Image Forming Apparatus Failure State Snapshot
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image forming apparatuses struggle to accurately identify the cause of image failures due to changes in state information over time, making it difficult for operators to diagnose and resolve issues efficiently.
Innovation Solution
The image forming apparatus restricts the output of state information under predetermined conditions when an image failure occurs, ensuring that only relevant data is used for failure analysis, thereby excluding information changed after the failure event.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If state information is continuously updated and stored for failure analysis, then the availability of diagnostic data is improved, but the accuracy of failure cause identification deteriorates due to information changes after failure occurrence
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by capturing and storing state information at the exact moment failure information is detected, before any subsequent operations can alter the system state. This ensures the diagnostic data reflects the actual failure condition rather than a changed state.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and isolates the state information snapshot taken at failure occurrence from the continuously changing system state. This extracted snapshot is preserved separately for diagnostic purposes, preventing contamination from subsequent state changes while maintaining data availability.
2Ease of operation
If the system allows users to change settings to resolve failures, then ease of operation is improved, but the accuracy of failure analysis deteriorates because state information changes before service center analysis
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a copy of the state information at the moment of failure detection and transmits this copy to the service center. This copy preserves the original failure state for accurate analysis while allowing users to freely modify system settings to attempt resolution without affecting the diagnostic data.
3Reliability
If automatic image stabilization processing is executed, then image quality is improved, but failure diagnosis accuracy deteriorates because state information changes from the time of failure occurrence
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by capturing state information before automatic image stabilization processing alters the system state. This ensures that the diagnostic data reflects the actual failure condition rather than the stabilized state, maintaining both image quality improvement and diagnostic accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus that executes a job and outputs an image includes a hardware processor that: receives input of failure information indicating that a failure has occurred due to execution of the job; acquires state information inside the image forming apparatus when receiving the input of the failure information;outputs the state information for failure analysis; determines whether or not a predetermined event has occurred during a period from the execution of a most recent job to the input of the failure information when the input of the failure information is received; and restricts output of the state information at the time of the output for failure analysis when the predetermined event has occurred.