JP3186351B2 - Image recording device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile, and a printing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an office environment, many documents of different sizes are scattered. Such a document is stored in a desk, cabinet, or the like by being bound in a file or bound. A4 size and A3 size papers are diversified in private companies, but the use of B size papers in government offices is sometimes determined by law or ministerial ordinance, and these are also used relatively frequently. That is, the A size and the B size are mixed. This causes a serious problem in document management. Recently, the government has been planning to standardize the document size to A4 size. In the future, newly created documents can be of a uniform size based on the new rules.

However, as described above, documents that have already been created often use paper of a size outside the rule range. In particular, recording paper of a size larger than A4 size, for example, transfer paper of B4 size or A3 size is used. There are many.

On the other hand, from the viewpoint of minimizing the storage space of documents and effectively using resources, so-called double-sided recording in which images are recorded on both sides of transfer paper has been diversified.

Here, when a document having a size larger than the A4 size, such as a B4 size document, is recorded as the A4 size, the B4 size is reduced to the A4 size and recorded, or the longitudinal direction of the B4 or A3 document is specified. It is conceivable that the image is divided into two at the position and the image is recorded on A4 vertical paper, that is, recorded in a so-called double-page spread mode. Further, in consideration of the filing space and effective use of resources, it is also effective to record the two divided images on both sides of A4 vertical transfer paper.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Such B4 or A
In the case where a three-size document is divided into two and recorded on both sides of an A4 vertical recording sheet, there is no problem if no image information is recorded at the dividing position of the B4 or A3 size document as shown in FIG. In the case where an image is recorded at the division position as described above, image information that should be continuous is divided and recorded on the front and back surfaces of a single transfer sheet, and the created document becomes extremely difficult to see.

According to the present invention, when an image having a size larger than a specific size is divided and printed on transfer paper of a specific size, the filing space is minimized in consideration of the visibility of the recorded image. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording apparatus capable of suppressing the number of transfer paper sheets to be used and minimizing the number of transfer sheets to be used.

[0008]

An image recording apparatus according to the present invention divides a document image into two parts on the basis of a virtual line segment in a direction orthogonal to a specific position in the longitudinal direction of the document, and converts the divided image into two. An image recording apparatus for recording a corresponding image on both sides of a single transfer sheet, wherein the image presence / absence detection means for detecting the presence / absence of an image recorded on the virtual line segment, and the image presence / absence detection means Control means for prohibiting double-sided recording on a single transfer sheet when the presence is detected, and permitting double-sided recording on a single transfer sheet when the image presence / absence detection means detects no image It is characterized by the following.

[0009]

The double-sided mode is set together with the double-sided mode in which the original image is divided and recorded. If the image is recorded at the image division position of the original, the double-sided mode is prohibited. I do.

[0010]

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of an image recording apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a document to be copied. The operator sets the document 1 on the contact glass 2 and selects a desired size of transfer paper by a transfer paper selection switch on an operation panel (not shown). When the start switch is turned on, the reading optical system 3 scans the document and reads the document image. The read image is formed as an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 6 to which a uniform negative charge is given by the charging roller 5 by the writing optical system 4. This electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing device 7.

On the other hand, a transfer sheet of a size corresponding to the transfer sheet size selected by the operator is fed from a sheet feeding device 8 and a developed image formed on a photosensitive member is transferred to a transfer roller 9. Is transferred onto the transfer paper fed. The toner image on the transfer paper is fixed by the fixing device 10 and is discharged onto a discharge tray 11. Toner remaining on the photoreceptor after the transfer is cleaned by a cleaning device 12.

If the duplex mode is selected by the duplex mode switch on the operation panel, the transfer papers which have been fixed are temporarily stacked on the intermediate tray 13 and the next copy start is started. When the switch is turned on, the transfer paper is re-fed from the intermediate tray 13, and the transfer roller 9 transfers the toner image to the back surface of the transfer paper on which the toner image is formed. The paper is then discharged to the paper discharge tray 11.

The image recording apparatus of this embodiment has an automatic magnification determination mode for automatically determining a copy magnification based on a document size and a transfer paper size, and automatically determines a transfer paper size based on a document size and a set magnification. An automatic transfer paper selection mode to be selected can be set. When the automatic magnification determination mode switch or the automatic transfer paper selection mode switch on the operation panel is turned on and the same mode is selected, the pre-scan by the reading optical system 3 is executed before reading the original image. The document size is detected by a document size detection sensor (not shown). When the automatic magnification determination mode is set, the copy magnification is automatically determined from the transfer paper size and the original size selected by the operator, and the copying operation is performed at the set magnification. Note that the size of the transfer paper set in the paper feeding device is detected by the transfer paper size sensor 14. When the automatic transfer paper selection mode is set, the transfer paper size is automatically determined from the copy magnification and the original size selected by the operator, and the paper feeder in which the transfer paper of that size is stored. Is supplied, and a copying operation is performed. In this embodiment, a copy magnification of 100% is set as a default value of the copy magnification.

Further, the image recording apparatus of the present embodiment can set a double-page spread mode in which a document image is divided into two images based on a specific position in the longitudinal direction of the document and each of the divided images is recorded on separate transfer paper. It is.

When the operator turns on the facing mode setting switch on the operation panel, the original size is detected by pre-scanning. The reading of the original is performed for a half size of the detected size.
Now, it is assumed that an A3-size document is placed horizontally on the contact glass 2 and the double-page spread mode is set. When the copy start switch is turned on, a prescan is performed by the reading optical system 3 to detect the document size. The A4 vertical size, which is half the size, is recognized from the document size signal, and the reading optical system executes the first scanning operation for the A4 vertical size from the scan start position. An A4 size transfer sheet is fed from the sheet feeding device 8, a recording image is obtained on the transfer sheet, and the sheet is discharged onto a discharge tray 11.

On the other hand, a second scanning operation is performed on an image in the A4 vertical area where the scanning operation of the original has not been performed yet, and the image is recorded on the A4 size transfer paper fed from the paper feeding device 8. An image is obtained and is discharged to the discharge tray 11.

In the present embodiment, when performing the split scan in the double-page spread mode, half the size of the original is scanned twice in two parts. As shown in FIG. A scale 14 for determining a dividing position may be provided on the operator side of the glass 2 to determine the dividing position. The operator is a scale 14
The user designates a desired division position of the original 1 placed on the contact glass 2 (point A in the figure), turns on the copy start switch, and registers the division position. Then, a document size signal detected by the pre-scan of the reading optical system 3 and a signal indicating a division position are registered as division position signals. With this signal, the reading optical system 3
, The first and second scan areas are determined.

When the double-sided mode is set together with the double-page mode, the transfer sheet on which the image obtained by the first scanning operation is recorded in FIG.
The transfer paper stacked on the intermediate tray 13 is not discharged, and the stacked transfer paper is re-fed from the intermediate tray 11 in synchronization with the execution of the second scanning operation, and the second scanned image is recorded. The transfer paper on which double-side recording is performed is transferred to the fixing device 10
Is discharged to the paper discharge tray 11.

In the case where the double-sided mode is set together with the double-page spread mode and an image is recorded at the image dividing position of the original, this image generally includes continuous information. If this image is separately recorded on the front surface and the back surface of one transfer sheet, the image becomes extremely difficult to see.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, it is detected whether or not an image exists at the division position. If no image exists, the image recording operation is performed in the double-sided mode, and the image exists. If so, a warning is issued to the operator without performing the double-sided mode, and the image recording operation is stopped.

FIG. 5 is a control block diagram of the present embodiment.
In FIG. 5, a document size signal from a document size detecting means 21 for detecting the size of a document placed on a contact glass is supplied to a division position determining means 22 for determining a document reading division position in a two-page spread mode. The data is input to the magnification determining means 23, the transfer paper size determining means 24, and the image presence / absence detecting means 27 in accordance with the set copy mode. In addition to the original size signal, a transfer paper size signal from the transfer paper size detection means 25 is input to the copy magnification determination means 23, and an automatic magnification determination mode switch on an operation panel (not shown) is turned on and the copy magnification determination means 23 is turned on. When the mode is set, a copy magnification is determined from each input signal and a magnification signal is output.

The transfer paper size determination means 24 receives the document size signal from the document size detection means 21, the transfer paper size signal from the transfer paper size detection means 25, and the copy magnification signal from the magnification selection means 26. The transfer paper size is determined from the transfer paper size signal and the copy magnification signal, and the transfer paper size signal is output.

The dividing position determining means 22 and the scale shown in FIG.
The division position signal output from the division position designation means 29 corresponding to the image is output to the image presence / absence detection means 27. The original image signal from the original image reading unit 28 corresponding to the reading optical system 3 in FIG. 1 is input to the image presence / absence detecting unit 27, and the division position in the double-page spread mode is obtained from the division position signal and the original image signal. Is detected.

The details of the detection of the presence or absence of an image at the division position will be described below. The document image read by the document image reading means 28 is stored in the A3
The image is stored in a page memory capable of storing an image of one page in size. A division position signal from the division position determination unit 22 or the division position designation unit 29 is output as page memory address information. The address information is composed of length information indicating the width of the original in the main scanning direction, which is determined by the size of the original, and position information in the sub-scanning direction corresponding to the division position. That is, the start address is determined from the position information in the sub-scanning direction, the length of the address is determined from the length information in the main scanning direction, and the end address is determined from the address length and the start address. Then, on the page memory of the image presence / absence detecting means 27, it is determined whether or not an image exists within the end address from the start address.
If it is determined that there is no image in this address area, it is determined that there is no image at the division position, and if it is determined that an image exists, it is determined that there is an image at the division position. The detecting means 27 outputs an image detection signal when there is an image.

Numeral 30 is a double-sided mode designating means for outputting a double-sided mode signal when the double-sided mode switch on the operation panel is turned on, and 31 is a double-sided mode switch on the operation panel turned on. Then, a spread mode designating means for outputting a spread mode signal is shown.

Division position determining means 22, copy magnification determining means 23, transfer paper size determining means 24, image presence detecting means 2
7, division position designating means 29, double-sided mode designating means 30,
Each signal output from the spread mode specifying means 31 is input to the control means 32.

The control means 32 controls a reading optical system 33, a writing optical system 34, a process system 35 for charging, developing, transferring, and cleaning, and a transfer paper feeding / conveying system 36. The control unit controls the writing optical system control unit 38, the process system control unit 39, and the transfer paper supply / conveyance system control unit 40, and transmits a signal to each control unit.

More specifically, a copy magnification signal from the copy magnification determining means 23 is transmitted to the writing optical system control means 38,
A desired paper feed tray is selected from a transfer paper size signal from the transfer paper size determination means 24 and a signal representing the size of the transfer paper stored in each paper feed tray, and the division position determination means 2 is selected.
The scanning width of the reading optical system is determined based on the division position signal from the division position designation unit 29 and the division position designation means 29.
The transfer paper feeding control means 40 is controlled based on the double-sided mode signal from the mode specifying means 30, and the reading optical system control means 37 is controlled based on the spread mode signal from the spread mode specifying means 31. And the transfer paper feeding control means 40 is controlled.

Further, the control means 32 executes each control in FIG. 6 and subsequent drawings when the double-sided mode is set together with the double-page mode.

FIGS. 6 to 10 are flowcharts showing the operation of the present embodiment. In FIG. 6, it is determined in step 1 whether or not the double-page spread mode is set. If the double-page spread mode is set, it is determined in step 2 whether or not the double-sided mode is set. You. If it is determined in step 1 that the facing mode is not set, step 3
It is determined whether or not the double-sided mode has been set. If it is determined in step 3 that the double-sided mode is set, it is determined in step 4 whether the copy start switch is on. If the copy start switch is on,
Image recording in the double-sided mode is executed in step 5, and if the double-sided mode is not set and the copy start switch is turned on, the image in the single-sided mode is obtained in step 7 in FIG. Recording is performed.

If it is determined in step 2 in FIG. 6 that the double-sided mode has not been set, image recording is performed in step S8 in the double-page spread mode.

If the double-sided mode has been set in step 2, it is determined in step 9 whether the division position has been designated by using the scale and the division position has been registered by turning on the copy start switch. If registration has been performed, a transfer paper size signal specified by the operator is output in step 10 and a copy star is output in step 11.
Wait for the switch to turn on.

If the copy start switch is turned on, the document is prescanned in step 12 to detect the size of the document. (Step 13) In FIG. 8, the presence or absence of an image in an area determined by the division position signal and the document size signal is detected in Step 14 and if it is determined in Step 15 that an image is recorded, copying is performed in Step 16. The operation is prohibited, and a warning is displayed on the operation panel in step 17 saying "Since there is an image at the division position, the duplex mode cannot be set." When the double-sided mode is released, the copying operation for the same original in the double-page spread mode can be executed.

In FIG. 6, steps 9 and 18
If the copy start switch is turned on without registering the division position by the scale and the copy start switch, prescanning of the original is executed in step 19, and the original size signal is transmitted in step 20. Output and step 21
Then, the center position in the main scanning direction is recognized, and this position is used as a division position to output division position information.

Referring to FIG. 8, in step 22, a transfer sheet having the same size as the divided image size is automatically selected.

Thereafter, in step 15, it is determined whether or not an image exists at the division position. If an image exists, steps 16 and 17 are executed.

If it is determined in step 15 that there is no image at the division position, in step 23 the first side of the divided document is scanned, and
Then, the transfer paper is fed, and the image is recorded on the transfer paper fed in step 25. Since the double-sided mode is set, in step 26, the transfer sheets on which single-sided recording has been completed are stacked on the intermediate tray.

In step 27, the second side of the divided document is scanned, and in step 28, the transfer sheet is re-fed from the transfer sheet intermediate tray. In step 29, the transfer sheet is fed to the back side of the fed transfer sheet. Execute image recording.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which steps 1 to 14 and 1 in FIGS.
After execution of steps 8 to 22, if it is determined in step 15 in FIG. 15 that an image exists at the division position, in step 30 in FIG. 9, the original document size and the transfer paper size detected by the pre-scan are determined. Determine the reduction ratio.

At step 31, a scanning operation of the original image is executed. At step 32, the transfer paper is fed and conveyed. At step 33, the image is recorded on the fed transfer paper.

If it is determined in step 15 that there is no image at the division position, the first side of the divided document is scanned in step 23 in FIG. The paper is executed, and the image is recorded on the transfer paper fed in step 25. Since the double-sided mode is set, in step 26, the transfer sheets on which single-sided recording has been completed are stacked on the intermediate tray.

In step 27, the second side of the divided document is scanned, and in step 28, the transfer paper is re-fed from the transfer paper intermediate tray. Execute image recording.

FIG. 10 shows still another embodiment of the present invention. After Steps 1 to 14 and Steps 18 to 22 in FIGS. 6 to 8 are executed, an image is placed at the division position in Step 15 in FIG. If it is determined that the document is present, the scanning operation of the first side of the divided document is performed in step 34, and the paper is fed and transferred in step 35.
In Step 36, after the image recording on the fed transfer paper is performed, the transfer paper is discharged to a paper discharge tray.

If it is determined in step 37 that the scanning operation of the first side of the divided document has been completed, step 38
Then, the scanning operation of the second side of the divided document is executed, and in step 39, the transfer paper is fed, and in step 40,
After the image recording on the fed transfer paper is executed, the transfer paper is discharged to a paper discharge tray.

In this embodiment, the transfer paper size is selected by the operator and the transfer paper size is automatically selected from the original size and the copy magnification.
In consideration of the shift to the government A4 format, only A4 size transfer paper may be selected.

In this case, a program mode that can be set only by a serviceman is provided.
Depending on the setting of the mode, if the original image having a size of A4 size or more is reduced and recorded, or the spread is recorded on separate transfer paper in the spread mode, and the transfer paper size is automatically selected, the A4 size is used. May be automatically selected.

In the present embodiment, the double-sided mode and the double-sided mode are set separately. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the double-sided mode is set simultaneously only by setting the double-sided mode. It may be set.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the double-sided mode is set together with the double-sided mode, and the image is recorded at the original dividing position, the double-sided mode is prohibited. However, when no image is recorded at the document division position, the recording is performed in the double-sided mode, so that the filing space is minimized without impairing the visibility of the recorded image. Further, the number of recording paper sheets to be used can be suppressed to a necessary minimum.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a two-sided spread mode.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a two-sided spread mode.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the image recording apparatus of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a division position designation scale.

FIG. 5 is a control block diagram of the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of still another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 22 Dividing position determining means 27 Image presence detecting means 29 Dividing position specifying means 30 Double-sided mode specifying means 31 Facing mode specifying means 32 Control means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Kiichi Nomura 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company (72) Inventor Yuichi Exit 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company (72) Inventor Koji Hikawa 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company 72) Inventor Takashi Ishijima 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ricoh Co., Ltd. (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 15/00 G03G 21/00 H04N 1/00 -1/20

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] An original image is divided into two parts on the basis of a virtual line segment in a direction orthogonal to a specific position in a longitudinal direction of the original, and an image corresponding to the divided image is placed on both sides of a single transfer sheet. An image recording apparatus that records each of the images, wherein an image presence / absence detection unit that detects the presence / absence of an image recorded on the virtual line segment, and a single transfer sheet when the image presence / absence detection unit detects the presence of an image. And a control unit for prohibiting the double-sided recording of the image, and permitting the double-sided recording on a single transfer sheet when the image presence / absence detecting unit detects no image. 2. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means inhibits operation of the image recording apparatus when said image presence / absence detection means detects presence of an image. 3. A document size detecting means for outputting a document size signal, a transfer paper size output means for outputting a transfer paper size signal, a document size signal output from the document size output means and the transfer paper size output means. A magnification determining means for determining a magnification based on a transfer paper size signal output from the image forming apparatus; and a latent image forming means for forming a latent image on a photosensitive member in accordance with the magnification from the magnification determining means, When the presence / absence detection unit detects the presence of an image, double-sided recording on a single transfer sheet is prohibited, and a magnification ratio is determined by the magnification determination unit based on the document size signal and the transfer paper size signal. 2. An image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a latent image corresponding to the magnification is formed by a latent image forming means, and an image corresponding to the original image is recorded on one side of a single transfer sheet. . 4. A recording means for recording the two-divided image on separate transfer sheets, wherein the control means activates the recording means when the image presence / absence detection means detects the presence of an image. 2. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the two divided images are recorded on separate transfer papers. 5. The image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific position in the longitudinal direction is a central position in the longitudinal direction.