Consumable item supplying system for an image forming apparatus

• US 6,023,593 A
• Filed: 06/10/1998
• Issued: 02/08/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Tomidokoro, Nobuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): PENDEGRASS, JOAN H
• Application Number:
  US09/094,474
• Time in Patent Office: 608 Days
• Field of Search: 399/1, 399/8, 399/81, 399/24, 705/28
• US Class Current: 399/8
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5079 for maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/55 Self-diagnostics; Malfunction or lifetime display
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/553 Monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of insufficient copy sheet quantity for a job
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/00113 Plurality of apparatus configured in groups each with its own host

Abstract

A consumable item supplying system includes a plurality of image forming apparatuses each using a plurality of consumable items, for example, copysheets, toner, and so on. The consumable item supplying system includes a consumable item manual requesting operation for manually requesting a consumable item from each of the image forming apparatuses. A central controller orders a consumable item from a consumable item supplier or the like when the consumable item is requested from one of the image forming apparatuses, and a data communication device can receive data representing a consumable item request by polling each of the image forming apparatuses and sending the polling results from the image forming apparatus to the central controller.

Claims

1. A consumable item supplying system comprising:

a plurality of image forming apparatus, each image forming apparatus using at least one consumable item;

each image forming apparatus including consumable item manual inputting means for manually inputting consumable item information, including at least one of a type and an amount of consumable items to be ordered;

central control means for sending data to each of said plurality of image forming apparatus by a polling operation and for receiving data from each of said image forming apparatus corresponding to respective of said input consumable item information, and further for ordering said consumable items based on said input consumable item information; and

data communication means for communicating data representing said consumable item information from each of said plurality of image forming apparatus to said central control means.

2. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a memory means disposed in said image forming apparatus for storing said consumable item information input to said image forming apparatus.

3. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a delivery schedule informing means for informing a delivery schedule of said at least one consumable item to said image forming apparatus.

4. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a delivery status informing means for informing a delivery status of said at least one consumable item to said image forming apparatus.

5. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

a display means provided in said image forming apparatus for displaying said delivery schedule of said at least one consumable item.

6. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

a display means provided in said image forming apparatus for displaying said delivery status of said at least one consumable item.

7. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

a display means provided in said image forming apparatus for displaying a career of consumable item requests when requested by an operator.

8. A consumable item supplying system comprising:

a plurality of image forming apparatus, each image forming apparatus using at least one consumable item;

each image forming apparatus including a display input for manually inputting consumable item information, including at least one of a type and an amount of consumable items to be ordered;

a data communication apparatus which sends data to each of said plurality of image forming apparatus by a polling operation, which receives data from each of said image forming apparatus corresponding to respective of said input consumable item information, which receives data of said input consumable item information from each of said plurality of image forming apparatus, and which communicates said data of said input consumable item information to a central controller.

9. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said data communication apparatus includes a polling and selecting means each for receiving said data from said image forming apparatus and sending said data from said data communication apparatus to said central controller.

10. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said display displays messages of consumable item kinds and an amount thereof and generates data related to said consumable item kinds and amount when depressed.

11. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said display displays messages of a plurality of copying modes.

12. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

an input mode switch to change said message including consumable item input messages.

13. A consumable item supplying system comprising:

a plurality of image forming apparatus, each image forming apparatus using at least one consumable item;

each image forming apparatus including a display input for manually inputting consumable item information, including at least one of a type and an amount of consumable items to be ordered;

a central controller which sends data to each of said plurality of image forming apparatus by a polling operation, which receives data from each of said image forming apparatus corresponding to respective of said input consumable item information, which receives data of said input consumable item information from each of said plurality of image forming apparatus, and which orders supplying said at least one consumable item based on said received consumable item information.

14. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a data communication apparatus which polls said at least one image forming apparatus to obtain the input consumable item information and which communicates the consumable item information to the central controller.

15. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said display displays messages of consumable item kinds and an amount thereof and generates data related to said consumable item kinds and amount when depressed.

16. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 15, wherein said display displays messages of a plurality of copying modes.

17. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

an input mode switch to change said message including consumable item input messages.

18. A consumable item supplying method, comprising steps of:

manually inputting consumable item data, including at least one of a type and an amount of consumable items to be ordered, to an image forming apparatus of a plurality of image forming apparatus;

polling each of said plurality of image forming apparatus to obtain said manually input consumable item data;

communicating said consumable item data to a central control device; and

ordering a consumable item corresponding to said communicated consumable item data.

19. A consumable item supplying method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a step of:

storing said consumable item data, and displaying said consumable item data on a display of said image forming apparatus.

20. A consumable item supplying method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising steps of:

communicating data representing a delivery schedule and delivery status from said central control device to said image forming apparatus; and

displaying each of said delivery schedule and delivery status on said display of said image forming apparatus.

21. A consumable item supplying system comprising:

an image forming apparatus using at least one consumable item;

consumable item manual inputting means for manually inputting consumable item information to said image forming apparatus;

central control means for ordering said consumable items based on said input consumable item information;

data communication means for communicating data representing said consumable item information from said image forming apparatus to said central control means;

a memory means disposed in said image forming apparatus for storing said consumable item information input to said image forming apparatus; and

a display means provided in said image forming apparatus for displaying a career of consumable item requests when requested by an operator.

22. A consumable items supplying system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising:

a delivery schedule informing means for informing a delivery schedule of said at least one consumable item to said image forming apparatus.

23. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising:

a delivery status informing means for informing a delivery status of said at least one consumable item to said image forming apparatus.

24. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 22, further comprising:

a display means provided in said image forming apparatus for displaying said delivery schedule of said at least one consumable item.

25. A consumable item supplying system as claimed in claim 23, further comprising:

a display means provided in said image forming apparatus for displaying said delivery status of said at least one consumable item.