JP2002103715A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a printer in which print sheets printed by means of a plurality of printer engines are picked up in order and arranged while being sorted in the order of page without requiring additional sorting information disclosed in prior art. SOLUTION: A plurality of printer engines 100a, 100b and 100c are arranged along a collective carrying passage 110 and print sheets 1 printed by respective printer engines are sequentially taken into the collective carrying passage 110 and carried. Means 120 for sequentially stacking the print sheets 1 carried on the collective carrying passage 110 is disposed at the downstream end thereof and a controller 208 for controlling the printer engines and the collective carrying passage 110 designates the pages to be printed by each printer and the order thereof based on provided print information. Print sheets printed by respective printer engines are then sequentially taken into the collective carrying passage and stacked in the order of page by the stacking means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a plurality of image forming units.
(Printer Engine) The present invention relates to an image print recording system that includes a (printer engine), performs high-speed printing, and can sort pages in order.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of the Internet / intranet in recent years, a number of systems for printing a large amount of documents at high speed by operating a plurality of printers connected by a network in cooperation with each other have been proposed. Such a distributed printing system usually has no sorter, or each printer has a sorter individually.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-249452 discloses an image forming system in which the entire system can be efficiently operated by forming an image using a group of a plurality of copiers or printers. For example, when four printers print 16 sheets of 200 sheets each, the first printer prints the first to fourth sheets of the document, the second printer prints the fifth to eighth sheets of the document, and the third printer prints the fifth to eighth sheets of the document. Then, the ninth to twelfth originals are sorted and the fourth printer prints the thirteenth to sixteenth originals separately.

On the other hand, in order to perform high-speed printing, a printer device having a plurality of printer engines is disclosed in
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 337013 discloses an apparatus for performing high-speed printing processing by simultaneously driving a plurality of printer engines by one controller.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-186953 discloses a distributed processing booklet creation system suitable for creating a booklet in a mixture of color and black and white using recording paper output from a plurality of recording apparatuses. I have. In this gazette, in recent years, there has been a report on the current state of print-on-demand or on-demand printing, a system and service for printing or binding printed matter or books after receiving an order from a customer, which has been spotlighted. is there. Here, when creating a small number of documents such as manuals and manuals for system changes, catalogs and manuals of new products, and even in-house documents such as handouts delivered at offices, we request the printing company to perform printing processing. It is said that on-demand printing will be adopted because not only will this increase the cost but also it will take a certain number of days to complete.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-10092, a sort / sort process can be executed asynchronously with a print process, and a sort process method can be selected from a plurality of sort processes by a user's instruction and executed. Is disclosed.

Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-194910, a printing apparatus that allocates jobs to a plurality of printer engines and outputs the jobs, sorts and collectively outputs the pages in a page order, that is, a plurality of pages or a plurality of copies of a document is arbitrarily selected. The document sorting information is printed on each recording paper, and the document sorting information for performing the document sorting process is added to the recording paper. At the time of sorting, the sorting system reads the document sorting information one by one and performs the sorting process based on the document sorting information. It has been disclosed. Here, as the document sorting information, for example, a method of printing a coded symbol such as a 32-bit number or a bar code in a margin using visible ink or invisible ink is disclosed.

[0008]

However, the above prior art has the following problems. That is, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H8-337013 does not describe an improvement in alignment when printing papers to be continuously printed are stacked on a stacking unit.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-186953, in order to sort printed materials output from a plurality of printing apparatuses, a collating machine having a plurality of paper feeding units equal in number to the number of printing apparatuses (printer engines) is required. Is necessary, so the system becomes large-scale.

[0010] JP-A-11-10092 and JP-A-1-10092
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-194910, it is necessary to additionally print the document sorting information, and it is troublesome to read and sort the document sorting information once the printing is completed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to pick up printing papers printed by a plurality of printer engines in order without adding sorting information as disclosed in the prior art and sort them in page order. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system that can be integrated.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of printer engines for printing either black-and-white or color print information on print paper, and a group for taking in and printing the print paper printed by each printer engine. A transport path, stacking means arranged at the downstream end of the collective transport path, and stacking the print sheets transported by the collective transport path in order, and the printer engine; and control means for controlling the collective transport path. This is achieved by making the control unit instruct each printer engine to print pages and order based on the given print information.

When printing papers printed by different printer engines are conveyed in an overlapping manner on the collective conveyance path, the trailing edge of the lower printing paper precedes the trailing edge of the upper printing paper. It is desirable that they overlap as they do.

[0014] For this purpose, the conveying speed V ₁ of the time of printing in the printer engine, it is desirable to be larger than the conveying speed V ₂ of the set transport path. Further, the plurality of printer engines are arranged at equal intervals along the collective transport path at a pitch interval P (mm), and the transport speed V ₂ (mm / sec) of the collective transport path and the printing speed are t (sec / sheet). )When,
n may be an integer and P> V ₂ · t · n. Further, the plurality of printer engines are arranged at regular intervals along the collective transport path, and the timing at which the print paper printed by each printer engine is taken into the collective transport path is determined by the printer engine disposed at the most downstream side. The timing of taking in the printing paper printed by the printer engine arranged on the upstream side with respect to the timing of taking in the printed printing paper becomes predetermined as the timing of taking in the printing paper printed by the printer engine arranged on the upstream side increases. May be delayed by time.

[0015] Incidentally, the supply conveyance path for supplying the printing paper to the printer engine provided, the conveyance speed V ₃ of the printing paper in said supply path is greater than the conveying speed V ₁ of the print paper when printing in the printer engine You may make it become.

Further, a supply unit for accommodating a plurality of paper sheets and taking out the sheets one by one and sending the sheets to the collective conveyance path may be provided in the collective conveyance path.

Further, there is provided an accumulation buffer means which is attached to each of the printer engines and temporarily accumulates a plurality of printed printing sheets in order, and the printing sheets accumulated in the accumulation buffer means are taken into the collective conveyance path. You may be comprised so that it may be performed. In this case, it is desirable that the length of the accumulation buffer means in the transport direction of the printing paper is larger than the length in the transport direction of the printing paper.

[0018] Each of the printer engines is provided with a supply sheet accumulating means for temporarily accumulating a plurality of supplied printing sheets, and the printing sheets are separated from the supply sheet accumulating means one by one and supplied to the printer engine. You may make it.

[0019]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printer described here is an electrophotographic printer capable of black-and-white printing and color printing. The principle of the electrophotographic printer capable of color printing will be described below.

Generally, when a color image is printed on paper, four color inks or powder toners obtained by adding black (K) to three primary colors of cyan (C), yellow (Y), and magenta (M) are used. A full color image is formed by printing on paper in a superimposed manner and changing the ratio of the mixed colors.

First, the entire surface of the photoreceptor, which is a charging material and has photosensitivity, is charged with static electricity. Thereafter, the photoconductor is exposed by irradiating the photoconductor with a laser based on data to be printed. By this exposure, only the portion irradiated with the laser conducts, and the electric charge disappears, so that a potential difference is generated, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductor. Next, the toner is stirred, and the toner is charged by the friction. Then, the toner adheres to the electrostatic latent image portion of the photoconductor, and development is performed (developing step). Next, the toner image (visible image) formed on the photosensitive member is transferred to the intermediate transfer member.

This development process is repeated four times for each color, so that cyan (C), yellow
(Y), magenta (M), and three primary colors plus black (K) 4
A color image on which color toners are superimposed is formed. If the data to be printed is black and white, an image of only one color of black toner needs to be formed, so that the development process only needs to be performed once.
Next, the color image formed on the intermediate transfer member is transferred to recording paper (paper to be printed). An electric charge having a polarity opposite to that of the toner is applied to the back surface of the recording paper, and the toner image on the surface of the intermediate transfer body is transferred to the recording paper. Thereafter, the recording paper is heated by a fixing machine to melt the toner, and the toner is fixed to the recording paper. When the fixing is completed, the recording paper is output by a discharge roller, and thereafter, the photosensitive member and the intermediate transfer member are washed, and the next electrostatic latent image is created by laser irradiation.

Next, a schematic configuration of the entire printing system will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, a print job to be printed is input by an input means 201 provided with, for example, a keyboard and a scanner, and displayed on a display means 203 via a control device 202. The creator of the print data determines the layout of the print data using the input unit 201 while viewing the images and characters displayed on the display unit 203, and stores the layout in the storage unit 204 via the control device 202. The data to be printed is print data divided into page units, an identifier indicating the size and length or width of the printing paper, and color information for identifying whether the whole or a part of each page is monochrome or color. It is assumed that the printer has at least an identifier and a page identifier indicating the page order of the print data and whether to perform single-sided printing or double-sided printing.

When printing the stored print data,
The print data is input to the printer device 300 via the communication device 205 and further via the network 206.

The print data input to the printer device 300 is sent to a control device 208 as control means via a communication device 207. Since the printer device according to the present invention includes a plurality of printer engines, the input print data is sorted by the control device 208 into print jobs of the same number as the number of printer engines for each page. The allocated print data is converted into print data of a plurality of colors corresponding to black and white or toner colors by the image processing devices 209a, 209b, 209c for each page, and the printer engines 100a, 100b, 1
00c. In the case of double-sided printing, printing is performed with the front and rear pages switched so that the printing paper finally output to the accumulation buffer is in the correct page order. Printing paper 1 is supplied to each printer engine by a paper supply unit (not shown), and after printing is performed, each printer engine 100a,
The sheets 100b and 100c are sequentially sent to the collective conveyance path 110, and then are accumulated in the accumulation means 120. When the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, and 20c for accumulating a plurality of printed printing papers are provided as in the second embodiment, the printed printing papers 1 are stored in the respective printer engines 1.
00a, 100b, 100c
0b and 20c, and then collectively transport path 1
It is sent to 10 and is accumulated in the accumulation means 120.

When a large number of identical prints are to be printed, the same job is assigned to all the printer engines 100a, 100b and 100c and printing is performed.
The printed paper is sent to each printer engine 100
After the printing by a, 100b, and 100c is completed, the sheet is discharged to the collective conveyance path 110.

Next, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows a simplified configuration of the present embodiment, which is a printer device including three sets of printer engines 100a, 100b, and 100c. Here, as an example, it is assumed that each of the printer engines has the same configuration, and that each of the printer engines is of an electrophotographic type using toner, and is capable of performing color printing. The illustrated printer device includes three sets of printer engines 100a, 100b, and 100c, and a paper supply unit that supplies printing paper to the printer engines.
And a collecting / stacking unit for collecting / stacking the paper printed by the printer engine. Note that, as described with reference to FIG. 1, the printer device includes the communication device 207, the control device 208, and the image processing devices 209a to 209a.
209c, but is omitted in FIG.

The printer engines 100a, 100b, 1
00c are the intermediate transfer members 12a, 12b, 12
c, a double-sided printing transport path 15a, 15b, 15c that is attached to and reversely takes in printing paper during double-sided printing.
Discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 16c disposed on the printing paper exit side of the intermediate transfer bodies 12a, 12b, 12c, and accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, 19c disposed downstream of the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 16c, respectively. And the speed reducers 9a, 9b, 9c arranged on the side of the intermediate transfer bodies 12a, 12b, 12c on which the printing paper is inserted.
On the output side of the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, and 19c, pickup rollers 17a, 17b, and 17c, and opposing rollers 18a, 18b, and 1 disposed opposite to the pickup rollers 17a, 17b, and 17c, respectively.
8c is provided. Each printer engine takes out the printing paper 1 of the speed reduction unit, prints it by the intermediate transfer body, and discharges the printed printing paper to the accumulation buffer by a discharge roller.

The paper supply section includes supply paper cassettes 13a and 13b each containing a different type of printing paper 1;
Supply paper cassettes 13a and 13b and the reduction units 9a and 9
b, 9c. Pick-up means 14a, 14b for separating the stored printing paper 1 one by one and sending it out to the supply conveyance path 2 are mounted on the supply paper cassettes 13a, 13b. Further, the supply conveyance path 2 is provided with a supply paper cassette 13a,
13b so that the printing paper 1 sent from the printer 13b can be sent to any of the three sets of printer engines.
a, 9b, and at each branch point, a printing paper 1
Switch 10a, 1 for switching the supply destination of the paper
0b is provided.

The collecting / accumulating unit is provided with the accumulating buffer 19.
a collective conveyance path 110 for conveying the printed printing papers 1 of a, 19b, and 19c; 120. The accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, and 19c have a pair of rollers (pickup rollers 17a, b, c and opposing rollers 18a,
b) and c), and the printing paper in the accumulation buffer is sent to the collective conveyance path 110 by the pair of rollers. The collective conveyance path 110 is provided with drive rollers 22a, 22b, and 22c whose axes are horizontal to be perpendicular to the conveyance direction and are arranged to face each other.

The operation of the printer having the above configuration will be described below.
explain.

The supply paper 1 to be printed is set in the supply paper cassettes 13a and 13b, and the pickup means 14
a and 14b, which are separated one by one and supplied
Sent to These supply paper cassettes 13a, 13b
Is a cassette 13a containing, for example, A4 size paper.
And a cassette 13b for storing B4 size paper, and further a cassette for storing A3 size paper and a cassette for storing paper of the same size but different paper quality and thickness.

The printing paper 1 carried out to the supply conveyance path 2 is
The sheet is conveyed at a predetermined speed by a supply conveyance path 2 driven by a driving unit (not shown). Printing paper 1 to be transported
Indicates which printer engine 100a, 100b, 1
Depending on whether the printing is performed by 00c, the paper changeover switches 10a and 10b are switched and sent to the reduction units 9a, 9b and 9c provided in the respective printer engines 100a, 100b and 100c. Supply paper cassette 1
The printing paper supplied from 3a, 13b is transported through one transport path and distributed to a plurality of printer engines, and the supply transport path 2 is used to reduce the waiting time of each printer engine.
The printer engine 100a, the conveyance speed _{V 3} of 100
b, it is made larger than the conveying speed _{V 1} of the time of printing in the 100c. That is, when printing paper is supplied from the supply transport path 2 to the printer engine, it is necessary to reduce the speed of the printing paper. The deceleration units 9a, 9b, 9c are provided for that purpose. Here, by slacking the printing paper, the transport speed is reduced. The printing paper sent to the reduction units 9a, 9b, 9c is conveyed at a predetermined speed after a latent image is formed by toner on the intermediate transfer bodies 12a, 12b, 12c.
After the toner is transferred to the printing paper and fixed, it is discharged by discharge rollers 16a, 16b, and 16c, and guided to the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, and 19c, respectively.

When performing double-sided printing, the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, and 16c are stopped immediately before the trailing edge of the printing paper is discharged from the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, and 16c to the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, and 19c. The trailing edge of the printing paper is bitten by the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, and 16c, and then the printing paper is reversed and switched back so that the trailing edge of the printing paper is transported as the leading edge. After transporting the toner image 15c in the direction of the arrow, the color or black and white toner image formed on the intermediate transfer members 12a, 12b, and 12c is transferred to the back side of the printing paper. Thereafter, the toner is fixed on the back side of the sheet by the fixing device, and as a result, the sheet printed on both sides is discharged by the discharge roller 16.
a, 16b, and 16c, the integration buffers 19a, 19
b, 19c. This accumulation buffer 19a, 1
Reference numerals 9b and 19c are longer than the length of the printing paper 1 so as not to hinder the reversal of the transport direction during the duplex printing.

As described above, each printer engine 100
Reference numerals a, 100b, and 100c denote configurations capable of monochrome printing, color printing, single-sided printing, and double-sided printing.

The printing paper discharged by the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 16c is sequentially stored in the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b.
b, 19c, is guided to the collective conveyance path 110, is conveyed from the upstream side to the downstream side, and is sequentially accumulated in the accumulation means 120 arranged at the most downstream side.

Next, the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, 19
c will be described. Each printer engine 100a, 1
00b, 100c, the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 1
The printed printing paper 1 discharged by 6c is guided to accumulation buffers 19a, 19b and 19c, respectively. Pickup rollers 17a, 17b, 1 of each accumulation buffer
Reference numeral 7c is configured to be rotatably driven by a drive source such as a motor (not shown), and to be able to pinch or open the printing paper 1 with the opposing rollers 18a, 18b, 18c. If the pickup roller is rotated while holding the printing paper 1, the holding printing paper 1 is moved to the collective conveyance path 110.
Then, it can be fed at a predetermined speed in a direction from the upstream side to the downstream side. Pickup roller 17a,
17b, 17c and opposing rollers 18a, 18b, 18c
Can hold the printed printing papers 1 accumulated in the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, 19c one by one.

The collective conveying path 110 includes a plurality of pairs of opposing drive rollers 22, and each of the drive rollers 22 a, 22 b, 22
The interval c in the transport direction is smaller than the length of the printing paper being transported. By rotating the driving roller while the printing paper 1 is held between the driving rollers, the printing paper 1 is rotated.
Is transported from the upstream side to the downstream side, and the printing paper 1 fed into the collective transport path 110 is transported while being bitten by the drive rollers 22a, 22b, 22c, and is the most downstream stacking means. 120 sequentially. This accumulating means 120 is divided into a plurality of accumulating means 120a, 120b, 1
20c, and the printing paper 1 may be divided into any of a plurality of stacking units 120a, 120b, and 120c and stacked as needed. The printing paper 1 may be pinched and conveyed by an opposed belt instead of the drive roller, or the printing paper 1 may be pinched and conveyed by facing the belt and the roller.

The integration buffers 19a, 19b, 19
c in the paper transport direction, the length of each printer engine 100
Since the maximum length d of the printing paper 1 recorded (printed) by a, 100b, and 100c is longer than the maximum length d, it is necessary to switch back the printing paper 1 to perform printing on the back surface when performing double-sided printing, or Should the accumulation buffer 19a,
Even when a conveyance jam occurs inside 19b and 19c, the leading end of the printing paper 1 does not enter the collective conveyance path 110. Accordingly, each printer engine 100a, 1
It is not necessary that the 00b, 100c and the collective conveyance path 110 operate in connection or synchronously, and they can be operated asynchronously using separate drive sources. That is, the transport speed at the time of printing in each of the printer engines 100a, 100b, and 100c does not need to be the same as the transport speed in the collective transport path 110. Also, the accumulation buffers 19a, 19
It is also possible to drive only the collective conveyance path 110 while keeping b and 19c stopped.

In this embodiment, a printer engine 100c, a printer engine 100b, and a printer engine 100a are arranged in order from the upstream side along the collective transport path 110. Therefore, the printing paper printed by the printer engine 100c on the upstream side is
While the sheet 10 is being conveyed, the printing paper printed by the downstream printer engines 100b to 100a may be sent to the collective conveyance path 110 via the accumulation buffer.

The case where the printing sheets sent from the different printer engines to the collective transport path 110 are conveyed in the collective transport path 110 while overlapping each other will be described. FIG. 3 shows the printer engine 10 on the upstream side.
0c, which is printed by the printer engine 100b on the downstream side, is discharged to the accumulation buffer 19b, is picked up from the accumulation buffer 19b, and is discharged in the direction of the arrow B. The conveyed printing paper 1b and the collective conveying path 11
The state gathered at 0 is schematically shown. In the present embodiment, since the accumulation buffers 19b and 19a are arranged below the collective transport path 110, the printing paper sent from the downstream collective buffer to the collective transport path 110 is:
The printing paper sent from the upstream accumulation buffer to the collective conveyance path 110 overlaps the lower side of the printing paper.

In such a case, it is rare that the printing paper 1b and the printing paper 1b completely overlap each other on the collective conveyance path 110. Usually, the printing paper 1b is conveyed while being overlapped in a shifted state. As shown in FIG.
In the case where the rear end of the printing paper 1b conveyed downward at 0 is conveyed in a form preceding the rear end of the printing paper 1c conveyed upward by α in the conveying direction, The lower printing paper 1b is first stacked on the stacking means 120, and then the upper printing paper 1c is stacked on the printing paper 1c.
b. Therefore, the printing papers 1 are arranged in order in the transporting order and stacked.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, contrary to FIG. 4, when the rear end of the printing paper 1c is transported ahead of the rear end of the printing paper 1b by α in the transport direction, First, the upper printing paper 1c is stacked in the stacking means 120, and the printing paper 1b enters under the printing paper 1c by α. Therefore, for the printing paper 1b, the mass and frictional force of the upper printing paper 1c become resistance when the printing paper 1b is stacked, and when the printing paper 1b is thin and weak, it may buckle and cause a jam. . On the other hand, if the printing paper 1b is sufficiently thick and has high rigidity, the printing paper 1b, which is later stacked, pushes the upper printing paper 1c, which is stacked first, by α inside the stacking means, and as a result, As a result, the accumulation form is disturbed.

Therefore, in the collective transport path 110, the printing paper 1c which has been printed by the upstream printer engine 100c and then transported by the collective transport path 110 is printed by the downstream printer engines 100b to 100a. Buffer 20a, 2
As shown in FIG. 4, the positions of the rear ends of the printing papers 1b and 1a, which are merged and overlapped from the printing paper 1b into the collective conveyance path 110, are always the lower ends of the printing papers 1b and 1a. Needs to be held at a position preceding the rear end by α in the transport direction.

The following describes the positional relationship between the rear end of the printing paper 1 and not the front end for the following reason. That is, the printing papers 1 overlapping in the collective conveyance path 110
If the lengths a, 1b, and 1c in the transport direction are equal, the positional relationship of the leading edge of the printing paper 1 (which paper is leading) and the positional relationship of the trailing edge of the printing paper 1 are the same. However, as shown in FIG. 6, for example, assuming that the upper printing paper 1c is, for example, A4 size and the lower printing paper 1b is, for example, A3 size, the lower printing paper 1b is at the leading end side. , The upper printing paper 1c is advanced by α on the rear end side. When the sheets are stacked in the stacking unit in such a form, the mass or frictional force of the upper printing sheet 1c becomes a resistance force when the lower printing sheet 1b is stacked, as shown in FIG. When the paper 1b is thin and stiff, it is expected to buckle and cause a jam, or when the printing paper 1b is sufficiently thick and rigid, the upper printing paper 1c
Is pushed out by α inside the stacking means 120, and as a result, the stacking form is disturbed.

The relationship between the case where the printed matter is black and white and the case where the printed matter is color will be described with reference to the manner in which the sheets are overlapped in the collective conveyance path described above.

For the sake of explanation, N printer engines are provided, and the arrangement pitch between the printer engines is P.
(Mm), the length of the printing paper is d (mm), and the transport speed is v
(Mm / s), and the printing speed of each printer engine is t (seconds / page). Printer engine 100a, 10
For printing speeds 0b and 100c, black toner is recorded only once in black and white printing, whereas cyan, magenta, yellow and black toners are printed in color printing. In order to successively record, it takes four times as long as black and white printing. That is, if the printing speed of a black-and-white print is tk (seconds / page) and the printing speed of color printing is tc (seconds / page), tc = 4 ×
The relationship tk holds. For example, in a printer engine capable of printing color prints at 6 pages per minute and black and white prints at 24 pages per minute, tk = 2.5 (seconds / page) and tc = 10 (seconds / page). Furthermore, in the case of double-sided printing, it takes twice as long in color and black and white as in the case of single-sided printing.

Here, the case where the same printed matter is printed by all the printer engines 100a, 100b, 100c will be described. Sent at the same time.
Therefore, all the printer engines 100a, 100
Printing papers printed almost simultaneously are discharged from b and 100c. Those printer engines 100a, 10a
Assuming that the printing papers printed by the printing papers 0b and 100c are simultaneously sent from the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, or 19c to the collective conveyance path 110, the printing papers sent from the adjacent accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, and 19c, respectively. The transport pitch is the accumulation buffers 19a, 19b, 1
9c, that is, the printer engine 100
a, 100b, and 100c are equal to the pitch P (mm).

At this time, the sending pitch of the printing paper is the distance between the printing papers, and v · tk in the case of a black and white print.
(Mm) and v · tc (mm) for color prints. The time interval is tk for black and white prints
(Seconds) and tc (seconds) for color prints.

The output pitch is determined by the printer engine 10.
0a, 100b, 100c arrangement pitch P (mm)
Or an integral multiple of the arrangement pitch P (mm), that is, P ×
In the case of (N-1) (mm), P × (N-2) (mm), etc., the print paper 1 printed by the upstream printer engine on the collective conveyance path 110 and the downstream The printing paper 1 printed by the printer engine overlaps in the collective conveyance path 110. As the time interval, P × (N−1) / v (second) to P × (N−
2) / v (second).

For example, in a configuration having three printer engines as shown in FIG. 2, the printing paper printed by the printer engine 100c disposed at the most upstream side is transported from the accumulation buffer 19c by the collective transport path 110. The time required for transport to the collective transport path 110 corresponding to the position of the accumulation buffer 19a at the most downstream side is 2 × P / v (seconds).

Here, as a specific example, the arrangement pitch of the printer engine P = 550 (mm), and the transport speed v = 110
(Mm / sec), printing speed tk = 2.5 for black and white printed matter
(Seconds) and the printing speed tc of the color print is 10 (seconds), the time required for the printing paper to be transported between adjacent printer engines is 550/110 = 5 (seconds). This is just the printing speed tk of black and white printing.
Therefore, if three or more black-and-white prints are continuously performed from each printer engine, the printing paper first printed from the printer engine on the upstream side is transferred from the printer engine adjacent on the downstream side via the accumulation buffer via the accumulation buffer. This overlaps with the third printing paper conveyed on the collective conveyance path. If this is generalized, printing is continuously performed by each printer engine, and the printed printing paper is sent to the collective transport path every time printing is performed. The (N + 1) th print sheet is superimposed on the printed print sheet transported from the upstream side of the collective transport path.

On the other hand, in the case of color printing, the printing paper printed from the printer engine on the upstream side just overlaps the printing paper discharged from the printer engine on the downstream side of two units. If this is generalized, it will just overlap the printing paper 1 discharged from the 2 × N downstream printer engine.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, when printing papers are conveyed in an overlapped state in the collective conveyance path, in order to avoid trouble at the time of stacking in the stacking means, the upper printing paper 1c which is overlapped. It is effective to overlap the lower printing paper 1b so that the rear end of the lower printing paper 1b is advanced by α as shown in FIG. The value of α may be any value as long as α ≧ 0, but in practice, it is preferably about 20 mm in consideration of variations in control and operation of the device. For that purpose, the following means are effective. 1. First Means As a first means for avoiding the overlapping state of the printing paper 1 as shown in FIG. 5 and always creating a state in which the printing paper 1 is shifted vertically in the direction shown in FIG. Engine 100a, 100
It is effective that the interval between b and 100c is wider than the printing pitch of the printing paper 1 and P> v × tk × n (n is an integer). In this way, the printing papers 1b and 1c overlapping in the collective conveyance path 110 are
And v × tk × n can be shifted from each other by α. 2. Second Means As a second means, it is effective to reduce the transport speed of the collective transport path 110. As described above, when the transport speed in the collective transport path 110 is lower than the transport speed in the printer engine 100, the printing paper is temporarily slackened in the accumulation buffer 19 as shown in FIG. The difference can be absorbed.
Therefore, by setting the transport speed v2 of the collective transport path 110 to be lower than the transport speed v1 of the printer engine 100, the overlapping state of the print sheets 1 as shown in FIG. 4 can be similarly realized. 3. Third Means As the third means, the transport speed of the collective transport path 110 and the printer engine 1
Assuming that the transport speed at 00 is the same, the timing of picking up the printing paper 1 from the accumulation buffer 19 to the collective transport path 110 from the accumulation buffer 19 to the collective transport path 110 sequentially from the downstream side to the upstream side at predetermined time intervals δt (seconds) is delayed. It is valid. That is, by delaying the timing by δt (seconds), the position of the printing paper 1 is relatively shifted by v × δt (mm), and thus, as shown in FIG. The paper 1 can be transported. In this way, even when the timing of sending the printing paper is delayed, it can be realized by temporarily sagging the printing paper in the accumulation buffer 19 as shown in FIG.

As described above, the same print job is simultaneously executed by the N printer engines 100, and the printed printing papers are conveyed through the collective conveyance path 110 and accumulated in the accumulation means. Print speed of black and white tk (seconds / page), color tc (seconds / page)
On the other hand, the speed can be increased in proportion to the number of printer engines, such as black and white tk / N (seconds / page) and color tc / N (seconds / page).

Next, a description will be given of a means for sorting and outputting printing paper, which is necessary for producing printed matter arranged in page order such as a booklet.

For example, when the number of pages of the printed matter is 30 and there are three printer engines, the first printer engine 100a at the most downstream side prints the first page, and at the same time, prints the second page at the center. Printer engine 100b prints the second page, and at the same time, the third printer engine 100c, which is the most upstream, prints the third page. Thereafter, each printer engine 100
The printing paper printed by a, 100b, and 100c is conveyed by the collective conveyance path 110 and is sequentially accumulated on the accumulation means 120. When the printing of the first to third pages is completed, the fourth to sixth pages are continuously printed by the respective printer engines 100a, 100b, and 100c, and this operation is repeated until the printing of the last page is completed. With this configuration, the printing sheets arranged in order from page 1 to page 30 are stacked on the stacking unit 120. If this is taken out and bound by a collating machine or a binding machine, a booklet can be created.

Next, a printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 shows a simplified configuration of a printer according to the second embodiment. The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the first embodiment is different from the first embodiment.
Instead of the speed reduction units 11a, 11b, 11c of the embodiment, the supply buffers 11a, 11b,
11c, the integrated buffer 1 of the first embodiment.
Instead of 9a, 19b, and 19c, accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, and 20c, which are accumulation buffer means, are provided.
Is provided. The other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the same reference numerals are given and the description is omitted. In addition, the accumulating means 120 is referred to as accumulating means 120a,
120b and 120c.

Each printer engine takes out the printing paper 1 stored in the supply buffer, prints it by the intermediate transfer member, and discharges the printed printing paper to the accumulation buffer by a discharge roller.

The supply section 25 is provided with a pickup means 26 so that the paper sheets (medium 3) stored in the supply section 25 can be taken out and sent to the collective conveyance path 110.

The operation of the printer having the above configuration will be described below.
explain.

The supply paper 1 to be printed is set in the supply paper cassettes 13a and 13b, and the pickup means 14
a and 14b, which are separated one by one and supplied
Sent to These supply paper cassettes 13a, 13b
Is a cassette 13a containing, for example, A4 size paper.
And a cassette 13b for storing B4 size paper, and further a cassette for storing A3 size paper and a cassette for storing paper of the same size but different paper quality and thickness.

The printing paper 1 carried out to the supply conveyance path 2 is
The sheet is conveyed at a predetermined speed by a supply conveyance path 2 driven by a driving unit (not shown). Printing paper 1 to be transported
Indicates which printer engine 100a, 100b, 1
Depending on whether the printing is performed by 00c or not, the paper changeover switches 10a and 10b are switched and temporarily stored in the supply buffers 11a, 11b and 11c provided in the respective printer engines 100a, 100b and 100c.
The printing paper temporarily stored in the supply buffers 11a, 11b, and 11c is separated one by one after a latent image is formed on the intermediate transfer bodies 12a, 12b, and 12c by toner, and is conveyed at a predetermined speed. Is transferred onto the printing paper and fixed, and then discharged by discharge rollers 16a, 16b, and 16c, and accumulated in the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, and 20c.
Respectively.

When the paper size is unified or when the print engine is dedicated for each paper size, the supply paper cassette 1 may be simplified.
3a, 13b, pickup means 14a, 14b, and paper changeover switches 10a, 10b are omitted, and supply buffers 11a, 11b, 11c are used as supply paper cassettes.
The printing paper may be directly supplied to c.

When performing double-sided printing, double-sided printing is performed by the same operation as in the first embodiment. As a result, the sheets printed on both sides are stored in the accumulation buffer 20.
a, 20b, and 20c.

Next, the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 20
c will be described. Each printer engine 100a, 1
00b, 100c, the discharge rollers 16a, 16b, 1
The printed printing paper 1 discharged by 6c is sequentially accumulated in the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, and 20c, respectively. These accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 20c
It is longer than the length of the printing paper 1 so that a plurality of printing papers can be stacked. The pickup rollers 17a, 17b, and 17c of each accumulation buffer are driven to rotate by a driving source such as a motor (not shown) and can pinch or open the printing paper 1 with the opposing rollers 18a, 18b, and 18c. Configuration. By rotating the pickup roller while nipping the printing paper 1, the nipped printing paper 1 can be fed into the collective conveyance path 110 in a direction from the upstream side to the downstream side at a predetermined speed. Pickup rollers 17a, 17b,
17c and the opposing rollers 18a, 18b, 18c can hold the printed printing paper 1 accumulated in the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 20c one by one or a plurality of sheets.

The collective conveyance path 110 includes a plurality of pairs of drive rollers 22 facing each other.
The interval c in the transport direction is smaller than the length of the printing paper being transported. By rotating the driving roller while the printing paper 1 is held between the driving rollers, the printing paper 1 is rotated.
Is transported from the upstream side to the downstream side, and the printing paper 1 fed into the collective transport path 110 is transported while being bitten by the drive rollers 22a, 22b, 22c, and is the most downstream stacking means. 120 sequentially. This accumulating means 120 is divided into a plurality of accumulating means 120a, 120b, 1
20c, and the printing paper 1 may be divided into any of a plurality of stacking means 120a, 120b, and 120c and stacked as needed. In this case, the sheet changeover switches 10a, 1
0b is provided, and the transfer destination is set to the stacking means 1
Switch to any one of 20a, 120b, and 120c.
The collective conveyance path 110 may be configured to pinch and convey the printing paper 1 by an opposing belt instead of the driving roller, or to convey the printing paper 1 by nipping the belt and the roller. You may.

The length of the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, and 20c in the paper transport direction is formed to be longer than the maximum length d of the printing paper 1 and the printer engines 100a, 100b.
The printing papers 1 can be stacked while the b, 100c and the collective conveyance path 110 are operated. Further, the length of the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 20c in the sheet transport direction is determined by each of the printer engines 100a, 100b, 100c.
c, the printing paper 1 is longer than the maximum length d, so that when performing double-sided printing, when switching back the printing paper 1 to perform printing on the back side, or when the printing paper 1 is stored in the accumulation buffer 20a. , 20b, and 20c, the data is temporarily accumulated in the accumulation buffers 20a, 20c.
Even when a conveyance jam occurs inside b and 20c, the leading end of the printing paper 1 does not enter the collective conveyance path 110. Therefore, the integration buffers 20a, 20b, 20
It is not necessary for the c and the collective transport path 110 to operate in conjunction or in synchronization, and they can operate asynchronously using separate drive sources. That is, each printer engine 100
a, the transport speed at the time of printing in 100b, 100c,
The transport speed in the collective transport path 110 does not need to be the same. Further, it is also possible to drive only the collective conveyance path 110 while keeping the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 20c stopped.

The supply unit 25 includes the printer engine 100
This is a configuration in which a sheet 3 such as a printed sheet or a cover, which does not need to be printed by a, 100b, and 100c, can be fed into the collective conveyance path 110. That is, the mediums 3 stored in the supply unit 25 are separated and sent out one by one by the pickup unit 26, and the sent out mediums 3 are caught by the drive rollers 22 c and taken into the collective conveyance path 110. . The medium 3 taken into the collective conveyance path 110 is conveyed to the downstream side and
20.

In the present embodiment, when printing a large number of identical prints, all the printer engines 100a, 10a
The same job is assigned to the printers 0b and 100c for printing. In such a case, the print jobs do not need to be completely synchronized between the printer engines 100a, 100b, and 100c. After the printed paper is printed by the respective printer engines 100a, 100b, 100c, each of the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b,
The paper is discharged to 20c, and then discharged to the collective conveyance path 110.

Also in this embodiment, the printer engine 100c, the printer engine 100b, and the printer engine 100a are arranged in order from the upstream side along the collective conveyance path 110, and the printing performed by the upstream printer engine 100c is performed. While the paper is being conveyed through the collective transport path 110, the print paper printed by the downstream printer engines 100b to 100a may be sent to the collective transport path 110 via the accumulation buffer.
Therefore, as in the case of the first embodiment, the printing paper printed by the downstream printer engine is conveyed in a state of being superimposed on the printing paper conveyed in the collective conveyance path 110 from the upstream side. At this time, the timing at which the printing paper is fed from the accumulation buffer to the collective conveyance path 110 is controlled such that the trailing edge of the lower printing paper is ahead of the trailing edge of the upper printing paper by α. You.

For the sake of explanation, N printer engines are provided, and the arrangement pitch between the printer engines is P.
(Mm), the length of the printing paper is d (mm), and the transport speed is v
(Mm / s), the printing speed of each printer engine is t (seconds / page), and the number of sheets that can be stored in the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 20c is n (sheets). Regarding the printing speed of the printer engines 100a, 100b, and 100c, black toner is recorded only once in black-and-white printing, while cyan and cyan are used in color printing.
In order to sequentially record toners of four colors, magenta, yellow, and black, four times as long as black-and-white printing is required. That is, assuming that the printing speed of a monochrome print is tk (seconds / page) and the printing speed of color printing is tc (seconds / page), the relationship tc = 4 × tk is established. For example,
For a printer engine capable of printing color prints at 6 pages per minute and black and white prints at 24 pages per minute, tk =
2.5 (seconds / page) and tc = 10 (seconds / page). Furthermore, in the case of double-sided printing, it takes twice as long in color and black and white as in the case of single-sided printing.

Here, the case where the same printed matter is printed by all the printer engines 100a, 100b, 100c will be described. Therefore, black-and-white print data or color print data of the same size is almost completely applied to all the printer engines 100a, 100b, 100c. Sent at the same time.
Therefore, all the printer engines 100a, 100
Printing papers printed almost simultaneously are discharged from b and 100c. Those printer engines 100a, 10a
Assuming that the printing papers printed by the printing papers 0b and 100c are simultaneously sent from the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, or 20c to the collective conveyance path 110, the printing papers sent from the adjacent accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, and 20c, respectively. The transport pitch is the accumulation buffer 20a, 20b, 2
0c, that is, the printer engine 100
a, 100b, and 100c are equal to the pitch P (mm). On the other hand, the same printer engine 100a, 10a
Assuming that the printing paper printed from any one of the printing papers 0b and 100c is sent out to the collective conveyance path 110 every time n printing papers are stacked in the stacking buffers 20a, 20b and 20c, the sending pitch is Is (n × v) · tk (mm) for monochrome prints and (n × v) · tc (mm) for color prints. The time interval is tk × n (second) for monochrome prints, and tk × n (seconds) for color prints.

The transmission pitch is determined by the printer engine 10.
0a, 100b, 100c arrangement pitch P (mm)
Or an integral multiple of the arrangement pitch P (mm), that is, P ×
In the case of (N-1) (mm), P × (N-2) (mm), etc., the print paper 1 printed by the upstream printer engine on the collective conveyance path 110 and the downstream The printing paper 1 printed by the printer engine overlaps in the collective conveyance path 110. As the time interval, P × (N−1) / v (second) to P × (N−
2) / v (second).

For example, in a configuration having three printer engines as shown in FIG. 7, the printing paper printed by the printer engine 100c disposed at the most upstream side is transported from the accumulation buffer 20c by the collective transport path 110. The time required for transport to the collective transport path 110 position corresponding to the position of the accumulation buffer 20a on the most downstream side is 2 × P / v (second).

Here, as a specific example, the arrangement pitch P of the printer engine is P = 550 (mm), and the transport speed v is 110
(Mm / sec), printing speed tk = 2.5 for black and white printed matter
(Seconds) and the printing speed tc of the color print is 10 (seconds), the time required for the printing paper to be transported between adjacent printer engines is 550/110 = 5 (seconds). This is just the printing speed tk of black and white printing.
Therefore, if three or more black-and-white prints are continuously performed from each printer engine, the printing paper first printed from the printer engine on the upstream side is transferred from the printer engine adjacent on the downstream side via the accumulation buffer via the accumulation buffer. This overlaps with the third printing paper conveyed on the collective conveyance path. If this is generalized, printing is continuously performed by each printer engine, and the printed printing paper is sent to the collective transport path every time printing is performed. The (N + 1) th print sheet is superimposed on the printed print sheet transported from the upstream side of the collective transport path.

On the other hand, in the case of color printing, the printing paper printed from the printer engine on the upstream side just overlaps the printing paper discharged from the printer engine on the downstream side by two units. If this is generalized, it will just overlap the printing paper 1 discharged from the 2 × N downstream printer engine.

In the first embodiment, as described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, when printing papers are conveyed in an overlapping state on the collective conveyance path, it is necessary to avoid troubles in the stacking means during stacking. It is effective to overlap the upper printing paper 1c and the lower printing paper 1b such that the rear end of the lower printing paper 1b is advanced by α as shown in FIG. For this purpose, the first to third means described in the first embodiment are similarly effective. However, in the second means, since the printing paper is once accumulated in the accumulation buffer 20 and then sent out to the collective conveyance path 110, the printer engine 100
And the transfer speed in the collective transfer path 110 need not be the same. Therefore, the collective conveyance path 110
The conveying speed V of the conveying speed _{V 2} of the printer engine 100
_By making the value smaller than 1, it is possible to realize an overlapping state of the printing sheets 1 as shown in FIG. According to the third means, in the first embodiment, the printed printing paper is sent out to the collective conveyance path 110 one by one every time it is printed by each printer engine 100. In the embodiment, printed printing papers are temporarily accumulated in an accumulation buffer, and are then transferred from the accumulation buffer to the collective transport path 1.
10 is sent. Therefore, assuming that the transport speed of the collective transport path 110 and the transport speed in the printer engine 100 are the same, the print paper 1 is transported from the accumulation buffer 20 sequentially from the downstream side to the upstream side every predetermined time δt (seconds). What is necessary is just to delay the pickup timing with respect to the road 110. That is, the timing is δt
By delaying the print paper 1 by (sec), the position of the print paper 1 is relatively shifted by v × δt (mm), and thus, as shown in FIG. be able to.

As described above, also in the present embodiment, the same print job is transmitted to N printer engines 10.
0, the printer engine 100 is conveyed through the collective conveyance path 110 and accumulated in the accumulation means.
Print speed is black and white tk (seconds / page) and color tc (seconds / page), whereas black and white tk / N (seconds / page), color tk / N (seconds / page) and the number of printer engines The speed can be increased in proportion to.

Next, a description will be given of how to sort and output printing paper, which is necessary for producing printed matter arranged in page order such as a booklet according to the present embodiment.

For example, when the number of pages of the printed matter is 30 and there are three printer engines, the first printer engine 100a on the most downstream side prints from page 1 to page 10 and at the same time, prints in the center. A certain second printer engine 100b performs printing from page 11 to page 20, and at the same time, a third upstream printer engine 100c performs printing from page 21 to page 30. Printer engine 100a, 100
b, 100c are the integrated buffers 2 provided respectively.
0a, 20b, and 20c, once printed paper 1
Deposit 0 sheets at a time. Thereafter, from the accumulation buffer 20a of the first printer engine 100a to the accumulation buffer 20c of the third printer engine 100c, ten print sheets are simultaneously picked up in a state of being stacked, drawn out to the collective conveyance path 110, and placed on the accumulation means 120. To accumulate.
In this way, the first to ten pages printed by the first printer engine 100a on the most downstream side are first stacked in the stacking means 120, and then printed by the second printer engine 100b. Pages 11 to 20 are collected, and finally pages 21 to 30 printed by the third printer engine 100c on the most upstream side are collected. Since the printed surface of the printing paper is facing downward, printing papers arranged in order from page 1 to page 30 are stacked. If you take this out and bind it with a collating machine or bookbinding machine,
A booklet can be created.

When a plurality of copies of the same booklet are created, the above operation, that is, each print engine repeats a print job divided for every 10 pages, and every time 10 print sheets are accumulated in the accumulation buffer 20. The operation of picking up, conveying by the collective conveying path 110, and accumulating on the accumulating means 120 may be repeated by the number of booklets. When the stacking means 120 is constituted by the stacking means 120a, 120b, and 120c, each of the printer engines first sets one.
Printing from page 10 to page 10 and stacking means 120
a, 120b, and 120c, respectively, and then prints 11 to 20 pages by each printer engine, respectively, and accumulates them in the stacking means 120a, 120b, and 120c. Printing up to stacking means 1
The pages 20a, 120b, and 120c may be accumulated respectively, and 1 to 30 pages may be accumulated in each accumulation unit.

In the case of the face-down system in which the printing surface is below the printing paper as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, pages 1 to 10 are sequentially printed, and the printing surface is above the printing paper. In the case of the face-up method, the pages from page 10 to page 1 are printed in reverse order, and the first printer engine 100a, which is the most downstream, allocates the print pages to the printer engine.
The second printer engine 100b at the center prints pages 11 to 20 at the same time, and the third printer engine 100c at the most upstream side prints pages 1 to 10 at the same time. Print up to. If you do this,
In a state where the printing sheets 1 are stacked on the stacking unit 120, all the printed materials are arranged in the page order.

Next, a case will be described in which a printed material (print job) in which black-and-white printing and color printing are mixed is distributed to three printer engines. As described above, in color printing, four color toner images are formed in an overlapping manner, so that the time tc required for color printing is four times the time tk required for monochrome printing. For double-sided printing,
Double time is required for both black and white and color. The print job data includes an identifier indicating the size of the printing paper and whether the page is portrait or landscape, a color information identifier that identifies whether the whole or part of each page is monochrome or color, a page order of the print data, And a page identifier indicating one-sided printing or two-sided printing. By extracting these identifiers, it is possible to obtain the printing time for each printing sheet in page order.

As an example, FIGS. 8 and 9 show an example in which a print job consisting of 14 pages, in which black and white single-sided and double-sided printing and color single-sided printing are mixed, is distributed to three printer engines. A job A shown in FIG. 8 and a job B shown in FIG. 9 print the same printed matter, and are different in how they are distributed to the printer engine.

FIG. 10 shows the procedure for distributing print jobs. First, the printing time of a print job is calculated for each page for all pages based on the time tk required for monochrome one-sided printing, and the total is calculated (step 31). In the example shown,
The total printing time obtained is 23 × tk (seconds).

When the total printing time of all pages is obtained,
This is divided by the number of printer engines to determine the average required printing time per printer engine. Next, using the obtained average required printing time as a guide, in the unit of a sheet that must be printed by the same printer engine 100, such as color printing or double-sided printing, it is equal to the total number of printer engines 100 in page order. Sort the number of print jobs. If the system has three printer engines, each printer engine has 8 × tk (seconds) and 8 × tk (seconds).
(Seconds) and 7 × tk (seconds), the print job is completed in the shortest time. However, in the case where a certain printing paper is a two-sided printing, printing on the printing paper needs to be performed by the same printer engine. is there. In the example of job A and job B shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, since the first printer engine 100a performs monochrome double-sided printing, 7 × tk (second) from page 1 to page 4 or page It must be separated by any one of 9 × tk (second) from 1 to page 6. In addition, each printer engine is assigned continuous pages, and the assigned number is set so as not to exceed the number that can be accumulated in the accumulation buffer (step 32).

Based on such conditions, a combination for distributing print jobs to three printer engines is created (step 33). Table 1 summarizes the created combinations. As shown in Table 1, 5 from job A to job E
Combinations of types are possible.

[0090]

[Table 1] In Table 1, print jobs of at least 6 × tk (seconds) or more are assigned to each printer engine. Next, a combination that can complete printing in the shortest time is selected from the combinations. The required printing time of each job (Job A to Job E) is the printing time of the printer engine that requires the longest printing time among the printer engines. Therefore, from the combinations (jobs A to E) in Table 1, the job in which the total print time of the print engine 100 having the longest print time is the shortest may be selected.

First, for each of the jobs A to E, a printer engine with the longest printing time is searched for (step 34). In job A, the first printer engine (9t
k), the third printer engine (10t
k), the second printer engine (10t
k), the third printer engine (10t
k), the first printer engine (10t
k) is obtained.

When the printer engine with the longest printing time, that is, the longest printing time, is determined for each job, the job with the shortest printing time is selected from them (step 35). In the case of Table 1, only the job A has a maximum printing time of 9 tk (seconds) for all printer engines, and a maximum of 10 tk for other combinations.
(Seconds). Needless to say, the optimal combination in which all print jobs are completed earliest is the combination of jobs in which the maximum print time in the printer engine is short, and therefore job A is optimal in Table 1.

The control device 208 controls the printer device based on the selected job and starts printing. And
The printing paper 1 printed by each of the printer engines 100a, 100b, 100c is
00a, 100b, 100c integrated buffers 20a,
0b, 20c, and then the integration buffer 2
The printing papers 1 accumulated in Oa, 20b, and 20c are simultaneously picked up and sent out to the collective conveyance path 110.
Printed printing paper 1 sent to the collective conveyance path 110
Are, on the collective transport path 110, those printed by the first printer engine (pages 1 to 6), those printed by the second printer engine (pages 7 to 11),
What was printed by the third printer engine (page 12
To 14). The transported printing paper is stacked on the stacking means 120 with pages 1 to 6 at the bottom, and pages 7 to 11 and pages 12 to 14 stacked thereon in that order, and the pages 1 to 14 are arranged in page order and overlap. .

After the print sheet 1 has been sent from the accumulation buffer 20, each printer engine can start the next print job. If the number of pages for one print to be printed exceeds the total number of sheets that can be temporarily accumulated in each accumulation buffer 20, for example, the first to third printer engines 100a , 100b,
100c, the print is transferred to the collective transfer path 110 from the accumulation buffer 20, and then the 31st to 60th pages are printed from the first to third printer engines 100c.
By repeating the operation of sorting and printing a, 100b, and 100c, even a printed matter composed of a large number of pages can be printed in page order.

Here, the printing paper that is collected in the stacking means 120 and sorted in the page order constitutes a booklet. An example of means for facilitating the visual confirmation of the image will be described. In such a case, the supply unit 25
First, an identification medium 3 made of, for example, cardboard, which is equal to or more than the number of copies to be printed, is placed. And 1 of the printing paper 1
When printing from the first page to the last page is completed,
So that the medium 3 is transported immediately after the last page,
The pickup unit 26 is controlled so that the sheets are separated one by one by the pickup unit 26 and sent out to the collective conveyance path 110.

If the length or width of the medium 3 for identification in the transport direction is made larger than that of the printing paper 1, the printing paper 1
In the state where the bundles are sorted and accumulated on the accumulation means 120, the boundaries of each part can be easily visually confirmed. Therefore, if the operator takes out a bundle of printing papers 1 from the stacking means 120 for each of the identification media 3, the printing papers 1 are arranged in the page order, and are passed through a collating machine to create a booklet. be able to. This identification medium 3 is
By using a color that is more conspicuous than other printing papers 1, for example, a red color, a lattice pattern, or a fluorescent color, the color is more conspicuous and effective.

In the present embodiment, a plurality of printing papers 1 can be accumulated in the supply paper buffers 11a, 11b, 11c.
13b, the supply paper buffer 11a, 11b, 11
Even when the supply of the printing paper to c becomes impossible, the printing can be continued while the printing paper is in the supply paper buffer. When the supply of the printing paper to the supply paper buffer becomes impossible, the operator is notified by an alarm that the printing paper has run out or a jam has occurred in the supply transport path 2. If replenishment of paper and elimination of jams are completed by the operator while printing paper is present in the supply paper buffer, printing is not interrupted as a printer device.

According to the present embodiment, by providing a plurality of inexpensive printer engines, a large amount of printing paper can be printed at high speed, and the printed printing paper can be arranged in page order, and can be aligned and accumulated. Furthermore, for a document that is a mixture of black and white and color, the print time of the printer engine is averaged, the print job is divided so that printing of all pages can be completed in a short time, and the print job is printed by multiple printer engines. There is an effect that the printing paper can be arranged in the page order and can be arranged and accumulated.

A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 shows two printer engines 10.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a printer device provided with Oa and 100b. The printer apparatus of the present embodiment reduces the size of the system by arranging a plurality of printer engines 100 in the housing 301 close to each other.
Cover 105 is openable and closable.
When the printer is opened, the printer engines can be individually pulled out of the housing in the horizontal direction. An operation of performing maintenance such as toner replacement, emergency paper jam, or replacement of other consumables for one of the printer engines 100 will be described. Printer engine 100b
When performing maintenance on the printer engine 100b, the cover 105 is opened by rotating the cover 105 in the direction of arrow R.
Is pulled out in the arrow X direction (horizontal direction) as shown in the figure.
By thus pulling the printer engine out of the housing in the horizontal direction, the top and side surfaces of the printer engine are opened to facilitate access. For example, the toner 104 is pulled out in the Y direction and replaced with a new one,
Work such as exchanging consumables such as 2a and 12b and photoreceptor belts by pulling them out in the direction of the arrow Z can be easily performed.
The same maintainability as when the printer engine 100 is used alone can be realized.

A fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that two printer engines are arranged vertically instead of the three printer engines arranged horizontally in the first embodiment, and supply is performed. The point is that the transport paths are arranged in the vertical direction, and a vertical carry-out transport path 4a and a horizontal carry-out transport path 4b are provided instead of the horizontal collective transport path 110. The other points are the same as in the first embodiment, and the description is omitted.

The operation of the printer of this embodiment will be described below. The printing paper 1 set in the supply paper cassettes 13a, 13b is picked up by pickup means 14a, 14b.
Are separated one by one. The paper changeover switch 10a is switched according to which of the printer engines 100a and 100b prints the printing paper 1 separated one by one, and the printing paper 1 is the first printing paper corresponding to the printer engines 100a and 100b. And is conveyed in the up-down direction to one of the supply conveyance path 2a and the second supply conveyance path 2b. The transported printing paper 1 is sent to the printer engines 100a and 100b via the speed reduction unit 9a or the speed reduction unit 9b, and printed one by one. Also in the present embodiment, the supply conveyance path 2
Since the printing paper is decelerated when supplied from the printer engines 100a and 100b to the printer engines 100a and 100b, it is effective to make the printing paper slack in the reduction units 11a and 11b. The printed printing paper 1 is discharged by a discharge roller 16
a, 16b and discharged through the accumulation buffer 19a, 1
9b. The printing paper guided to the accumulation buffers 19a and 19b is picked up by the pickup means 17a and 17b, respectively, and is conveyed by the discharge conveyance paths 4a and 4b. The printing papers conveyed by the discharge conveyance paths 4a and 4b are merged by the drive roller 22a and accumulated on the accumulation means 120. If the printing papers overlap at the time of being caught by the driving roller 22a, the transport speed is changed according to the length of the discharge transport paths 4a and 4b so that the printing papers overlap in the order shown in FIG. This can be realized by changing the print start or print end timing of the printer engine. Further, in the present embodiment, by arranging the printer engines up and down with respect to each other, the installation area of the printer device can be reduced to almost one printer engine and the installation space can be reduced. .

FIG. 13 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention. The present embodiment is different from the fourth embodiment in that supply buffers 11a, 1
1b and integrated buffers 20a and 20b are provided instead of the integrated buffers 19a and 19b. The other points are the same as in the fourth embodiment, and the description is omitted. The supply buffers 11a and 11b and the integration buffer 20
a and 20b have the same configuration as the supply buffers 11a and 11b and the integration buffers 20a and 20b in the second embodiment.

The operation of the printer of this embodiment will be described below. The printing paper 1 set in the supply paper cassettes 13a, 13b is picked up by pickup means 14a, 14b.
Are separated one by one. The paper changeover switch 10a is switched according to which of the printer engines 100a and 100b prints the printing paper 1 separated one by one, and the printing paper 1 is the first printing paper corresponding to the printer engines 100a and 100b. And is conveyed in the up-down direction to one of the supply conveyance path 2a and the second supply conveyance path 2b. The transported printing paper 1 is supplied to the supply buffer 11a or the supply buffer 11b.
, And then are picked up one by one and printed. The printed printing paper 1 is discharged by a discharge roller 16
a, 16b and discharged through the accumulation buffer 20a, 2b.
0b. The printing papers accumulated in the accumulation buffers 20a and 20b are picked up by the pickup means 17a and 17b and are conveyed by the discharge conveyance paths 4a and 4b. The printing papers conveyed by the discharge conveyance paths 4a and 4b join at the drive roller 22a and are collected.
20. If the printing papers overlap at the time of being caught by the driving roller 22a, the conveyance speed is changed according to the length of the discharge conveyance paths 4a and 4b so that the printing papers are overlapped as shown in FIG. By changing the timing of pickup from the integrated buffers 20a and 20b. Further, by arranging the printer engines up and down with respect to each other, the installation area of the printer device can be reduced to almost one printer engine, and the installation space can be reduced.

A sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is different from the second embodiment shown in FIG. 7 in that the supply transport path 2 is disposed above the printer engine and the collective transport path 110 is disposed below the printer engine. It is. Because of the arrangement of the transport path, the positions of the supply buffer and the accumulation buffer of the printer engine are different from those of the second embodiment. It is located below the printer engine. Further, the intermediate transfer members 12a, 12
The rotation directions of b and 12c are also opposite to those in the first embodiment.

The operation of the printer of this embodiment is the same as that of the second embodiment. However, when the printed printing paper is conveyed in an overlapping state, the printing Are stacked on the stacking means so that the print side faces downward, and the print surface is turned up. Therefore, the allocation of the print page to the printer engine is based on the second
Contrary to the case of this embodiment, a young page may be allocated to the printer engine on the upstream side of the collective conveyance path.
Also in this embodiment, when printing papers printed by different printer engines are conveyed in a state of being overlapped in the collective conveyance path 110, as described in the first and second embodiments, the stacking means 120 From the accumulation buffer to the collective conveyance path so that the trailing edge of the printing paper to be accumulated on the lower side when the paper is accumulated in the stacking section overlaps the trailing edge of the printing paper to be arranged on the upper side by the accumulation means 120. , The interval between printer engines, or the speed of the collective conveyance path and the speed of the pickup roller.

For example, the accumulation buffers 20a, 20b, 2
When the printing paper is simultaneously sent to the collective transport path 110 from the collective transport path 110, the accumulation buffer 20a
The printing paper sent from the stacking buffer 20b is transported first, the one sent from the stacking buffer 20b is transported next, and the one sent from the stacking buffer 20c is transported last. While the sheet sent from the accumulation buffer 20c is being conveyed in the vicinity of the printer engine 100a, the printing paper for the next cycle is transferred from the accumulation buffer to the collective transport path 1
10 is sent to accumulation buffer 2 in the previous cycle.
0c on top of what was sent out
It is conceivable that the printing papers of the next cycle sent from the printer overlap. At this time, in order to perform smooth accumulation on the accumulation means 120, as described above, as described above, the printing paper to be accumulated on the accumulation means 120 first (in this case, the paper discharged from the accumulation buffer 20c in the previous cycle). Of the printing paper (in this case, the accumulation buffer 20a in the next cycle)
), Which should precede the rear end.

In this embodiment, the same effects as in the second embodiment can be obtained.

In each of the above embodiments, an electrophotographic color printer is used as the printer engine 100. However, the present invention is not limited to the case where an electrophotographic printer engine is used. "Thermal transfer method", which prints print data directly on paper by heating solid pigments or dyes with a heater, or "Inkjet method", which prints print data directly on paper by ejecting liquid pigments or dyes from nozzles It is clear that the same configuration can be obtained by using the printer of the above.

[0109]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By using a plurality of inexpensive printer engines, print jobs can be performed at high speed, printed materials can be sorted and accumulated in page order, and printed materials can be easily identified as part of a booklet. It is also suitable for printing a plurality of booklets without a sorter.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic system configuration of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a schematic configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which printing papers are overlapped in the collective conveyance path in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which print sheets are conveyed in an overlapping manner in the collective conveyance path of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another state in which print sheets are conveyed in an overlapping manner in the collective conveyance path of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating a state in which printing papers having different dimensions are conveyed in an overlapping manner in the collective conveyance path of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a schematic configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of sorting print jobs in which black-and-white and color prints are mixed in the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating another example of sorting a print job in which black-and-white and color prints are mixed in the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for distributing a print job to each printer engine according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram showing a schematic configuration of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing a schematic configuration of a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram showing a schematic configuration of a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print paper 2 Supply conveyance path 3 Medium 4a, 4b Ejection conveyance path 9a, 9b, 9c Reduction part 10a, 10b Paper selection switch 11a, 11b, 11c Supply buffer 12a, 12b, 12c Intermediate transfer body 13a, 13b Supply paper cassette 14a , 14b Pick-up means 15a, 15b, 15c Double-sided printing conveyance path 16a, 16b, 16c Discharge roller 17a, 17b, 17c Pick-up roller 18a, 18b, 18c Opposing roller 19a, 19b, 19c Stack buffer 20a, 20b, 20c Stack buffer 22a, 22b, 22c Drive roller 25 Supply unit 26 Pickup unit 100a, 100b, 100c Printer engine 110 Collective transport path 120, 120a, 120b, 120c Stacking unit 201 Input unit 202 Control device 2 3 display unit 204 storage unit 205, 207 communication device 206 network 300 printer

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yukio Yamamoto 502 Kandachi-cho, Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki F-term in Machinery Research Laboratories, Hitachi, Ltd. F-term (reference) BD03 BE12 CA08 CB06 CB07 LA07 LB03 3F053 GA03 GA05 GA20 GB02 GB14 LA07 LB03

Claims (10)

[Claims] A plurality of printer engines for printing either black and white or color print information on print paper; a collective transport path for receiving and transporting print paper printed by each printer engine; A printing device comprising: a stacking unit in which print sheets conveyed by the collective transport path disposed at the downstream end are sequentially stacked and stacked; and the printer engine, and control means for controlling the collective transport path,
A printer device according to claim 1, wherein said control means instructs each printer engine of a page to be printed and an order based on the given print information. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing speed of the printer engine during printing is V.
_1, a printer device and greater than the conveying speed V ₂ of the set transport path. 3. The printer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of printer engines are arranged at equal intervals along a collective transport path at a pitch P (mm), and the transport speed V ₂ ( mm / sec) and the printing speed is t (sec /
When the sheets), where n is an integer, a printer apparatus which is a _{P> V 2 · t · n} . 4. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of printer engines are arranged at equal intervals along a collective transport path, and printing paper printed by each printer engine is taken into the collective transport path. Timing is
With respect to the timing of taking in the printing paper printed by the printer engine arranged at the most downstream side, the timing of taking in the printing paper printed by the printer engine arranged at the upstream side is adjusted by the printer engine arranged at the upstream side. A printer device characterized in that the printing paper is successively delayed by a predetermined time as the printing paper is printed. 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the printing papers printed by the different printer engines are conveyed in the collective conveyance path while being overlapped with each other, the trailing edge of the lower printing paper is changed. A printing device preceding the trailing edge of the upper printing paper. 6. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising a supply transport path for supplying print paper to each printer engine, and a transport speed V ₃ of the print paper in the supply transport path. but the printer apparatus being greater than the conveyance speed V ₁ of the print paper when printing in the printer engine. 7. The printer according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of sheets are accommodated in the collective conveyance path, and the collective conveyance is performed by removing the sheets one by one. A printer device, comprising: a supply unit for feeding into a road. 8. The printer device according to claim 1, further comprising an accumulation buffer means attached to each of the printer engines for sequentially accumulating a plurality of printed sheets in order. And a printer configured to receive the printing paper accumulated in the accumulation buffer means into the collective conveyance path. 9. The printer device according to claim 8, wherein the length of the accumulation buffer means in the printing paper transport direction is larger than the length of the printing paper in the transport direction. 10. The printer device according to claim 9, wherein the printer engine includes a supply sheet accumulating means for temporarily accumulating a plurality of print sheets supplied to each of the plurality of print sheets, and the print sheet is supplied from the supply sheet accumulator means. A printer device which is separated one by one and supplied to the printer engine.