Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-04
2002-10-29
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S002000, C347S019000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06471314
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control method, a printing device, a printing control device and a storage medium storing a program for the printing control method and more particularly to the printing control method to control printing operations based on residual amounts of printing agents, which can be applied to printing devices such as a xerographic copying machine, facsimile, printer or a like, adapted to print, using printing agents such as ink, toner or a like, an object to be printed (hereafter referred to as a “printing object”) containing a document, image or a like, on a printing medium such as paper, OHP (Overhead Projector) films, and to the printing device to do printing in accordance with the printing control method, the printing control device to implement the printing control method and the storage medium storing the program for the printing control method.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 11-345400 filed on Dec. 3, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As printing devices to print, for example, a xerographic copying machine, facsimile, printer or a like are available using printing agents such as ink, toner or a like, a printing object containing a document, image or a like, on a printing medium such as paper, OHP films or a like. Since, in operations of these printing devices, consumables including printing agents, printing medium or a like are consumed every time printing objects containing the document, image or the like on the printing medium are printed, in order to prevent such consumables from running out in a very middle course of printing or in order to use printing agents with minimum wastage, various conventional technologies are disclosed including one adapted to inform an operator of a disabled state of printing and residual amounts of such consumables, another adapted to control printing based on residual amounts of such consumables, or a like.
One example of such technologies is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 4-182180 in which, in a thermal transfer label printer to thermally transfer ink on an ink ribbon to printing paper by driving a thermal head based on contents to be printed, the printing paper and ink ribbon are transported by a transporting amount preset in accordance with a length of a label and with intervals between labels every time labels are issued and whether the issuance of a specified number of labels instructed to be issued is possible or not is judged based on a residual length of the ink ribbon and on transported amounts of the ink ribbon, and if the issuance is impossible, an instruction for prohibiting a start of the issuance of the label is provided or a state that the label cannot be issued is informed to an operator (this being referred in this application to as “first conventional technology”).
Another example of conventional technologies is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 10-58667 which deals with technology of an ink-jet printer to be used for a printed circuit board (PCB) (this being referred in this application to as “second conventional technology”).
In the disclosed ink-jet printer, after printing data to be supplied from an outside has been stored for a time in a hard disk, the printing data is then converted to raster data and is stored in a frame memory. When an ink tank of a print head is replaced with a new one, an operator inputs an amount of ink existing at a time when the ink tank is replaced with the new one, and the input amount of ink is dealt as a present residual amount of ink V
c
and if the ink tank is not replaced with the new one, a residual amount of ink RV is read from the hard disk and the read amount of the ink is dealt as the present residual amount of ink V
c
. Then, prior to actual printing operations based on one frame of the raster data, a total amount of ink C
P
predicted to be consumed to do printing on all PCBs is obtained by multiplying number of coloring picture elements (dots) contained in one frame of the raster data read from the frame memory by an ink amount contained in one drop of the ink jetted and by number of the PCBs on which the printing is to be done and, at a same time, a total amount of ink C
c
predicted to be consumed by cleaning related to the printing of all of the PCBs is obtained by multiplying number of times of the cleaning on a printing face of a print head by an amount of ink predicted to be consumed at every time of the cleaning and by the number of the PCBs on which the printing is to be done. Then, a difference &Dgr;V
c
(=V
c
−(C
p
|C
c
)) between the present residual amount of ink V
c
and total amount of ink (C
p
+C
c
) predicted to be consumed at time of present printing is obtained and, if the difference &Dgr;V
c
is positive, a message “Printing is enabled.” is displayed and so long as an instruction for printing is not cancelled, the printing continues to be done and, after the printing is terminated, the above difference &Dgr;V
c
is written in the hard disk as the residual amount of ink RV to be used at a time of next printing and the ink-jet printer is then placed in a wait state for next printing. If the difference &Dgr;V
c
is negative, a message “Printing is disabled.” is displayed and, when a number of pieces of paper on which the printing is done is changed, after a total amount of ink consumed (C
p
+C
c
) is newly calculated, all processing subsequent to the processing of calculating the above difference &Dgr;V
c
is repeated and if number of printing objects remains unchanged, the printer is placed in the wait state for next printing.
Another example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 11-157174 dealing with a printing device in which, when a stop of printing operations for execution of a printing job supplied from an outside is predicted, a result of the prediction is displayed and if an operator refers to a displayed prediction result and judges that a factor causing the stop of the printing operations cannot be removed immediately before the execution of the above printing job, the operator provides an instruction to the printer device that a printing job not having the Factor causing the stop of the printing operations, selected out of subsequent printing jobs, that is, a new printing job having a small number of pages to be printed, should be executed preferentially (this being referred to as “third conventional technology”).
Furthermore, another example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 11-198474 dealing with a facsimile in which a number of pages of images actually printed during a period from a time immediately before toner runs out (a time in a “toner near end state”) to a time when the toner has run out completely (a time in a “toner end state”) is informed to an operator (this being referred to as “fourth conventional technology”).
In the first conventional technology, since it is a prerequisite that a length of the label remains unchanged and that contents to be printed can be printed on a surface of the label and since the ink ribbon is consumed by the same length as that of the label irrespective of contents to be printed, it is possible to easily judge whether a specified number of labels can be printed or not based on a residual length of the ink ribbon and on a transported amount of the ink ribbon.
However, the first conventional technology cannot be applied to a printing device for printing, in a monochromatic or color format, printing objects containing a document, image or a like each having a variety of contents, on printing media of various sizes, because residual amounts of consumables including printing agents, printing media or a like cannot be calculated by such a simple calculation method as employed in the first conventional technology and therefore the first conventional technology has a problem in that it cannot provi
Barlow John
Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky L.L.P.
Do An H.
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