. In a case where the control unit 205 determines that the occurrence position of the paper jam is in a process before the process in the static elimination apparatus 200-3a (NO in step S1206), the processing proceeds to step S1208.
In step S1207, the control unit 205 displays, on the operation unit 204, an error message prompting the user to check the static elimination setting in addition to the position of the jam, and the processing ends.
In step S1208, the control unit 205 displays only the position of the jam on the operation unit 204, and the processing ends.
With this configuration, it is possible to perform appropriate error display depending on the positional relationship between the connection position of the static elimination apparatus 200-3a and the occurrence position of the paper jam and ON/OFF of the static elimination setting.
In the above description, the error message is displayed on the display unit. However, as a method of notifying the user, another notification means, such as an audio guide, may be adopted.
Some embodiment(s) of the present disclosure can also be realized by a computer of a system or apparatus that reads out and executes computer-executable instructions (e.g., one or more programs) recorded on a storage medium (which may also be referred to more fully as a ‘non-transitory computer-readable storage medium’) to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/or that includes one or more circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) for performing the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s), and by a method performed by the computer of the system or apparatus by, for example, reading out and executing the computer-executable instructions from the storage medium to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/or controlling the one or more circuits to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s). The computer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network of separate computers or separate processors to read out and execute the computer-executable instructions. The computer-executable instructions may be provided to the computer, for example, from a network or the storage medium. The storage medium may include, for example, one or more of a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a storage of distributed computing systems, an optical disk (such as a compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), or Blu-ray Disc (BD)™), a flash memory device, a memory card, and the like.
While the present disclosure has described exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that some embodiments are not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2023-031383, which was filed on Mar. 1, 2023 and which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-031383 | Mar 2023 | JP | national |
