JPS6060055B2 - Sequence control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sequence control method for an electrophotographic apparatus having a multicolor copying function.

The control of electrophotographic equipment includes sequence control regarding paper feeding, charging, exposure, development and transfer, etc., and condition control such as copy size, number of copies, and fixing temperature.In addition, if the equipment has a multicolor copying function, control for each color is performed. Sequence control of charging, exposure, development, transfer, etc. is added.

These series of controls are performed by a sequence controller comprised of a fixed wiring circuit or a programmable control circuit. When an operator wants to obtain a copy with an electrophotographic device, he first turns on the power, so the sequence controller detects the condition of the device and
If necessary, the operator outputs a signal to return the device to its initial state, and while heating the fixing device, the operator can specify the copy size and number of copy arrows, and use the right-hander, which has a multicolor copying function. In each case, the device is set by electrical storage or mechanical operation for specifying the color mode to be used in each case, that is, all color mode, two-color mode, single color mode, etc. A common method for specifying the copy size is to use a two-stage cassette in the image support sheet supply device and to switch the size using an operating lever. A mechanical repeat dial or number keys are often used to specify the number of copies, and a changeover switch is often used to specify the color mode. Next, when the operator presses the copy start switch, the image support sheet supply device and the optical system start operating, followed by the developing device and the transfer device. A common method for obtaining the sequence reference is to generate a pulse in a part of the drive system, to detect the image supporting sheet at a specific passing point, or to detect the operating point of the mechanism. When these steps are completed, the image support sheet is conveyed to a fixing device, the toner is fixed by heat or pressure, and the sheet is discharged from the machine. Further, a timer or a position confirmation sensor is provided to check the conveyance state of the image support sheet, and a conveyance abnormality check is also performed at the same time. The above is a general sequence control method for an electrophotographic apparatus, but when the electrophotographic apparatus has a multicolor copying function, the operation section becomes complicated and becomes difficult for an operator to understand. In particular, regarding mode selection, monochrome mode, two-color mode, etc. in a full-color electrophotographic apparatus are not often used, and special modes used by service engineers and the like for adjustment purposes are usually unnecessary. However, since a switch is required for operation, the operation section becomes complicated, and if the operator forgets to reset the switch while in monochrome mode, etc., the next operator may take over and continue using it. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a sequence control method capable of improving the above-mentioned problems and controlling an electrophotographic apparatus with normally simplified and easy-to-understand operations without removing necessary items.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an electrophotographic apparatus according to this embodiment, in which three photoreceptor drums 1 to 3 are rotationally driven and charging devices 4 to 6 are charged.
After being charged in a similar manner, the document image is exposed by an exposure device.

In this exposure device, the document table 7 is driven back and forth from the home position, and during the forward movement, the document 8 on the document table 7 is moved to the lamp 9.
, 10 through three slits 11 to 13, and each reflected light is reflected by the first mirror 14, the second mirror 15,
After passing through the lens 16, third mirrors 17 to 19,
It is reflected by the fourth mirrors 20 to 22 and each photoreceptor drum 1 to
3, and electrostatic latent images are formed on each of the photoreceptor drums 1 to 3. On the other hand, three stages of cassettes 23 to 25 are provided, and one of these cassettes designated by the operation section is set in a usable state. These cassettes 23-25 are A4
, B4, and A3 are stored, and when set, they are taken out one by one by paper feed rollers 26-28 and fed by registration rollers 29-31.
The transfer belt 32 is wrapped around rollers 33 and 34 and is driven to rotate. This transfer belt 32 is made of a dielectric material, is charged by a charging device 35, and is charged by a charging device 35.
The image supporting sheet fed from one of the set image supporting sheets 5 is electrostatically held and conveyed. The electrostatic latent images formed on the photoreceptor drums 1 to 3 are each transferred to a developing device 36.
- 38 are developed with yellow, magenta 9, and cyan toners, and the images are sequentially superimposed on the image support sheet on the transfer belt 32 and transferred by the transfer corona generators 39 - 41.
The image supporting sheet on the transfer belt 32 is separated from the transfer belt 32 by a separating corona generator 42, and then heated by a heater 4.
The toner is heated and fixed by a fixing roller 44 having a built-in roller 3, conveyed by a belt conveying device 45, heated by an auxiliary heater 46, and discharged as a copy by a discharge roller 47. After passing through the transfer section, the photosensitive drums 1 to 3 are neutralized by charge eliminating corona generators 48 to 50, and the transfer belt 32 is cleaned by a cleaner 51 after passing through the separation section. Further, sensors and switches are arranged at each position P1 to P16 to detect the state of each part.

For example, sensors for detecting the toner concentration in the developing devices 36 to 38 are provided at positions P1 to P3, and
A sensor for detecting the rotational position of the image support sheet and generating a clock pulse is provided at the P4 position, and a switch for detecting that any of the cassettes 23 to 25 is set is provided at the P5 position. Switches and sensors for detecting the passing of the image supporting sheet in the cassettes 23 to 25 are provided at positions P6 to P8, and switches and sensors for detecting the disappearance of image supporting sheets in the cassettes 23 to 25 are provided at positions P9 to Pll. A sensor for detecting the temperature of 44 is provided at the Pl2 position. Furthermore, although the document table 7 is normally locked with a clock cam and is unlocked at the start of exposure, a switch for detecting the unlocking is provided at the Pl3 position, and the document table 7 is at the home position. A switch is provided at the Pl position to detect the position of the document platen 7 and an overrun, and a switch is provided at the Pl5 position to detect the position of the document table 7 and generate a clock pulse, and a switch is provided at the Pl5 position to detect the joint of the transfer belt 32. A sensor is provided at the Pl6 position. As shown in FIG. 2, the intermediate processing unit CPU receives signals from the switches SW1 to SWm through an input/output control section 110, and also inputs signals from the switches SW1 to SWm to the sensors S1 to S.

A signal from the input amplifier 1A1 is inputted through the input/output control section 110, and an output signal is inputted to the motors, solenoids, etc. of each part through the input/output control section 1101 and the output amplifier 0A.
, and further inputs operation signals to the operation panel 0P through the input/output control section 110 and outputs signals to perform various displays. Central processing unit CPU1 Read-only memory ROM1 Random access memory RAM1 A microcomputer consisting of an input/output control section 110 is used as a sequence controller, and the central processing unit C
The PU performs sequence control as shown in FIG. 3 while using the random access memory RAM according to the program written in the read-only memory ROM. First, when the power is turned on, the central processing unit CPU clears all output and memory, then detects whether there is a failure in the device or not, and then detects whether there is a paper jam. to see if the device can start copying.

If there is a failure or paper jam, the device is stopped, and if there is no failure or paper jam, the main motor, standby rotation motor, heater 43, bias power supply for developing devices 36 to 38, static elimination corona generators 48 to 50, and transfer corona generation are activated. Vessels 39-41
, the transfer belt bias corona generator 35 and the like are turned on to perform an initial cleaning process. From this point until the copy start switch on the operation panel 0P is turned on, the operator can input information on the operation panel 0P. The main motor drives the photosensitive drums 1 to 3, the transfer belt 32, etc., and the standby rotation motor drives the fixing rollers 44, 45, and 47. Next, the cassette switching motor is driven according to the copy size specified by the copy size selection switch on the operation panel 0P, and the cassettes 23 to 25 are
Select and set the cassette containing the image support sheet of the copy size. Next, the number of repeat sheets specified on the operation panel 0P is loaded and set, and if the initial cleaning process has been completed, when the transfer belt 32 reaches the home position, the main motor, fan motor, static elimination corona generators 48 to 50, Transfer corona generator 39-41
, the bias power supplies for the developing devices 36 to 38 and the transfer belt bias corona generator 35 are turned off. Also, while the main motor is rotating, it is detected whether or not the document table 7 is at the home position, and if it is not at the home position, it is returned to the home position. If the document table 7 is at the home position, the warm-up of the fuser using the heater 43 and the fixing roller is completed, the image support sheet of the set cassette is detected, and the on-state of the copy start switch is detected. If even one of these cannot be detected, the process returns to the copy size selection routine described above, and if all of these are detected, the main motor, fan motor, static elimination corona generators 48 to 50, and transfer corona generators 39 to
41. Turn on the bias power supplies of the developing devices 36 to 38 and the corona generator 35 for biasing the transfer belt. Then, the copy mode specified on the operation panel 0P is read and memorized, and the paper is fed after the joint of the transfer belt 32 passes a home position and advances a certain distance, that is, the image supporting sheet from the set cassette is fed. is fed, and if the document table 7 is not at the home position, it is returned. Next, when a jam is detected near the paper discharge section during repeating, the apparatus is stopped, and when a jam is detected near the paper feed section, the apparatus is stopped. If there is no jam, the charging device 4 is turned on, the document table 7 is driven, the lamps 9 and 10 are turned on, and the charging devices 5 and 6 are turned on. When the exposure is completed, the charging devices 4 to 6 are turned off, and when a jam near the transfer section is detected, the device is stopped. If there is no jam, the necessary toner is replenished and it is determined whether copying is complete. When repeating, if there is an image support sheet in the set cassette, the process returns to the paper feeding routine, and if there is no image support sheet, the document table 7 is returned to its original position and a jam at the paper discharge section is detected. The same applies when copying is completed, and if there is a jam, the device is stopped. If there is no jam, check that the copy is ejected and return to the initial routine.
In this processing program, there are copy modes such as full color mode, two color mode, single color mode, black peta mode for service engineers, and mechanical mode. In full color mode, as mentioned above, the original image can be printed in yellow, yellow, magenta. A full-color copy image is obtained by separating the three primary colors of , cyan, and copying them together, but in two-color mode, copying is performed using two primary colors, and in single-color mode, copying is performed using a single primary color.

Further, in the black peta mode, copying is performed without exposure, and in the mechanical mode, operation is performed without operating the charging gate device and paper feeding device. The all-color copy mode is associated with a predetermined numerical value, and is designated by a combination of numeric keys 660" to "'3'" on the operation panel OP, and the all-color mode is designated only by the copy start switch. The numeric 1 keys 46099 and 44399 are assigned to bits 7 to 7, and as shown in Figure 4, signals are read from the numeric keys ゜"0゛" to "゜3" into address 9 of the memory RAM. This will cause the copy mode to be read.

Thereafter, the bit pattern of the contents of address 9 is converted and transferred to address 1 of the memory RAM. In this case, the contents of address 1 are bits 2), 21, 7, and 23 for each charging device 4 to
6 and the control bits of lamps 9 and 10. Then, a basic control pattern is generated and an AND operation is performed with the contents of address 1 to control the charging devices 4 to 6 and the lamps 9 and 10. That is, when the charging devices 4 to 6, lamps, and 10 are operated according to the basic control pattern, they are operated by checking the contents of address 1. Therefore, in the full color mode, charging devices 4 to 6 and lamps 9 and 10 are used.
In the two-color mode, two of the charging devices 4 to 6 and the lamps 9 and 10 operate, and in the single-color mode, the charging device 4 operates.
-6 and lamps 9, 10 operate. Further, in the black peta mode, the charging devices 4 to 6 operate, and in the mechanical mode, the lamps 9 and 10 operate. Note that the charging devices 4 to 6 and the lamps 9 and 10 may be controlled by transferring the contents of address 9 to the program counter of the central processing unit QPU and branching the routine.

As described above, in the sequence control method according to the present invention, an image forming function is provided for each color, and monochrome mode,
In an electronic copying machine that has a multicolor copying function that can copy in either two-color mode or all-color mode, each sequence mode can be specified by a combination of multiple switches, that is, single-color mode, two-color mode, or all-color mode. Since we specify
Normal copying can be performed using simplified and easy-to-understand operations without deleting necessary items.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration explanatory diagram of an electrophotographic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a system diagram showing a control section of the electrophotographic apparatus.
3 and 4 are flowcharts of the control section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an electrophotographic device that is provided with an image forming function for each color and has a multicolor copying function, a plurality of modes determined by a single color mode, two color mode, and all color mode are determined by a combination of a plurality of switches. The sequence mode specified at the start of copying is read and stored from this operation section, and each function of the multicolor copying device is controlled according to this sequence mode to perform the sequence. A sequence mode control method characterized by performing control. 2. The sequence control method according to claim 1, wherein the sequence mode is specified by a combination of a copy start switch and another switch such as a number key.