Image forming apparatus capable of counting consumable consumption amount, and control method and control program therefor

• US 7,505,700 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2006
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kitora, Masakazu
• Primary Examiner(s): NGO, HOANG X
• Application Number:
  US11/458,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20060291880A1
• Time in Patent Office: 971 Days
• Field of Search: 399/24, 399/27, 399/43, 399/45, 399/49, 399/60, 399/72
• US Class Current: 399/27
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/0849 Detection or control means for the developer concentration
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5041 Detecting a toner image, e.g. density, toner coverage, using a test patch G03G15/553 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/556 for toner consumption, e.g. pixel counting, toner coverage detection or toner density measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/0888 Arrangements for detecting toner level or concentration in the developing device

Abstract

An image forming apparatus which is capable of accurately performing a video count process based on image data and thus maintaining the quality of images even where DMA transfer processing is used. An image forming device performs a process using a consumable material. A first controller controls the image forming device. A transfer controller provides control to transfer externally input image data to the first controller. A second controller performs a count process for counting an amount of the consumable material to be consumed based on the image data transferred by the transfer controller. The second controller disables the count process without stopping the transfer by the transfer controller when the process performed by the image forming device is interrupted.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming device that performs an image forming process using a consumable material;

a transfer device that transfers image data to said image forming device; and

a disable device operable when the image forming process by said image forming device is interrupted during execution of a count process for counting an amount of the consumable material to be consumed based on the image data transferred by said transfer device, to disable the count process without stopping a transfer process of the image data by said transfer device.

2. A control method for an image forming apparatus comprising an image forming device that performs a process using a consumable material, and a controller that controls the image forming device, the control method comprising:

a transfer control step of transferring image data to the controller; and

a control step of performing a count process for counting an amount of the consumable material to be consumed based on the image data transferred in said transfer control step,

wherein in said control step, the count process is disabled without stopping a transfer process for transferring data to the controller when the process performed by the image forming device is interrupted.

3. A control method as claimed in claim 2, wherein in said control step, predetermined fixed value data is set as data to be transferred to the controller, in place of the image data to inhibit the count process based on the image data from being performed.

4. A control method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the fixed value data comprises data corresponding to white.

5. A control method as claimed in claim 2, wherein in said control step, amounts of the consumable material to be consumed corresponding respectively to a plurality of color image data based on the image data are separately counted, the control method further comprising:

a storage step of storing the separately counted amounts of the consumable material to be consumed corresponding respectively to the plurality of color image data in a storage device; and

a notification step of notifying the controller of the amounts of the consumable material to be consumed stored in the storage device when the process performed by the image forming device is interrupted.

6. A control method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a halftone processing step of performing different halftone processes depending on a type of the image data, and wherein in said control step, the amount of the consumable material to be consumed is counted based on a selected one of the halftone processes and the image data.

7. A control method as claimed in claim 6, wherein in said control step, the halftone processes are switched based on characteristics information that changes with each pixel of the image data transferred in said transfer control step.

8. A control method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a notification step of notifying the controller of results of the count process performed in said control step, and wherein the controller performs a consumable material replenishment process based on the notification in said notification step.

9. A control method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising an image processing step of performing image processing on the image data, and wherein in said control step, the amount of the consumable material to be consumed is counted based on the image data before being subjected to the image processing in said image processing step.

10. A control method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said image processing step comprises an adjustment step of correcting image data based on environment, and in said control step the amount of the consumable material to be consumed is counted based on the image data before being subjected to the correction in said adjustment step.

11. A control method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controller controls a printer engine, and said control step is performed by an information processing apparatus that supplies image data to the printer engine.

12. A control method as claimed in claim 2, wherein in said transfer control step, the image data is transferred by DMA (Direct Memory Access) transfer.

13. A control method for an image forming apparatus including an image forming device that performs an image forming process using a consumable material, the control method comprising:

a transfer step of transferring image data to the image forming device; and

a disable step of disabling, when the image forming process by the image forming device is interrupted during execution of a count process for counting an amount of the consumable material to be consumed based on the image data transferred in said transfer step, the count process without stopping a transfer process to the image forming device.

14. A data storage device storing a computer control program executed by a second controller of an image forming system having the second controller, an image forming device that performs a process using a consumable material, and a first controller that controls the image forming device, wherein the second controller transfers image data to the first controller and performs a count process for counting an amount of the consumable material to be consumed based on the image data, the computer control program comprising:

a module for disabling the count process without stopping a transfer process for transferring data to the first controller when the process performed by the image forming device is interrupted.

15. A data storage device storing a computer control program executed by a supply controller of an image forming apparatus, wherein the image forming apparatus has an image forming device that performs an image forming process on image data using a consumable material, and the supply controller that supplies image data on which the image forming process is to be performed by the image forming device, the computer control program comprising:

a transfer module for transferring image data to the image forming device; and

a disable module for disabling, when the image forming process by the image forming device is interrupted during execution of a count process for counting an amount of the consumable material to be consumed based on the image data transferred by said transfer module, the count process without stopping a transfer process to the image forming device.