JP-2026075919-A - Image forming apparatus

Abstract

[Problem] To prevent the media from wrapping around the fixing member when printing images such as posters in sections. [Solution] The image forming apparatus 100 comprises an image forming unit 50 that forms a toner image on a medium, a fixing unit 70 that fixes the toner image to the medium, a transport unit that transports the medium, and a control unit 101. When the image forming unit 50 divides the overall image 6 into a plurality of media S1 to Sn for printing, the control unit 101 adds margins S1 to Sn to each of the plurality of media M1 to Mn, and the transport unit causes the plurality of media M1 to Mn to pass through the fixing unit 70 with their respective margins S1 to Sn at the front. [Selection Diagram] Figure 6

Inventors

• 沢口 謙治
• 桜井 基治
• 舟山 和宏

Assignees

• 沖電気工業株式会社

Dates

Publication Date

20260511

Application Date

20241023

Claims (7)

1. An image forming unit that forms a developer image on a medium, A fixing unit for fixing the developer image onto the medium, A transport unit for transporting the aforementioned medium, It comprises a control unit and The image forming apparatus is characterized in that, when the image forming unit divides an image into multiple media for printing, the control unit adds a margin to one end of each medium, and the transport unit causes the multiple media to pass through the fixing unit with the margin leading each.
2. The control unit, Of the aforementioned multiple media, the media on which the margin is provided along the longer side is transported by the transport unit in a horizontal manner. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that, among the plurality of media, the media on which the margin is provided on the short side is conveyed vertically by the conveying unit.
3. A first media supply unit that supplies media that are transported by horizontal feed, It has a second media supply unit that supplies media that is transported vertically, The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the control unit switches between the first medium supply unit and the second medium supply unit according to the position where the margin is to be provided.
4. The control unit, A first margin is provided at the corner of at least one of the aforementioned multiple media, A second margin is provided at the end adjacent to the aforementioned corner, the margin having a length in the media transport direction that is longer than the first margin. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a cut line is formed between the first margin and the second margin.
5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that the segmented image formed on at least one of the plurality of media includes an image portion that touches the first margin and the second margin on two sides.
6. The control unit prints the four divided images, which are obtained by dividing the original image into two rows and two columns, onto four media using the image forming unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that the first margin and the second margin are formed on two of the four media.
7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the first margin is provided at a position corresponding to the central region of the image before division.

Description

This disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus capable of printing images such as posters using electrophotography. A technique is known for printing borderless posters and the like using an image forming apparatus employing electrophotography, where the image is divided and printed across multiple pages. During printing, margins for pasting are added to predetermined locations on the pages, and marks indicating the cutting positions are printed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-51628 (see abstract) This is a block diagram showing the control system of the image forming system according to the embodiment.This figure shows the basic configuration of the image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 1.This is a flowchart showing the computer processing in the embodiment.Figure (A) shows the overall image of the poster of the embodiment, and Figure (B) shows the divided images.This is a flowchart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment.Figures (A) to (D) show the first to fourth segmented images of the embodiment.Figures (A) and (B) show the first and second segmented images of the embodiment.Figures (A) and (B) show the third and fourth segmented images of the embodiment.This figure shows the first to fourth printed materials, each printed on a medium, with the first to fourth divided images of the embodiment printed on each medium.This diagram shows the method for combining the first to fourth printed materials according to Embodiment 1.This diagram shows a poster combining the first to fourth printed materials of Embodiment 1.This is a schematic diagram illustrating the fixing operation in the fixing unit of Embodiment 1. <Image Forming System> Figure 1 is a functional block diagram showing the image forming system 10 of this embodiment. The image forming system 10 includes an image forming apparatus 100 and a computer 200 as an information processing device. The image forming apparatus 100 and the computer 200 are connected to each other via a network for communication. The image forming apparatus 100 comprises a control unit 101, a storage unit 110, a communication unit 111, a display unit 112, an operation unit 113, and a printer engine 114. The control unit 101 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). Based on the control program stored in the memory unit 110, the control unit 101 executes printing operations based on the print data received from the computer 200. The control unit 101 includes a margin-adding function 102, an image rotation function 103, a cut-line adding function 104, and a media orientation determination function 105. These functions will be described later. The memory unit 110 is a storage device such as a semiconductor memory or hard disk, and stores control programs and various information necessary for printing operations. The communication unit 111 is an interface for communication with the computer 200. The image forming apparatus 100 receives print jobs from the computer 200 via the communication unit 111. The display unit 112 is a part that displays information indicating the status of the image forming apparatus 100, and is composed of, for example, an LED, an LCD (liquid crystal display), etc. The operation unit 113 is a part that receives user input, and is composed of, for example, a switch. The printer engine 114 is a mechanism that performs the printing operation to form an image on the medium, and includes the image forming unit 50, the fixing unit 70, and the medium supply unit 80 (Figure 2), which will be described later. The computer 200 (host computer) comprises a control unit 201, a communication unit 202, a display unit 203, an operation unit 204, and a storage unit 205. The control unit 201 includes, for example, a CPU. The communication unit 202 is an interface for communication with the image forming apparatus 100. The computer 200 transmits print jobs to the image forming apparatus 100 via the communication unit 202. The display unit 203 is the part that displays information necessary for user input, and is composed of, for example, an LCD. The operation unit 204 is the part that receives user input, and is composed of, for example, a keyboard, mouse, etc. The storage unit 205 is a storage device such as a semiconductor memory or a hard disk. For example, the application 206, the printer driver 207, and the operating system are stored in the storage unit 205. The control unit 201 calls and executes the application 206 and printer driver 207 stored in the memory unit 205. The printer driver 207 has an image splitting function 208, which will be described later. Figure 2 shows the basic configuration of the image forming apparatus 100. The image forming apparatus 100 is configured, for example, as an electrophotographic printer that forms color images using electrophotography. The image forming apparatus 100 comprises a media supply unit 80, an image formin