EP1032535A1 - Method for controlling a printer with several input points for substrate material - Google Patents
Method for controlling a printer with several input points for substrate materialInfo
- Publication number
- EP1032535A1 EP1032535A1 EP98941310A EP98941310A EP1032535A1 EP 1032535 A1 EP1032535 A1 EP 1032535A1 EP 98941310 A EP98941310 A EP 98941310A EP 98941310 A EP98941310 A EP 98941310A EP 1032535 A1 EP1032535 A1 EP 1032535A1
- Authority
- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- input
- address
- printer
- log1
- log2
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Granted
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
- G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
- G03G15/65—Apparatus which relate to the handling of copy material
- G03G15/6538—Devices for collating sheet copy material, e.g. sorters, control, copies in staples form
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
- B65H3/00—Separating articles from piles
- B65H3/44—Simultaneously, alternately, or selectively separating articles from two or more piles
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
- G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
- G03G15/65—Apparatus which relate to the handling of copy material
- G03G15/6502—Supplying of sheet copy material; Cassettes therefor
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
- G03G2215/00—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes
- G03G2215/00362—Apparatus for electrophotographic processes relating to the copy medium handling
- G03G2215/00886—Sorting or discharging
- G03G2215/00907—Electronically addressable mailing bins
Definitions
- the invention relates to a method for controlling a printer, in particular a high-performance printer, with a multiplicity of input points for carrier material, the printing information being provided in a standard page description language.
- the invention further relates to a printer in which the aforementioned method is implemented.
- a printer In so-called "remote operation", a printer is supplied with print information by a higher-level controller in accordance with a standard page description language.
- a page description language describes the content and appearance of all elements of a page to be printed, for example the text, vector graphics, images, etc., using hardware-independent instructions.
- the device control generally contains an interpreter for this standard page description language and converts the delivered print information into the corresponding hardware signals, which then e.g. in a laser printer the character generator is activated to generate the pixels.
- Known page description languages are PostScript, PCL, in particular version PCL5, or IPDS.
- the standard page description languages define a single entry point for the carrier material from a number of possible entry points by specifying a destination address, which is then accessed supported by the device control. As a result, the paper supply in the designated input tray is used up after a certain time. The device control then stops the printing process and an operator supplies new carrier material.
- a disadvantage of the known method is that larger print jobs cannot be carried out without interruption and the intervals between refilling of the carrier material are relatively short.
- This object is achieved by a method for controlling a printer, in particular a high-performance printer, with a plurality of input stations, each of which has a plurality of input points.
- the carrier material to be printed is fed from one of the input points and the print information is provided in a standard page description language from which a device control of the printer determines the information for printing, the page description language denoting a single input point with a destination address.
- the device control assigns at least two input points to a common logical device address, and the logical device address to the target address. When a predetermined operating state occurs at one of the input points under the logical device address is switched over to the other input point and then carrier material is fed from there.
- the invention in the "remote mode" operating state ensures that at least two input locations, ie two input compartments - for larger print jobs, several input compartments can also be referred to - take up carrier material in order to be able to carry out the printing without interruption, even if an input compartment is empty or due to a defect " .
- the device control uses the destination address defined by the page description language and assigns this destination address a logical device address under which the input compartments can be accessed.
- input stations can be cascaded together with the invention.
- Input points or compartments of different input stations can be assigned to a common device address. If the input compartment of an input station is empty, the system automatically switches to another input compartment, in particular to an input compartment of another input station. Drawing material that is taken from an input station located further away from the printer in the cascade structure is then looped through corresponding channels in the preceding input stations to the printer.
- the process can be controlled by a central device control or by individual, the individual Controls assigned to input stations. These controls can be connected to each other according to the master-slave principle, with the input station closest to the printer forming the master, for example.
- the invention relates to a printer with the features of claim 6.
- This printer implements the method mentioned and also achieves the advantageous effects already mentioned.
- FIG. 1 shows a high-performance printer with a plurality of input compartments in the form of a
- FIG. 2 shows two input stations for the high-performance printer, each with several input compartments
- FIG. 3 shows a flow chart which illustrates the method steps according to the invention
- FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the assignment of the individual addresses
- Figure 5 is a block diagram for a printer controller with two input stations
- FIG. 6 shows a schematic sequence for removing a sheet sequence from the input stations.
- FIG. 1 schematically shows the structure of a high-performance printer in a block diagram. It has a printing system 10 and a plurality of input stations E1, E2, E3, which hold paper to be printed on. On the output side, a removal station 12 with storage compartments is connected to the printing system 10.
- the high-performance printer has a device controller 14 which controls the input stations E1, E2, E3, the printing system 10 and the removal station 12.
- the device controller 14 contains one or more processors for data processing and providing the signals.
- information S is supplied to the device controller 14 by a higher-level controller.
- This information is provided in accordance with a standard page description language, for example in accordance with the known page description languages PostScript, PCL5 (Print Control Language Version 5) or IPDS (Intelligent Page Data Stream). They include all image information for one page, positioning information, paper size, the output tray, the input tray, etc. As input tray in the standard page description languages mentioned for a print job, only a single input tray among several input trays with a destination address can be designated.
- the device controller 14 also contains an interpreter module, which uses the information S to determine the hardware commands required for printing.
- FIG. 2 shows the two input stations E1 and E2 connected to the printing system 10.
- Each input station El, E2 has several compartments A, B, C, D, in which individual sheets are kept in stock in the form of a stack.
- Each compartment A to D has a lifting platform H which is driven by a motor M and which successively tracks the paper stack in accordance with the number of individual sheets drawn off by a transport device T.
- the removed single sheets are collected via a shaft 16 and fed to the printer.
- the input- Station E2 is connected via a connecting shaft 18 to the shaft 16 of the input station El, which is closest to the printer 10.
- a further input station, for example the input station E3, can be connected via the connecting shaft 20.
- FIG. 3 shows the method steps according to the invention in the form of a flow chart, which enable uninterrupted operation.
- the device controller 14 checks whether remote operation is desired, ie that the print information for the print job is generated externally (step 24). If this is the case, the print data are adopted in the subsequent step 26 in accordance with the standard page description language IPDS.
- a logical device address LOG1 which physically designates the compartments A and B of the input station E1, is assigned to the input compartment designated as the destination address, for example x, in this data in the device controller 14.
- the further destination address y for an input compartment is assigned the logical device address LOG2, which denotes the compartments C and D of the input station E2.
- step 32 it is determined which logical address has been communicated via the target address of the page description language.
- the left branch of the method steps shown in FIG. 3 relates to the target address to which the logical address LOG1 has been assigned, the right branch of the method steps relates to the logical device address LOG2.
- step 34 it is checked whether the compartment A of the input station 1 is ready for the delivery of single sheets. If this is the case (step 36), single sheets are removed from compartment A. If the compartment A of the input station El is not ready to deliver sheet material, e.g. because it is defective or empty, a branch is made to step 38, and there it is checked whether compartment B of the input station El is on standby. If this is the case, sheet material is removed from compartment B in step 40. Otherwise, the process branches to step 42, in which an error message is generated.
- compartment A is not ready to deliver sheet material, for example because it is empty, branch is immediately made to compartment B, from which sheet material is then removed. During this removal from compartment B, compartment A can be refilled with sheet material and put on standby.
- the motor M of the lifting platform H of the compartment A is automatically controlled by the device control so that the lifting platform H moves from the current unloading position into a loading station and, after loading, back into a standby position.
- compartment B ie if it is empty, sheet material can be removed from compartment A and compartment B can be refilled with sheet material. This ensures uninterrupted operation.
- the other entry point for example to print paper with a different format, is specified as the destination address y for the input tray.
- this input point is assigned the logical device address LOG2, which physically designates the compartments C and D of the input station E2.
- FIG. 4 illustrates the assignments made in the method.
- the print information includes the entry point of the carrier material as the destination address x or y under the date.
- the target address x is assigned the logical address LOG1, which physically denotes the compartments A and B of the input station El.
- the destination address y leads via the logical address LOG2 to the removal station E2 and the compartments C and D.
- any combination of input compartments can be assigned to the respective destination address after the described method steps.
- FIG. 5 shows how the allocation data are provided and used.
- Assignment data are input via a touch screen control panel BDF connected to the printing system 10 of the printer, for example that the input address A of the input station E1 and the input point C of the input station E2 are assigned to the destination address x.
- the input point B of the input station El and the input point A of the input station E2 are correspondingly assigned to a second destination address y.
- this data is saved in a non-volatile memory connected to the control panel BDF, for example in a hard disk memory HD.
- this data is transmitted to the device control 14 of the printer.
- the microcontroller MCI is connected both to the input compartments A, B, C, D of the input station El and via an interface 22 to a microcontroller MC2 of the input station E2 in order to control it. It performs a higher-level control function (master-slave) than the micro-controller " MC2 " and can also monitor any other input stations E3, E4 identically, which in turn are connected to the micro-controller MC2 via an interface 23.
- FIG. 6 illustrates how print jobs that are sent to the printer from a host computer 21 are processed.
- the logical address sequence LOG1, LOG2, LOG1, LOG1, L0G2 consequently results in the illustrated destination address sequence x, y, x, x, y. This data sequence arrives in the MCI microcontroller. If, as shown in FIG.
- the microcontroller MCI has the status message “compartment C full” from the input station E2, but the status message “empty” from the input compartment A of the input station El, then it controls the micro for all L0G1 requests -Controller MC2, whereby in the configuration shown in FIG. 5, compartment C of input station E2 is driven to deliver a sheet. In contrast, the sheets required under the address LOG2 are removed from compartment B of the input station El until this is also empty. Only then will you switch to compartment A of E2.
- the invention can be used for any logic supported by the printer language and designated with a destination address
- an arbitrarily large number of input positions can be provided by the compartments A, B, C, D, etc., which are assigned to a logical device address, are distributed over any number of input stations E1, E2, E3, etc. If, for example, 3 input points (compartments) are required for a specific paper type or logical device address, this logical device address can be assigned, for example, compartment A of the input station E1, compartment D of the input station E2 and compartment B of the input station E3.
- the input stations are modular in that they each have an output path 18 and an input path 20. As a result, several input stations can be easily coupled in series and a sheet of paper that is required by a rear input station, that is to say further from the printer input, can be transported to the printer through the front input stations.
- the higher-level process is controlled by an internal controller that is located in the input station closest to the printer. It receives a request from the printer for a specific type of paper, ie the input location specified by the printer language, and decides which of the physical input compartments is selected by which input station. He then sends a removal signal to this input station or directly to the input point in question, as well as a signal to all intermediate input stations to convey the sheet (bypass) towards the printer.
- the controller of the first input station E1 performs a master function, while the subsequent input stations E2, E3 etc. have a slave function, so that the input points are cascaded.
- RAM1 first working memory
- RAM2 second working memory x target address y target address
Landscapes
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Accessory Devices And Overall Control Thereof (AREA)
- Sheets, Magazines, And Separation Thereof (AREA)
Abstract
Description
Claims
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
DE19729389 | 1997-07-09 | ||
DE19729389 | 1997-07-09 | ||
PCT/EP1998/004273 WO1999002438A1 (en) | 1997-07-09 | 1998-07-09 | Method for controlling a printer with several input points for substrate material |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
EP1032535A1 true EP1032535A1 (en) | 2000-09-06 |
EP1032535B1 EP1032535B1 (en) | 2002-03-13 |
Family
ID=7835166
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP98941310A Expired - Lifetime EP1032535B1 (en) | 1997-07-09 | 1998-07-09 | Method for controlling a printer with several input points for substrate material |
Country Status (5)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (1) | US6717691B1 (en) |
EP (1) | EP1032535B1 (en) |
JP (1) | JP2002507947A (en) |
DE (1) | DE59803376D1 (en) |
WO (1) | WO1999002438A1 (en) |
Families Citing this family (2)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
DE10154342A1 (en) * | 2001-11-06 | 2003-05-22 | Giesecke & Devrient Gmbh | Bank note processing system has devices for determining position of operating unit and configuring operating unit for defined processing machine depending on position of operating unit |
JP2005145624A (en) * | 2003-11-13 | 2005-06-09 | Canon Inc | Image forming device |
Family Cites Families (11)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US3887122A (en) | 1973-01-02 | 1975-06-03 | Hyper Loop | Press feeder control apparatus |
JPS5736443Y2 (en) * | 1977-08-10 | 1982-08-11 | ||
JPS54126364A (en) | 1978-03-25 | 1979-10-01 | Minolta Camera Kk | Paper feeder |
US4763889A (en) | 1981-08-13 | 1988-08-16 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Paper feeder |
DE3444557C2 (en) | 1983-12-06 | 1994-11-24 | Canon Kk | printer |
US5093915A (en) * | 1988-11-02 | 1992-03-03 | Xerox Corporation | Method for selectively loading bootable fiber to control apparatus based upon the corresponding bootable attributes |
US5072401A (en) * | 1989-10-03 | 1991-12-10 | Pitney Bowes Inc. | Optimizing mail delivery systems by logistics planning |
US5267238A (en) * | 1989-12-29 | 1993-11-30 | Ricoh Company, Ltd. | Network interface units and communication system using network interface unit |
US5684706A (en) * | 1995-05-31 | 1997-11-04 | Pitney Bowes Inc. | System having multiple user input stations and multiple mail preparation apparatus for preparing and franking a mail piece |
CA2269576A1 (en) * | 1996-10-22 | 1998-04-30 | Oce Printing Systems Gmbh | Paper feeder for a single sheet printer |
JPH10164291A (en) * | 1996-11-29 | 1998-06-19 | Toshiba Corp | Image forming device |
-
1998
- 1998-07-09 WO PCT/EP1998/004273 patent/WO1999002438A1/en active IP Right Grant
- 1998-07-09 US US09/462,537 patent/US6717691B1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1998-07-09 JP JP50816599A patent/JP2002507947A/en not_active Ceased
- 1998-07-09 EP EP98941310A patent/EP1032535B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1998-07-09 DE DE59803376T patent/DE59803376D1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
Non-Patent Citations (1)
Title |
---|
See references of WO9902438A1 * |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
DE59803376D1 (en) | 2002-04-18 |
EP1032535B1 (en) | 2002-03-13 |
US6717691B1 (en) | 2004-04-06 |
WO1999002438A1 (en) | 1999-01-21 |
JP2002507947A (en) | 2002-03-12 |
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