Method for automatically controlling the sequence of processing orders for processing material containers

• US 8,634,731 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2010
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oce Printing Systems GmbH (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Oce Printing Systems GmbH (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Has, Michael, Weiner, Helmut
• Primary Examiner(s): HA, NGUYEN Q
• Application Number:
  US13/148,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20110311287A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,442 Days
• Field of Search: 399/24, 399/43
• US Class Current: 399/43
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1262 by grouping or ganging jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

In a method or system for automatic controlling of jobs to be processed, the jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, the jobs to be processed are collected into multiple groups or clusters. The groups or clusters are automatically sorted according to rules. The input material bundles are fed to a processing device at a central station, at least one post-processing apparatus being connected to and down stream from the processing device.

Claims

1. A method for automatic controlling of jobs to be processed, said jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, comprising the steps of:

collecting the jobs to be processed into multiple groups or clusters;

automatically sorting the groups or clusters according to rules;

feeding the input material bundles to a processing device at a central station, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses being connected to and downstream from said processing device;

the material bundles being of predetermined bundle processing length, the jobs being processed being distributed to multiple material bundles, and before and during the processing the material bundles being supplied by means of the input bundles to the processing device, individual processing jobs segments of different length being processed, and the processed segments of the material bundle being collected into the output bundles;

before the processing the jobs to be processed being collected into said multiple groups so that a total length of the segments of the jobs to be processed of each group designated as a group length lies in a range between a desired length and the bundle processing length for multiple groups, the desired length being smaller by a predetermined threshold than the bundle processing length, and, given a group for which no group length can be determined in a range between the desired length and the bundle processing length, an additional job to be processed being subdivided into a first and a second partial processing job such that the segment of the first partial job to be processed corresponds to a difference from the processing bundle length and the group length and is added to the group as a last job to be processed, and the second partial job to be processed being added to an additional group as a first job to be processed that is executed following the group with the first partial job to be processed; and

the jobs to be processed of each group being executed in succession, and given group lengths whose length amounts to at least the desired length, the input bundle with which the material bundle has been supplied to process these jobs to be processed and the output bundle in which the processed material bundle is collected being exchanged simultaneously.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein multiple associations of jobs to be processed are determined for a group, and a remainder of the bundle processing length minus the group length is calculated for each association, wherein the association is associated with a smallest remainder of the group when the group length is between the desired length and the bundle processing length.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the multiple associations are determined in that, after the determination of an association of document jobs to be processed, a last gapless sequence of the document jobs to be processed of the association is canceled and a new association is determined provided that additional suitable document jobs to be processed are present.

4. A method for automatic controlling of jobs to be processed, said jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, comprising the steps of:

collecting the jobs to be processed into multiple groups or clusters;

automatically sorting the groups or clusters according to rules;

feeding the input material bundles to a processing device at a central station, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses being connected to and downstream from said processing device; and

before the formation of groups the jobs to be processed being sorted automatically into predetermined classes using relevant properties, the groups being respectively formed within the respective classes, and each of the jobs to be processed being subjected to the following steps for sorting into classes

extracting properties relevant to sorting into classes comprising at least one of the properties format, substrate or paper type, color space for use, features of post-processing process and/or economic features, and shelf lives of unprinted recording material or printed products, and

associating the document jobs to be processed with respective classes corresponding to the extracted properties.

5. A method for automatic controlling of jobs to be processed, said jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, comprising the steps of:

collecting the jobs to be processed into multiple groups or clusters;

automatically sorting the groups or clusters according to rules;

feeding the input material bundles to a processing device at a central station, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses being connected to and downstream from said processing device; and

before the formation of the groups the jobs to be processed being automatically collected into clusters using the same or at least similar properties of the jobs to be processed, and the groups being respectively formed within the respective clusters, wherein relevant properties are format, substrate or paper type, color space to be used, features of post-processing process and/or economic features, and shelf lives of unprinted recording material or printed products.

6. A method for automatic controlling of jobs to be processed, said jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, comprising the steps of:

collecting the jobs to be processed into multiple groups or clusters;

automatically sorting the groups or clusters according to rules;

feeding the input material bundles to a processing device at a central station, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses being connected to and downstream from said processing device;

the following steps being executed to collect the material bundles into groups

sort the jobs to be processed according to their size,

select largest available jobs to be processed and associate these jobs to be processed with a group,

add the largest available job to be processed that still fits on a material web to the group,

repeat the preceding step until no additional job to be processed that can be associated with the group is available, wherein a group length is not greater than a web length, and

check whether the group length is greater than or equal to a desired length and, if this is the case, an additional group of jobs to be processed is generated according to the first four steps in the event that jobs to be processed are still present that are not associated with any group; and

in the event that the group length is smaller than the desired length, one or more jobs to be processed are removed from the group and replaced by multiple jobs to be processed that are all smaller than the longest removed job to be processed wherein upon removal of a job to be processed from the group, the following steps are executed when the group length is smaller than the desired length

remove the last two associated jobs to be processed,

add a next smallest job to be processed relative to a largest of the two removed jobs to be processed,

check whether free jobs to be processed can still be added to the group so that they still fit on a material bundle, wherein if this is possible a next largest free job to be processed is added, and if this is not possible then the first four steps are repeated, and

subdividing a job to be processed if it is established in the first step that no smaller jobs to be processed are present.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein different sets of groups are generated by means of a Monte Carlo method, and for each set of groups a cost measurement is calculated and the set with the lowest cost measurement is selected.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein different sets of groups are generated by means of systematic exchange of the order, and for each set of groups a cost measurement is calculated, and the set with the lowest cost measurement is selected.

9. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable medium having a computer program embodied thereon for automatic controlling of jobs to be processed, said jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, said program performing the steps of:

collecting the jobs to be processed into multiple groups or clusters;

automatically sorting the groups or clusters according to rules;

feeding the input material bundles to a processing device at a central station, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses being connected to and down stream from said processing device;

the material bundles being of predetermined bundle processing length, the jobs being processed being distributed to multiple material bundles, and before and during the processing the material bundles being supplied by means of the input bundles to the processing device, individual processing jobs segments of different length being processed, and the processed segments of the material bundle being collected into the output bundles;

before the job processing the jobs to be processed being collected into said multiple groups so that a total length of the segments of the jobs to be processed of each group designated as a group length lies in a range between a desired length and the bundle processing length for multiple groups, the desired length being smaller by a predetermined threshold than the bundle processing length, and, given a group for which no group length can be determined in a range between the desired length and the bundle processing length, an additional job to be processed being subdivided into a first and a second partial processing job such that the segment of the first partial job to be processed corresponds to a difference from the processing bundle length and the group length and is added to the group as a last job to be processed, and the second partial job to be processed being added to an additional group as a first job to be processed that is executed following the group with the first partial job to be processed; and

the jobs to be processed of each group being executed in succession, and given group lengths whose length amounts to at least the desired length, the input bundle with which the material bundle has been supplied to process these jobs to be processed and the output bundle in which the processed material bundle is collected are exchanged simultaneously.

10. A printing system, comprising:

a printing apparatus;

a print server connected with the printing apparatus;

said print server automatically controlling jobs to be processed, said jobs to be associated with input and output material bundles, said print server

collecting the jobs to be processed into multiple groups or clusters,

automatically sorting the groups or clusters according to rules, and

feeding the input material bundles to a processing device at a central station, a plurality of post-processing apparatuses being connected to and downstream from said processing device;

the material bundles being of predetermined bundle processing length, the jobs being processed are distributed to multiple material bundles, and before and during the processing the material bundles being supplied by means of the input bundles to the processing device, individual processing jobs segments of different length being processed, and the processed segments of the material bundle being collected into the output bundles;

the jobs to be processed being collected into said multiple groups so that a total length of the segments of the jobs to be processed of each group designated as a group length lies in a range between a desired length and the bundle processing length for multiple groups, the desired length being smaller by a predetermined threshold than the bundle processing length, and, given a group for which no group length can be determined in a range between the desired length and the bundle processing length, an additional job to be processed being subdivided into a first and a second partial processing job such that the segment of the first partial job to be processed corresponds to a difference from the processing bundle length and the group length and being added to the group as a last job to be processed, and the second partial job to be processed being added to an additional group as a first job to be processed that is executed following the group with the first partial job to be processed; and

the jobs to be processed of each group being executed in succession, and given group lengths whose length amounts to at least the desired length, the input bundle with which the material bundle has been supplied to process these jobs to be processed and the output bundle in which the processed material bundle is collected being exchanged simultaneously.