US-20260126746-A1 - IMAGE FORMING DEVICE, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING IMAGE FORMING DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

Abstract

A method for controlling an image forming device including a recording material storage unit with a storage unit includes acquiring, from the storage unit, the number of devices in which the recording material storage unit has been installed and providing a predetermined notification based on the acquired number of devices.

Inventors

• Hiroshi Oya

Assignees

• CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20251028

Priority Date

20241101

Claims (8)

1. 1 . An image forming device comprising: a recording material storage unit that includes a storage unit; at least one memory that stores a program; and at least one processor that causes, by executing the program, the image forming apparatus to: acquire, from the storage unit, a number of devices in which the recording material storage unit has been installed; and provide a predetermined notification based on the acquired number of devices.
2. 2 . The image forming device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined notification is provided if the acquired number of devices is greater than a predetermined value, and wherein the predetermined notification is not provided if the acquired number of devices is less than or equal to the predetermined value.
3. 3 . The image forming device according to claim 1 , wherein if the recording material storage unit was previously installed in the image forming device, the number of devices stored in the storage unit is not increased, and wherein if the recording material storage unit is newly installed in the image forming device, the number of devices stored in the storage unit is increased.
4. 4 . The image forming device according to claim 1 , wherein, based on the acquired number of devices, predetermined information is sent to an external device.
5. 5 . The image forming device according to claim 1 , wherein the storage unit stores information indicating a remaining amount of recording material contained in the recording material storage unit.
6. 6 . The image forming device according to claim 1 , wherein the storage unit stores a number of sheets having had an image formed on the sheet using a recording material contained in the recording material storage unit.
7. 7 . A method for controlling an image forming device including a recording material storage unit that includes a storage unit, the method comprising: acquiring, from the storage unit, a number of devices in which the recording material storage unit has been installed; and providing a predetermined notification based on the acquired number of devices.
8. 8 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more control programs that cause an image forming device including a recording material storage unit that includes a storage unit to execute a method, the method comprising: acquiring, from the storage unit, a number of devices in which the recording material storage unit has been installed; and providing a predetermined notification based on the acquired number of devices.

Description

BACKGROUND Field of the Technology The present disclosure relates to an image forming device, a method for controlling an image forming device, and a storage medium. Description of the Related Art Existing image forming devices include a replaceable recording material storage unit, such as a toner cartridge. The recording material storage unit deteriorates over time or becomes unusable when the recording material contained in the recording material storage unit is completely consumed. To detect the end of service life of a recording material storage unit, some image forming devices have a function to acquire, for example, the remaining amount information of a consumable (for example, a toner cartridge) of the image forming device from the consumable and display the acquired information. In addition, some image forming devices estimate the remaining amount of consumable material contained in the recording material storage unit for each of the numbers of days of use and estimate the number of remaining usable days (hereinafter referred to as “remaining days”) and display the information. However, even when the same data is printed, different properties of recording materials may result in different consumption amounts of the recording material. If a plurality of recording material storage units from different manufacturers are installed and used, obtained training data may not be correct and, therefore, the accuracy of estimation of the remaining days may be reduced. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2020-071396 describes a method for updating the training data only when a specific manufacturer's recording material storage unit is installed. If a particular manufacturer's recording material storage unit is shared by a plurality of image forming devices and is used in a shared manner, sufficient training data may not be acquired, and the accuracy of estimation of the remaining days of the recording material storage unit may deteriorate. As a result, users cannot correctly obtain the remaining days. SUMMARY According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an image forming device includes a recording material storage unit that includes a storage unit, at least one memory that stores a program, and at least one processor that causes, by executing the program, the image forming device to acquire, from the storage unit, a number of devices in which the recording material storage unit has been installed and provide a predetermined notification based on the acquired number of devices. Features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. The following description of embodiments is described by way of example. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates the overall configuration of a system according to the present disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a cross-sectional view of an image forming device according to the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the hardware configuration of the image forming device according to the present disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the hardware configuration of a device management server according to the present disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of cartridge management information stored in a cartridge memory according to a first embodiment. FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a cartridge error determination process performed by the image forming device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a notification screen according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7B illustrates an example of the notification screen according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7C illustrates an example of the notification screen according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8A illustrates an example of information to be notified to the device management server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8B illustrates an example of information to be notified to the device management server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8C illustrates an example of information to be notified to the device management server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 9 illustrates an example of cartridge management information stored in a cartridge memory according to a second embodiment. FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a cartridge error determination process performed by the image forming device according to the second embodiment. FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a screen that notifies a user that an installed device count exceeded error occurs, according to the second embodiment. FIG. 12 illustrates an example of information to be notified to a device management server according to the second embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description of example embodiments is in no way intended to limit the present disclosure according to the appended claims. All of the featur