AU2005203485B2 - Machine with automatic consumable re-ordering - Google Patents

Description

I

MACHINE WITH AUTOMATIC CONSUMABLE RE-ORDERING TECHNICAL FIELD t This invention relates to the automatic ordering and delivery of supplies for devices 00 such as printers and the like.

SCO-PENDING APPLICATIONS 0Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with the present invention: PCT/AU00/01442, PCT/AU00/01444, PCT/AU00/01446, PCT/AU00/01445, PCT/AU00/01450, PCT/AU00/01453, PCT/AU00/01448, PCT/AU00/01447, PCT/AUOO/01459, PCT/AU00/01451, PCT/AU00/01454, PCT/AU00/01452, PCT/AU00/01443, PCT/AUOO/01455, PCT/AU00/01456, PCT/AUOO/01457, PCT/AUOO/01458 and PCT/AU00/01449.

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on 20 October 2000: PCT/AU00/01273, PCT/AU00/01279, PCT/AU00/01288, PCT/AU00/01282, PCT/AUOO/01276, PCT/AU00/01280, PCT/AU00/01274, PCT/AU00/01289, PCT/AU00/01275, PCT/AU00/01277, PCT/AU00/01286, PCT/AU00/01281, PCT/AU00/01278, PCT/AU00/01287, PCT/AU00/01285, PCT/AU00/01284 and PCT/AU00/01283.

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on 15 September 2000: PCT/AU00/01108, PCT/AU00/01110 and PCT/AU00/01111.

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.

NPP074-AU Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on 30 June 2000: PCT/AUOO/00762, PCT/AU00/00763, PCT/AU00/0076 1, PCT/AU00/00760, PCT/AUOO/00759, PCT/AU0O/00758, PCT/AU00/00764, PCT/AU00/00765, PCT/AUOO/00766, PCT/AU0O/00767, PCT/AUO0/00768, PCT/AUO0/00773, PCT/AU0O/00774, PCT/AUO0/00775,PCT/AU0O/00776, PCT/AUOO/00777, PCT/AU0O/00770, PCT/AUO0/00769, PCT/AU0O/0077 1, PCT/AUOO/00772, PCT/AUOO/00754, PCT/AU00/00755, PCT/AU0O/00756 and PCT/AU0O/00757.

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on 24 May 2000: PCT/AUOO/005 18, PCT/AU0O/00522, PCT/AU0O/00526, PCT/AU0O/00530, PCT/AUOO/00534, PCT/AUO0/0053 8, PCT/AUOO/00542, PCT/AUOO/00547, PCT/AUOO/00557, PCT/AUOO/0056 1, PCT/AUOO/00565, PCT/AUOO/00569, PCT/AUOO/00573, PCT/AUOO/00577, PCT/AUOO/005 80, PCT/AUOO/00589, PCT/AUOO/0059 1, PCT/AUOO/005 19, PGT/AUOO/00523, PCT/AUO0/00527, PCT/AUOO/0053 1, PCT/AUOO/00535, PCT/AU0O/00539, PCT/AUOO/00543, PCT/AU0O/00546, PCT/AUOO/00558, PCT/AUOO/00562, PCT/AUOO/00566, PCT/AUOO/00570, PCT/AUOO/00574, PCT/AUOO/00578, PCT/AUO0/005 82, PCT/AUOO/005 83, PGT/AUOO/00592, PCT/AUOO/00520, PCT/AUOO/00524, PCT/AUOO/00528, PCT/AUO0/00532, PCT/AUOO/00536, PCT/AUOO/00540, PCT/AUOO/00544, PCT/AUOO/00554, PCT/AUOO/00559, PCT/AUOO/00563, PCT/AU0O/00567, PCT/AUOO/0057 1, PCT/AUOO/00575, PCT/AUOO/00579, PCT/AUOO/005 87, PCT/AUOO/005 93, PCT/AUOO/00594, PCT/AUOO/0052 1, PCT/AUOO/00525, PCT/AUOO/00529, PCT/AUOO/00533, PCT/AUOO/0053 7, PCT/AUOO/0054 1, PGT/AUOO/00545, PCT/AUOO/00556, PCT/AUOO/00560, PCT/AUOO/00564, PCT/AUOO/00568, PCT/AUOO/00572, PCT/AUOO/00576, PCT/AUOO/0058 1, PCT/AUOO/00588, PGT/AUOO/00590, PCT/AUOO/00595, NPP074-AU -3- PCT/AU00/00596, PCT/AU00/00597, PCT/AU00/00598, PCT/AU00/00516, PCT/AU00/00517 and PCT/AU00/00511.

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.

0 Background Art 0 Devices such as printers, photocopiers, facsimile machines and the like use consumables such as ink, toner, staples, adhesives and paper. At present replenishing of these O consumables involves manual detection of the state of the consumable supply, manual obtaining of the supplies and organizing of the delivery and installation of the supplies.

Disclosure of the Invention We have proposed in our co-pending application PCT/AU00/00561, the contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a system in which a printer is permanently connected to a network. We call this system the netpage system and printers which are part of the netpage system are referred to as netpage printers. The connection enables automatic processing of supply monitoring and re-supply to occur. Accordingly in one broad form the invention provides a method of supplying a machine which uses a first consumable, the method including: a) monitoring the level of the first consumable; b) determining when the level has fallen below a threshold utilizing the monitored level; c) generating an order for said first consumable when the level has fallen below the threshold; and d) compiling and delivering the ordered first consumable.

The monitoring may occur solely in the cartridge or the printer or may occur in the printer and the cartridge.

A "smart" cartridge may monitor the level and signal to the printer when the level of supply is below a threshold. Alternatively the cartridge may merely supply a level value with NPP074-AU the printer determining when the threshold has been passed and then signaling the system. In a further alternative all information may be passed to a server which makes decisions as to thresholds and ordering.

The server may store or have access to stored information relating to the machine 00 and/or the user.

The threshold at which a consumable is re-ordered may be static or it may be dynamic, with the usage of the machine being considered in determining the dynamic threshold.

C Ordering may be based on past and/or future envisaged printing.

The system may keep track of cartridges used so that supplies of cartridges are delivered in quantities of more than one. This is to reduce the number of deliveries.

Where the printer utilizes more than one consumable, preferably the system considers the current level or the expected level of other consumables when preparing an order for a first consumable. If one or more other consumables needs or is expected to need replacing shortly after a first consumable is replaced, it is sensible to supply all the needed consumables in one order rather than providing two independent orders.

The delivery and the order may include installing part or all of the order in the printer.

To this end, the method also includes providing the printer in an enclosure with external access to the consumable cartridges. The enclosure may be a building. The method includes providing a lockable access panel to the consumable cartridges and, preferably, includes dynamically providing an access code to both the lock and a delivery person.

Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 shows a schematic of a printing and ordering according to an embodiment of the invention; Best Mode of Carrying out the Invention Referring to Fig. 1 there is shown a printer 10 connected to a server 12 via a network 14. The server is in two-way communication with the printer and may send print data 16 to the NPP074-AU printer for printing of documents 18. For a full explanation of the netpage system, see our Searlier application PCT/AU00/00560.

The printer includes one or more paper cartridges 20 and one or more ink or toner Scartridges 22 which are used in production of the printed documents 18. There may be a single 00 paper cartridge or there may be multiple paper cartridges, each with the same or different sizes of paper. A cartridge may include both paper and ink. The printer 10 is preferably an inkjet Stype device, preferably a MEMS inkjet type device but other types of printer may be used. For a full explanation of MEMS inkjet devices, reference is made to our co-pending patent application PCT/AU00/00578. The printer may be a color or a black &white printer. As such the ink/toner cartridge may comprise a single ink/toner or multiple inks/toners. Where the printer uses multiple inks/toners, separate cartridges may be provided for each different ink/toner or one or more cartridges incorporating two or more different inks/toners may be used. Typically a color inkjet printer may have a separate black ink cartridge and a separate three-color ink cartridge.

Each cartridge is monitored by one or more sensors and in the embodiment shown there is a paper sensor 24 and an ink sensor 26. The sensors may be simple boolean type sensors providing a "true" signal until the level of ink falls below a pre-set level, at which point a "false" signal is generated. Alternatively the sensors may provide an output representing the quantity of the respective supply remaining. There may be a single sensor for each cartridge or multiple sensors for each cartridge. For example an ink cartridge may include three or four different inks and the amount of each ink remaining will usually need to be monitored. As such a three-color ink cartridge will preferably have three monitors associated with it. There may be more than one sensor for each consumable, particularly where boolean type sensors are used.

For example, a first sensor may indicate when ink is low and a second sensor may indicate when the ink has run out.

The sensors for each cartridge may be incorporated in the printer 10, or the cartridges 22, as desired. The sensors 24/26 may monitor the level of the respective supply directly or indirectly. The MEMS printheads typically contain circuitry to determine if an individual inkjet device has ink or not and such circuitry may be used to determine if the ink supply has run out.

Another way of monitoring ink or paper supply is to make assumptions as to the initial quantity NPP074-AU of each consumable and decrement a counter, as printing occurs, making assumptions as to t how much ink is used with each print job.

The counter may be maintained in memory (typically non-volatile memory) in the t corresponding cartridge. Similarly the assumption as to the initial quantity of a consumable 00 may be based on information obtained from the cartridge.

¢€3 SThe sensors 24/26 communicate with a controller 30. The sensors may be "dumb" (-i Ssensors which merely provide a signal to the controller 30 and the controller determines the Slevel of the monitored supply. Alternatively the sensors may be "smart" and provide more than simple information to the controller. The sensors may communicate with the respective cartridge to determine the original quantity and the respective supply. Alternatively the cartridge may communicate this information to the controller 30. Where the printer only accepts a single paper cartridge and/or a single ink/toner cartridge the information relating to the cartridge may be incorporated into the sensors or the controller. This may be by hardware or by using non-volatile memory such as EEPROMS.

During use of the printer, the level of paper or ink will fall below a preset threshold and the sensors and/or controller will determine that the amount of the respective consumable has fallen below that threshold. The threshold may be static or dynamic and may be set by the user or the system where the threshold is dynamic. This may be based on past usage patterns and/or expected future usage. The threshold may be when, for instance, 10% of the relative consumable remains or when 0% remains, or any other value. The controller 30 generates a low consumable notification 28 for one or more of the respective cartridges and sends this to a supply server 36. The supply server 36 and the print server 12 may be on the same physical computer or may be on physically distinct computers.

The low consumable notification 28 preferably includes information identifying the printer 10, the consumable required and optionally the urgency or priority of the need. Where the printer only has a single user replaceable cartridge, such as a combined paper and ink/toner cartridge, then the low consumable notification 28 need not necessarily include information identifying the consumable needed.

NPP074-AU The supply server 36 receives the low consumable notification 28 and, if appropriate, tn creates an order request 38 based on the low consumable notification 28 and optionally information 39 pertaining to the printer 10 and/or its "owner" stored on the system. This information 39 may be stored locally or remotely of the supply server 36.

00 The order request 38 is then transmitted to a fulfillment entity 40. There may be a ¢€3 single fulfillment entity which provides all supplies for the printer or there may be multiple (-i t fulfillment entities. The order request 38 is sent to the appropriate fulfillment entity SWhere there is a single fulfillment entity the supply server 36 may be part of the fulfillment entity. Each fulfillment entity may have one or more physical locations and orders may be routed externally or internally to the most appropriate physical location.

The order request 38 may include all information required to fulfil the order request, such as supply type, quantity, delivery address, delivery instructions, etc. Alternatively the order request may be the equivalent of "printer X needs paper". In these circumstances the selected fulfillment entity may extract information relating to the user and/or printer from the database 39, as indicated by lines 44.

The fulfillment entity 40 processes the order and dispatches the order to the printer's physical location. Preferably the printer 10 is installed in or on an externally accessible wall 32 and an external access panel 34 is provided. The access panel 34 provides access to the cartridges 20, 22 of the printer but no access to the building in which the printer is installed.

The access panel 34 is preferably provided with a lock 45 such that only authorized personnel may open the panel 34 and gain access to the cartridges. The lock may be static, in having a key or fixed access code to unlock. Alternatively the lock may have a dynamically assigned access code, such that access is allowed on a one-time basis for each order. In this case, on completion of order preparation, an access code 46 is generated which is provided over the network to the printer and lock, and separately to the delivery person. The access code may be generated by the fulfillment entity or the supply server and is preferably only transmitted to the printer after order preparation has been completed. The access code may have a limited life, such that if not used within a preset time it expires, requiring generation of a new access code.

NPP074-AU As mentioned above, the order fulfillment stage may involve installing the relevant t cartridge or cartridges in the printer or merely delivering the supplies to the physical location, with the user installing the respective cartridges.

SWhere the user installs cartridges, the order can be configured to supply multiple 00 cartridges to reduce the number of deliveries required. For example, a delivery of paper may include five paper cartridges. The printer may detect when a paper cartridge has run out and is replaced and send a signal to the supply server. The supply server keeps count of cartridges supplied and used, so that when the user installs the second last paper cartridge an order for another five cartridges may be initiated. The paper cartridges may be provided with unique identifiers which are sensed and transmitted when installed in the printer. The paper level sensor 24 may be used for sensing when a paper cartridge is replaced or for detecting a cartridge 20 or a separate sensor or sensors may be used.

As mentioned the supply request 28 may include a priority or urgency level. For example the sensors may detect when the ink supply level is low and send an "ordinary" supply request. In the event that the cartridge runs out of ink before it is replaced an "urgent" supply request may then be sent.

The supply server may generate required delivery dates or urgency levels in the order requests 38 sent to fulfillment entities based on the printer and user information 39 and the number of print jobs 16 printed.

The printer 10 may send an ink low message to the supply server 36. If the user is a low volume user of the printer then the supply server may determine from past and planned usage that the ink supply will last another 10 days. Accordingly a delivery can be arranged to occur, for example, 9 or 10 days later, so as to avoid wastage of ink whilst ensuring no break in service to the customer. In contrast, a high volume user may require a delivery to occur as soon as possible. Of course, customers may wish to have delivery sooner than necessary, which the suppliers may provide at additional cost.

The printer or sensors may periodically send status signals to the supply server.

Preferably the status of all monitored supplies is combined in a single transmission to reduce network traffic. The status signal or signals may be initiated by the printer or cartridge or the NPP074-AU -9- 0 0 supply server may poll the printer for its status. The supply server may utilize the status of each consumable to determine if the level of the consumable has fallen below the relevant threshold, rather than the printer or cartridge doing so. In an alternate embodiment, the printer or cartridges are supplied with sensors which provide an output corresponding to the level of the supply rather than relying on a threshold level.

00 M By providing the supply server with information relating to the level of all supplies, the 0 supply server can configure orders to pre-empt additional requests. As an example, the printer's Spaper supply may need to be replenished within the next week. The ink supplies may be sufficient for two weeks of printing. If ordering is based only on thresholds, an order for paper would be generated and then an order for ink a short time later. By noting that the ink supply is becoming low, a single order for paper and ink may be made, even though the ink level has not yet reached the threshold.

The present invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment and number of specific alternative embodiments. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the relevant fields that a number of other embodiments, differing from those specifically described, will also fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it will be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific embodiments described in the present specification, including documents incorporated by cross-reference as appropriate. The scope of the invention is only limited by the attached claims.

Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps.

The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from it), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or admission or any form of suggestion that that prior publication (or information derived from it) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates.

Claims (9)

1. A machine that uses a consumable during operation, the machine comprising: a) a storage facility for holding a quantity of the consumable; b) a sensor for monitoring the quantity of the consumable currently held by the 00 storage facility; and, c) a control unit linked to the sensor for generating an order for the consumable O when the quantity is less than a threshold quantity and transmitting the order to O a supplier of the consumable, the order indicating an urgency level. C',1

2. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the order includes a required delivery date.

3. A machine according to claim 2 wherein the control unit records details of past usage to predict future usage, and determines the required delivery date.

4. A machine according to claim I wherein the sensor monitors a plurality of thresholds for the consumable and the control unit determines the urgency level as the quantity falls below each respective threshold.

A machine according to claim 1 further comprising an enclosure and at least one access panel in the enclosure to enable supply of the consumable.

6. A machine according to claim 5 further comprising a lock on the access panel, the consumable supplier having a key to the lock.

7. A machine according to claim 6 wherein the lock is dynamically changeable by the control unit provides the key to the consumable supplier.

8. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the consumable is supplied in a cartridge and the control unit detects replacement of the cartridge. 1-11- O O

9. A machine according to claim 1 wherein each cartridge includes information indicative t-s of a unique identity which is read by the sensor and recorded by the control unit. A machine that uses a consumable during operation, substantially as hereinbefore t^ described with reference to the accompanying figure. 00 CK1 O 0 CK,