Fixing temperature control method, printer, and storage medium

Abstract

The present invention relates to a fixing temperature control method for increasing an actual fixing target temperature during printing work relative to an initial fixing target temperature at the earlier stage of printing work when an ambient temperature is lower than a set low temperature threshold value. According to the photographic fixing temperature control method, in a low-temperature environment, compared with the initial photographic fixing target temperature, the actual photographic fixing target temperature is increased, so that the photographic fixing temperature can be increased more quickly, and the actual photographic fixing temperature can reach the optimal initial photographic fixing target temperature quickly and more closely; the situation that powder falls off due to the fact that the fixing temperature is too low in the fixing process of the printer in the low-temperature environment can be effectively reduced. The invention also relates to a printer applying the fixing temperature control method, and the printer improves the printing quality and efficiency in a low-temperature environment. The invention also relates to a storage medium in which computer instructions that can be executed to implement the aforementioned fixing temperature control method are stored.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of printers, and in particular to a fixing temperature control method, a printer, and a storage medium. Background Art

[0002] The imaging device is the core component of the printer. The imaging device in the laser printer mainly includes the toner bin, photosensitive drum, charging roller, developing roller, fixing roller and pressure roller. When the laser printer is printing, the charging roller charges the surface of the photosensitive drum evenly, so that the surface of the photosensitive drum obtains a certain potential. After that, the photosensitive drum is exposed to the laser beam carrying the image information, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum. After the developing roller develops, the latent image is transformed into a visible toner image. When passing through the transfer area, under the action of the electric field of the transfer electrode, the toner is transferred to ordinary paper. Finally, the heated fixing roller melts the toner and cooperates with the pressure of the pressure roller to fuse the text and image on the paper, thus realizing the fixing of the text and image on the paper.

[0003] When using the fixing roller to perform the fixing work, the fixing temperature is an important factor affecting the quality of the printed image. The fixing temperature directly affects the adhesion of the toner to the printing medium. Especially in a severe cold environment, the printer fixing will cause the common problem of toner falling due to the low temperature. This not only seriously affects the printing quality and efficiency, but also increases the cost and difficulty of equipment maintenance. Summary of the invention

[0004] The first technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a fixing temperature control method for the above-mentioned prior art, which can effectively realize fixing heating in a low temperature environment, thereby reducing the powder falling problem caused by the low fixing temperature.

[0005] The second technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a printer that can improve the quality and efficiency of the printer and reduce the cost and difficulty of equipment maintenance in view of the above-mentioned prior art.

[0006] The third technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing computer instructions that can be executed to implement the above-mentioned fixing temperature control method in view of the above-mentioned prior art.

[0007] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve the above-mentioned first technical problem is: a fixing temperature control method, when the ambient temperature is lower than the set low temperature threshold, in the early stage of printing work, the actual fixing target temperature during printing work is increased relative to the initial fixing target temperature.

[0008] As an improvement, the following steps are included:

[0009] S1. Get the print task command;

[0010] S2, detecting the real-time temperature T1 of the fixing roller and using it to characterize the ambient temperature;

[0011] S3, comparing T1 with the low temperature threshold B;

[0012] If T1<B, the printing work is performed according to the low temperature printing work mode in S4;

[0013] S4, performing printing work based on the low temperature printing working mode;

[0014] The actual fixing target temperature is adjusted to A+X, wherein A is the initial fixing target temperature, X is the preset increased temperature value, and X>0; and then the printing operation is controlled.

[0015] In order to avoid the situation where the fixing temperature is too high in the later stage of printing when too many pages are printed, when performing S4, the number of printed pages N is counted at the same time, and N is compared with the set preset number of pages N0. If N<N0, the actual fixing target temperature is maintained at A+X. If N≥N0, the actual fixing target temperature is adjusted to A.

[0016] Preferably, when performing S3, if T1 ≥ B, the printing operation is performed according to the normal printing operation mode in S5;

[0017] S5. Perform printing based on the normal printing mode; adjust the actual fixing target temperature to A, and then perform printing.

[0018] Preferably, X satisfies: 5°C≤X≤20°C.

[0019] As an improvement, when performing S1, when the print task command is obtained, the interval time M between the current print task and the start of the previous print task is calculated, and M is compared with the time threshold M0; if M<M0, the printing work is performed according to the print work mode corresponding to the previous print task; if M≥M0, S2 is performed.

[0020] Preferably, M0 satisfies: 9 minutes ≤ M0 ≤ 15 minutes.

[0021] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve the above-mentioned second technical problem is: a printer includes a fixing roller, on which a temperature detection device for detecting the temperature of the fixing roller is provided, and also includes a processor and a memory, the processor is electrically connected to the memory and the temperature detection device, and the memory stores a computer program / instruction, and the computer program / instruction implements the aforementioned fixing temperature control method when executed by the processor.

[0022] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve the third technical problem is: a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program / instruction stored thereon, which implements the aforementioned fixing temperature control method when the computer program / instruction is executed by a processor.

[0023] Compared with the prior art, the advantages of the present invention are: the fixing temperature control method of the present invention, in a low-temperature environment, offsets the cooling effect of the low temperature of the environment on the fixing temperature by raising the actual fixing target temperature compared to the initial fixing target temperature. At the same time, based on the higher actual fixing target temperature, the fixing temperature can be raised more quickly, so that the actual fixing temperature can quickly and more closely reach the optimal initial fixing target temperature, which can effectively reduce the powder loss caused by too low fixing temperature during the fixing process of the printer in a low-temperature environment.

[0024] A printer using the fixing temperature control method can perform fixing work more stably, improve the printing quality and efficiency in a low-temperature environment, reduce the number of printer repair requests, and correspondingly reduce the maintenance cost and difficulty of the equipment. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Figure 1 FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a fixing temperature control method in an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0027] An initial fixing target temperature is usually set in the printer, and the fixing roller is heated based on the initial fixing target temperature so that the temperature of the fixing roller reaches the initial fixing target temperature for fixing work. When the temperature on the fixing roller is the initial fixing target temperature, the best fixing effect can be achieved.

[0028] In the fixing temperature control method of this embodiment, when the ambient temperature is lower than the set low temperature threshold, that is, when it is in a harsh low temperature environment, the temperature of the fixing roller is basically consistent with the ambient temperature and is in a low temperature state. In order to make the temperature of the fixing roller close to the set initial fixing target temperature when the fixing roller is performing the fixing step, it is necessary to provide a higher heat for the fixing roller compared to the normal temperature and high temperature environment, but the time from the start of the printing work to the fixing step is relatively fixed. Based on this, in this embodiment, in the early stage of the printing work, the actual fixing target temperature during the printing work is increased relative to the initial fixing target temperature. In this way, the heating speed of the fixing roller can be increased, so that the fixing roller can reach a fixing temperature close to the initial fixing target temperature more quickly, avoiding the problem of powder falling caused by too low a fixing temperature.

[0029] like Figure 1As shown, the fixing temperature control method in this embodiment specifically includes the following steps S1 to S5.

[0030] S1. After obtaining the print task command, the printer enters the print preparation state.

[0031] S2, detecting the real-time temperature T1 of the fixing roller and using it to characterize the ambient temperature. Since the fixing roller has not yet been heated, the fixing roller and the ambient temperature are basically consistent, so the ambient temperature is characterized by the real-time temperature T1 of the fixing roller, and then the ambient temperature is judged.

[0032] S3. Compare T1 with the low temperature threshold B.

[0033] If T1<B, it is determined that the current environment is a low temperature environment, and the printing operation is performed according to the low temperature printing operation mode in S4.

[0034] If T1≥B, it is determined that the current environment is a normal working environment such as a normal temperature environment and a high temperature environment which has little effect on the temperature of the fixing roller. The fixing roller can reach the initial fixing target temperature A during fixing based on heating, and the printing work is performed accordingly according to the normal printing working mode in S5.

[0035] S4. Printing is performed based on the low-temperature printing working mode. The specific working contents of the low-temperature printing working mode are as follows.

[0036] In a low temperature environment, the temperature of the fixing roller is low and the heating efficiency of the fixing roller will be lower than the heating efficiency in a normal temperature or high temperature environment. In order to make the temperature of the fixing roller during the fixing work as close as possible to the initial fixing target temperature, the actual fixing target temperature T0 is adjusted to A+X, wherein A is the initial fixing target temperature, X is the preset increased temperature value, and X>0.

[0037] The initial fixing target temperature A is the ideal solidification point that the toner must reach during the printing process, which directly affects the printer quality and the adhesion firmness of the toner on the printing medium. The initial fixing target temperature A is determined based on the specific selection of the toner, the structural characteristics of the fixing roller, and the working characteristics of the printer. The initial fixing target temperature A can be specifically determined through experiments during the product development stage, such as A in this embodiment is 177°C.

[0038] In addition, X satisfies: 5°C≤X≤20°C, and the value of X is set according to needs. In this embodiment, X is preferably 10°C.

[0039] After the actual fixing target temperature is determined, the printing work is then controlled. When printing, there are situations where the number of printed pages is large, and the corresponding printing time will also be long. Within a long printing time range, the temperature of the later fixing roller can reach the initial fixing target temperature A based on long-term heating. If A+X is still used as the actual fixing target temperature, the fixing temperature will be too high, which will also affect the printing quality.

[0040] Based on this, in order to avoid the situation where the fixing temperature is too high in the later stage of printing when too many pages are printed, when performing S5, the number of printed pages N is counted at the same time, and N is compared with the preset number of pages N0. If N<N0, the actual fixing target temperature is maintained at A+X. If N≥N0, the actual fixing target temperature is adjusted to A. When the printer is performing continuous printing, the components in the body will heat up or even reach high temperatures. In order to ensure the safety of the components in the body and their service life, after a certain number of sheets of paper are printed continuously, the printer will automatically activate the cooling paper function and reduce the printing speed to achieve the purpose of cooling. In this embodiment, the setting of N0 must be strictly maintained at a preset value higher than the automatic activation of the printer to enter the cooling paper function.

[0041] S5. Perform printing based on the normal printing working mode. The normal printing working mode specifically adjusts the actual fixing target temperature to A, that is, maintains the actual fixing target temperature consistent with the initial fixing target temperature.

[0042] In addition, if the interval between two printing tasks is short, it means that the ambient temperature remains basically unchanged. In order to improve printing efficiency, there is no need to perform the ambient temperature detection and confirmation steps. The printing and fixing temperature control that affects the ambient temperature of the previous printing task can be directly performed according to the ambient temperature of the previous printing task. That is, when performing S1, when the printing task command is obtained, the interval time M between the current printing task and the start of the previous printing task is calculated, and M is compared with the time threshold M0; if M<M0, then directly perform S4; if M≥M0, then perform S2. Among them, M0 satisfies: 9 minutes ≤ M0 ≤ 15 minutes, and the data of M0 is specifically selected according to needs. In this embodiment, M0 is 9 minutes. This M0 takes into account the maximum stacking capacity of the paper box and the actual printing speed of the printer, that is, under the most unfavorable conditions (such as a full paper box, low-speed printing), the longest time that the printer can work continuously, that is, the time taken by the printer to continuously print the paper in the paper box under the most unfavorable conditions.

[0043] The fixing temperature control method of the present invention, in a low-temperature environment, offsets the cooling effect of the low ambient temperature on the fixing temperature by raising the actual fixing target temperature compared to the initial fixing target temperature. At the same time, based on the higher actual fixing target temperature, the fixing temperature can be raised more quickly, so that the actual fixing temperature can reach the optimal initial fixing target temperature quickly and more closely, which can effectively reduce the powder loss caused by too low fixing temperature during the fixing process of the printer in a low-temperature environment.

[0044] The present invention also relates to a printer, comprising a fixing roller, a temperature detection device for detecting the temperature of the fixing roller is arranged on the fixing roller, and a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is electrically connected to the memory and the temperature detection device, and a computer program / instruction is stored on the memory, and the aforementioned fixing temperature control method is implemented when the computer program / instruction is executed by the processor. Before the fixing roller performs fixing work, the fixing roller is in a non-heating state, and at this time, the temperature on the fixing roller detected by the temperature detection device is substantially consistent with the ambient temperature, and can be used as temperature data representing the ambient temperature.

[0045] A printer using the fixing temperature control method can perform fixing work more stably, improve the printing quality and efficiency in a low-temperature environment, reduce the number of printer repair requests, and correspondingly reduce the maintenance cost and difficulty of the equipment.

[0046] The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve the third technical problem is: a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program / instruction stored thereon, which implements the aforementioned fixing temperature control method when the computer program / instruction is executed by a processor.

Claims

1. A fixing temperature control method, characterized in that: When the ambient temperature is lower than the set low temperature threshold, in the early stage of the printing job, the actual fixing target temperature during the printing job is increased relative to the initial fixing target temperature.

2. The fixing temperature control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: S1. Get the print task command; S2, detecting the real-time temperature T1 of the fixing roller and using it to characterize the ambient temperature; S3, comparing T1 with the low temperature threshold B; If T1<B, the printing work is performed according to the low temperature printing work mode in S4; S4, performing printing work based on the low temperature printing working mode; The actual fixing target temperature is adjusted to A+X, wherein A is the initial fixing target temperature, X is the preset increased temperature value, and X>0; and then the printing operation is controlled.

3. The fixing temperature control method according to claim 2, characterized in that: When performing S4, the number of printed pages N is counted at the same time, and N is compared with the preset number of pages N0. If N<N0, the actual fixing target temperature is maintained at A+X; if N≥N0, the actual fixing target temperature is adjusted to A.

4. The fixing temperature control method according to claim 2, characterized in that: When performing S3, if T1 ≥ B, the printing work is performed according to the normal printing work mode in S5; S5. Printing is performed based on the normal printing working mode; Adjust the actual fixing target temperature to A, and then perform the printing job.

5. The fixing temperature control method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that: X satisfies: 5℃≤X≤20℃.

6. The fixing temperature control method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that: When performing S1, when a print task command is obtained, the interval time M between the current print task and the start time of the previous print task is calculated, and M is compared with the time threshold M0; If M<M0, the printing task is performed according to the printing task mode corresponding to the previous printing task; If M≥M0, proceed to S2.

7. The fixing temperature control method according to claim 6, characterized in that: M0 satisfies: 9 minutes ≤ M0 ≤ 15 minutes.

8. A printer, comprising a fixing roller, wherein the fixing roller is provided with a temperature detection device for detecting the temperature of the fixing roller, wherein: It also includes a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is electrically connected to the memory and the temperature detection device, and the memory stores a computer program / instruction, which implements the fixing temperature control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 when executed by the processor.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program / instruction stored thereon, characterized in that: When the computer program / instruction is executed by a processor, the fixing temperature control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is implemented.

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