Untitled record

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having means for forming an image on both sides of a roll sheet.

Patent Document 1 discloses an image forming apparatus capable of matching the printing positions on the front surface and the back surface in double-sided printing on roll paper. In Cited Document 1, the position data of the paper is acquired by photographing the front end portion of the paper after the printing of the front surface is completed, the position to print the image of the back surface is determined from the acquired position data, and the printing positions of the front surface and the back surface are determined. Are matched. In this way, double-sided printing can be performed at the correct position on the paper.

<p num="0003"><patcit num="1"><text>Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-126530</text></patcit></p>

<p num="0004"> Patent Document 1 discloses that the printing positions of the front side and the back side of double-sided printing of a roll sheet are aligned. However, Cited Document 1 does not disclose the maintenance process of the recording head required when printing the back side. For example, it does not disclose the processing when pre-discharging is required at the tip of the continuous sheet before printing the image on the back surface or when the control number needs to be printed.</p><p num="0005"> The present invention has been made based on the recognition of the above problems, and when image formation is performed on both sides of a continuous sheet, it is possible to form an image other than the page image before forming a page image on the second surface. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus.</p>

<p num="0006"> In order to achieve the above object, the apparatus according to the present invention includes a transport unit that transports a roll sheet longer than a printing unit, a printing unit that performs printing while transporting by the transport unit, and a sheet printed by the printing unit. A cutter unit that cuts the sheets for each length of the printing unit, a drying unit that dries while transporting the sheets cut by the cutter unit, a sorting unit that sorts the sheets dried by the drying unit, and double-sided printing. It has a winding unit that winds up after the surface printing is completed, and an operation unit that allows the operator to check the printing status and perform equipment maintenance, and surface printing when double-sided printing of the roll sheet is performed. At the end, the area required at the tip of the back side printing (for example, the preliminary ejection area) is calculated, the required area is calculated, and the calculated margin area is provided after the final print image to end the front side printing.</p>

<p num="0007"> According to the present invention, when image formation is performed on both sides of a continuous sheet, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image other than the page image before forming a page image on the second surface.</p>

<figref num="1">It is the schematic of the cross section which shows the internal structure of a printing apparatus.</figref><figref num="2">It is a block diagram for demonstrating the structure of control in the image forming apparatus as one Embodiment of this invention.</figref><figref num="3">It is a figure for demonstrating operation in single-sided print mode.</figref><figref num="4">It is a figure for demonstrating operation in a double-sided print mode.</figref><figref num="5">It is a figure for demonstrating the operation at the time of printing on the 2nd side in the double-sided print mode.</figref><figref num="6">It is a figure which shows the print page order at the time of double-sided printing with a roll sheet as one Embodiment of this invention.</figref><figref num="7">It is a figure which shows the print state which performed the front surface printing in consideration of the process necessary for the back surface printing at the time of double-sided printing with the roll sheet as one Embodiment of this invention.</figref><figref num="8">It is a flowchart which shows the process which performs the front surface printing in consideration of the process necessary for the back surface printing when performing double-sided printing with the roll sheet as one Embodiment of this invention.</figref><figref num="9">A flowchart for creating a print management table is shown.</figref><figref num="10">A common flowchart for creating print management tables for the first and second sides.</figref><figref num="11">The figure which shows the information registered in the print management table.</figref>

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail exemplarily with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the relative arrangement of the components, the shape of the device, and the like described in this embodiment are merely examples, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to them.

In the present specification, the "image forming apparatus" is not limited to a dedicated machine specialized in an image forming function, but also a multifunction device that combines an image forming function and other functions, and a manufacturing apparatus that forms an image or a pattern on a recording paper. Etc. shall also be included.

Hereinafter, embodiments of a printing apparatus using an inkjet method as an image forming apparatus will be described. The printing apparatus of this example is a high-speed line printer that uses continuous sheets wound in a roll shape and supports both single-sided printing and double-sided printing. For example, it is suitable for the field of printing a large number of sheets in a print lab or the like. The present invention can be applied to printing devices such as printers, printer multifunction devices, copiers, and facsimile machines. Further, the present invention is not limited to printing devices, but industrial devices (manufacturing devices for various devices, inspection devices, etc.) used in factories, etc., where the user specifies the device operating time and requires a large amount of time for initialization at startup. It can be widely applied to various devices such as.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the internal configuration of the printing apparatus. In the printing apparatus of this embodiment, it is possible to print on both sides of the first side of the sheet and the second side of the back side of the first side by using the sheet wound in a roll shape. Inside the printing device, there are roughly 1 sheet supply section, 2 decal section, 3 skew correction section, 4 printing section, 5 inspection section, 6 cutter section, 7 information recording section, 8 drying section, and a reversing section (storage section). ) 9, Discharge transport unit 10, Sorter unit 11, Discharge unit 12, Humidification unit 20, Control unit 13 are provided. The sheet is transported by a transport mechanism consisting of a pair of rollers and a belt along the sheet transport path shown by the solid line in the figure, and is processed by each unit.

The sheet supply unit 1 is a unit for holding and supplying a continuous sheet wound in a roll shape. The sheet supply unit 1 can store two rolls R1 and R2, and has a configuration in which the sheet is selectively pulled out and supplied. The number of rolls that can be stored is not limited to two, and one or three or more rolls may be stored.

The decal unit 2 is a unit that reduces the curl (warp) of the sheet supplied from the sheet supply unit 1. In the decal portion 2, two pinch rollers are used for one drive roller, and the sheet is curved and passed so as to give the curl in the opposite direction, so that the decal force is applied to reduce the curl.

The skew correction unit 3 is a unit that corrects the skew (inclination with respect to the original traveling direction) of the sheet that has passed through the decal portion 2. By pressing the seat side end on the reference side against the guide member, the skew of the seat is corrected.

The print unit 4 is a unit that forms an image by performing a print process on the sheet by a print head 14 which is an image forming means from above on the sheet to be conveyed. That is, the print unit 4 is a processing unit that performs a predetermined process on the sheet. The print unit 4 also includes a plurality of transport rollers that are transport means for transporting the sheet. The print head 14 has a line-type print head in which an inkjet nozzle row is formed within a range that covers the maximum width of a sheet that is expected to be used. In the print head 14, a plurality of print heads are arranged in parallel along the transport direction. In this example, we have seven print heads that support seven colors: C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), LC (light cyan), LM (light magenta), G (gray), and K (black). .. The number of colors and the number of printheads are not limited to seven. As the inkjet method, a method using a heat generating element, a method using a piezo element, a method using an electrostatic element, a method using a MEMS element, or the like can be adopted. The ink of each color is supplied from the ink tank to the print head 14 via the ink tube.

The inspection unit 5 optically reads the inspection pattern or image printed on the sheet by the printing unit 4 with a scanner, inspects the nozzle state of the print head, the sheet transport state, the image position, etc., and prints the image correctly. It is a unit for judging whether or not it is. The scanner has a CCD image sensor and a CMOS image sensor.

The cutter portion 6, which is a cutting means, is a unit provided with a mechanical cutter that cuts a printed sheet to a predetermined length. The cutter portion 6 also includes a plurality of transport rollers for feeding the sheet to the next process.

The information recording unit 7 is a unit that records print information (unique information) such as a print serial number and date in a non-print area of a cut sheet. Recording is performed by printing characters and codes by an inkjet method, a thermal transfer method, or the like. A sensor 23 for detecting the tip edge of the cut sheet is provided on the upstream side of the information recording unit 7 and the downstream side of the cutter unit 6. That is, the sensor 23 detects the edge of the sheet between the cutter unit 6 and the recording position by the information recording unit 7, and the timing of information recording by the information recording unit 7 is controlled based on the detection timing of the sensor 23.

The drying unit 8 is a unit for heating the sheet printed by the printing unit 4 to dry the applied ink in a short time. Inside the drying portion 8, hot air is applied to the passing sheet from at least the lower surface side to dry the ink-applied surface. The drying method is not limited to the method of applying hot air, and may be a method of irradiating the sheet surface with electromagnetic waves (ultraviolet rays, infrared rays, etc.).

The above sheet transport path from the sheet supply section 1 to the drying section 8 is referred to as a first path. The first path has a U-turn shape between the printed portion 4 and the drying portion 8, and the cutter portion 6 is located in the middle of the U-turn shape.

The reversing unit 9 which is a double-sided transport means is a unit for temporarily winding up a continuous sheet for which front-side printing has been completed and inverting the front and back when performing double-sided printing. The reversing section 9 is a path (loop path) (referred to as a second path) from the drying section 8 to the printing section 4 via the decal section 2 for supplying the sheet that has passed through the drying section 8 to the printing section 4 again. It is provided on the way. The reversing portion 9 includes a rotating winding body (drum) for winding the sheet. The continuous sheet whose surface has been printed and has not been cut is temporarily wound by the winding body. When the winding is completed, the winding rotating body rotates in the reverse direction, and the wound sheet is supplied to the decal section 2 and sent to the printing section 4. Since this sheet is turned upside down, the printing unit 4 can print on the back side. A more specific operation of double-sided printing will be described later.

The discharge transport unit 10 is a unit for transporting a sheet cut by the cutter section 6 and dried by the drying section 8 and delivering the sheet to the sorter section 11. The discharge transport unit 10 is provided in a route (referred to as a third route) different from the second route in which the reversing unit 9 is provided. In order to selectively guide the sheet conveyed on the first route to either the second route or the third route, a route switching mechanism having a movable flapper is provided at the branch position of the route.

The sorter portion 11 and the discharge portion 12 are provided on the side portion of the seat supply portion 1 and at the end of the third path. The sorter unit 11 is a unit for sorting printed sheets into groups as needed. The sorted sheets are discharged to the discharge unit 12 composed of a plurality of trays. In this way, the third path passes below the sheet supply unit 1 and has a layout in which the sheet is discharged to the opposite side of the print unit 4 and the drying unit 8 with the sheet supply unit 1 in between.

The humidifying unit 20 is a unit for generating a humidifying body (air) and supplying it between the print head 14 of the printing unit 4 and the sheet. As a result, ink drying of the nozzles of the print head 14 is suppressed. As the humidification method of the humidifying unit 20, a vaporization type, a water spray type, a steam type, or the like is adopted. In addition to the rotary type of the present embodiment, the vaporization type includes a moisture permeable membrane type, a dripping permeation type, a capillary type, and the like. Water spray type includes ultrasonic type, centrifugal type, high pressure spray type, and two-fluid spray type. The steam type includes a steam piping type, an electric heating type, and an electrode type. The humidifying section 20 and the printed section 4 are connected by the first duct 21, and the humidifying section 20 and the drying section 8 are further connected by the second duct 22. In the drying unit 8, a humid and high temperature gas is generated when the sheet is dried. This gas is introduced into the humidifying section 20 through the second duct 22, and is used as auxiliary energy for generating a humidified body in the humidifying section 20. Then, the humidifying body generated in the humidifying section 20 is introduced into the printed section through the first duct 21.

The control unit 13 is a unit that controls each part of the entire printing apparatus. The control unit 13 includes a CPU, a storage device, a controller (control unit) including various control units, an external interface, and an operation unit 15 for input / output by the user. The operation of the printing device is controlled based on a command from a host device 16 such as a host computer connected to the controller or the controller via an external interface.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of the control means in the image forming apparatus applied in the present embodiment. For example, it has a CPU 201 in the form of a microcomputer, a ROM 202 that stores programs, required tables, and other fixed data, and a RAM 203 that is provided with control commands and work areas received from the host device 211. It has an HDD 204 that temporarily stores image data supplied from the host device 211, required tables, and the like. The operation unit 206 has a display for displaying the state of the device and the like, and is for inputting an operation instruction from the operator, registering various data, and confirming the state of the device. The image processing unit 207 controls the image processing of the image forming apparatus. Converts the image data color space (eg YCbCr) to a standard RGB color space (eg sRGB). In addition, various image processes such as resolution conversion to an effective number of pixels, image analysis, and image correction are performed as needed. The print data obtained by these image processing is stored in the RAM 203 or the HDD 204. The engine control unit 208 controls to print the print data on the recording medium in response to the received control command. Ink ejection instructions to the print heads of each color, ejection timing settings for adjusting the dot position on the recording medium, head drive state acquisition, and the like are performed. The drive of the print head is controlled according to the print data, and ink is ejected from the print head to form an image on the recording medium. In addition, the transport rollers are controlled by giving instructions for driving the paper feed rollers, driving instructions for the transport rollers, acquiring the rotation status of the transport rollers, etc., and transporting and stopping the recording medium at an appropriate speed. The scanner control unit 209 controls the image sensor such as CCD and CIS according to the received control command, reads the image on the recording medium, and analogs the red (R), green (G), and blue (B) colors. Acquire brightness data. The drive instruction of the image sensor, the status acquisition of the image sensor, the brightness data acquired from the image sensor are analyzed, and the ejection failure and the cutting position of the recording medium are detected. Dryness After being placed on the tray of the designated sorting unit. The host device 211 is a device connected to the outside of the image forming device and serves as an image supply source. The host device 211 may be a computer that creates or processes data such as an image related to printing, or may be in the form of a reader unit or the like for reading an image. The image data, other commands, status signals, etc. supplied from the host device 211 can be transmitted to and received from the image forming device 200 via the external I / F 205. These are connected by the system bus 210. The control method is not limited to the configuration shown in this embodiment, but may be a form in which each processing unit and control unit are divided into a plurality of units, and each of them holds and controls a CPU, and is limited to these. It's not a thing.

Next, the basic operation at the time of printing will be described. Since the operation of printing differs between the single-sided printing mode and the double-sided printing mode, each of them will be described.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation in the single-sided print mode. The thick line shows the transport route from the printed sheet supplied from the sheet supply unit 1 to the discharge to the discharge unit 12. The surface (first surface) of the sheet supplied from the sheet supply unit 1 and processed by the decal unit 2 and the skew correction unit 3 is printed on the print unit 4. Images having a predetermined unit length in the transport direction (referred to as unit images) are sequentially printed on a long continuous sheet to form a plurality of images side by side. The printed sheet passes through the inspection section 5 and is cut at the cutter section 6 for each unit image. For the cut sheet, print information is recorded on the back surface of the sheet by the information recording unit 7 as needed. Then, the cut sheets are conveyed to the drying section 8 one by one and dried. After that, it is sequentially discharged and loaded in the discharge unit 12 of the sorter unit 11 via the discharge transport unit 10. On the other hand, the sheet left on the side of the print unit 4 by cutting the final unit image is sent back to the sheet supply unit 1, and the sheet is wound up on the roll R1 or R2. As described above, in the single-sided printing, the sheet is processed through the first path and the third path, and does not pass through the second path.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation in the double-sided print mode. In double-sided printing, the front side (first side) print sequence is followed by the back side (second side) print sequence. In the first surface printing sequence, the operation of each unit from the sheet supply unit 1 to the inspection unit 5 is the same as the operation of the single-sided printing described above. The cutter portion 6 does not perform a cutting operation, and is conveyed to the drying portion 8 as a continuous sheet. After the surface ink is dried in the drying section 8, the sheet is guided not to the path on the side of the discharge transport section 10 (third path) but to the path on the side of the reversing section 9 (second path). In the second path, the tip (first end) of the continuous sheet is gripped by the roller pair 9b of the winding rotating body 9a of the reversing part 9, and the winding rotating body 9a rotates in the forward direction (counterclockwise in the drawing). It is wound up from the first end side. When all the planned surface printing is completed in the print portion 4, the rear end (second end portion) of the print area of the continuous sheet is cut by the cutter portion 6. Based on the cutting position, the continuous sheet printed on the downstream side in the transport direction is completely wound up to the rear end (cutting position) of the sheet by the reversing portion 9 through the drying portion 8. On the other hand, at the same time as this winding, the continuous sheet left on the upstream side in the transport direction (the side of the printed portion 4) from the cutting position has a sheet supply unit so that the sheet tip (cutting position) does not remain on the decal portion 2. Rewound to 1 and the sheet is wound onto rolls R1 or R2. This rewinding avoids collisions with the sheets that are resupplied in the backside print sequence below.

After the front side print sequence described above, the back side print sequence is switched to. The winding rotating body of the reversing part 9 rotates in the direction opposite to that at the time of winding (clockwise in the drawing). As shown in FIG. 5, the wound sheet is from the second end side (the rear end (second end) of the sheet at the time of winding becomes the tip of the sheet at the time of feeding) along the path of the broken line in the figure. It is sent to the decal part 2. In the decal portion 2, the curl given by the winding rotating body is corrected. That is, the decal section 2 is provided between the sheet supply section 1 and the print section 4 in the first path, and between the inversion section 9 and the print section 4 in the second path, and acts as a decal in any of the paths. It is a common unit. The sheet whose front and back sides are reversed is sent to the printing unit 4 via the skew correction unit 3 and printed on the back surface of the sheet. The printed sheet passes through the inspection unit 5 and is cut into the cutter unit 6 at predetermined unit lengths set in advance. Since the cut sheet is printed on both sides, it is not recorded by the information recording unit 7. The cut sheets are conveyed to the drying section 8 one by one, and are sequentially discharged and loaded in the discharging section 12 of the sorter section 11 via the discharging transport section 10. As described above, in double-sided printing, the sheet is processed by passing through the first path, the second path, the first path, and the third path in this order.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the print page order when double-sided printing is performed on the roll sheet. Double-sided printing of the sheet is performed from the printing on the first side (front side). The image processing unit 207 generates an image to be printed on both sides. After the generation of the image to be printed on the surface is completed, the image data is transmitted to the engine control unit 208 to instruct the start of surface printing. Upon receiving the instruction, the engine control unit 208 feeds the sheet from the sheet supply unit 1, and conveys the sheet to the print unit 4 via the decal unit 2 and the skew correction unit 3. An image instructed to be printed is printed on the surface of the sheet transported to the printing unit 4, and then transported to the sheet inspection unit 5. The image is read by the scanner of the sheet inspection unit 5, the image is confirmed by the 209 scanner control unit, and then the image is conveyed to the cutter unit 6. At the time of surface printing, the cutter portion 6 is not cut for each length of the printing unit, but is dried by passing through the drying portion 8 as a continuous sheet, and then wound by the winding drum of the reversing portion 9.

The above operation is performed until the printing of all the images for which the printing instruction is instructed on the surface is completed. When the front side printing is completed, the image processing unit 207 transmits the image data to be printed on the second side (back side) to the engine control unit 208, and instructs the engine control unit 208 to start backside printing. The front surface printed image sheet wound on the sheet take-up drum is re-transported to the decal portion 2, and the image for which the print instruction is given is printed on the back surface. When printing on the back side, the sheet whose front side has been printed is conveyed to the printing part 4 via the decal part 2 and the skew correction part 3. The image for which the print instruction is given on the back surface of the sheet conveyed to the printing unit 4 is printed on the back surface of the corresponding front image, and the image is conveyed to the inspection unit 5. After confirming the image by the inspection unit 5, the inspection unit 5 transports the image to the cutter unit 6. After printing on the back side, the cutter section 6 cuts each unit image length, passes through the drying section 8 to dry, then transports the image to the discharge section 12, and transports the image to a tray specified for each image. I do. At the time of double-sided printing, images are arranged in the order in which orders are sent, and odd-numbered pages are arranged on the surface. In addition, even-numbered pages are arranged and printed on the back surface. Therefore, the front page is printed in ascending order, while the back page is printed in descending order.

Fig. 7 (A) takes into consideration that when actually printing on both sides of a continuous sheet, in addition to printing the image based on the image information, the pattern required for maintenance of the recording head is also printed on the back side. It is a figure which shows the print result which performed the surface print. When an image of the surface is generated by the image processing unit 207 and the image data of the surface is transmitted to the engine control unit of the 208, the engine control unit 208 provides a preliminary ejection region required at the start of printing the surface. Insert at 301. A preliminary discharge pattern is printed near the first end, which is the tip of the surface when it is printed. Printing of the page image on the front surface is started at 302, and printing is performed from odd-numbered pages first. When the printing of page 7 in FIG. 7 (A) was completed, the engine control unit 208 calculated the length of the preliminary discharge area required for backside printing, and calculated it behind the rear end of page 7. Secure a margin for the length and cut the paper behind the margin. The back side of the margin portion formed in the continuous region at the end portion in the longitudinal direction of the continuous sheet serves as a management recording portion in which a management image such as a preliminary ejection pattern is recorded when the image of the second surface is formed. Maintenance images such as a preliminary discharge pattern and a pattern for detecting nozzle non-discharge are recorded in the management recording part. In addition, an image for controlling a device such as a cut mark may be formed.

In the case of a device in which the printing on the second side is started from the first end as in the printing on the first side, the pre-discharge pattern or control is in the area continuous with the first end on the second side. The image for is formed. A preliminary discharge pattern is formed near the first end of the first surface. However, if a larger area is needed for the image for maintenance or the image for control formed in a continuous area on the first end of the second surface, then on the first end of the first surface. A margin is formed in the continuous region in addition to the preliminary discharge pattern. As described above, when the image is formed on the first surface, the image is formed based on the image information in a region other than the region continuous with at least one end in the longitudinal direction of the continuous sheet.

After the front side printing is completed, when the backside image data is transmitted from the image processing unit 207 to the engine control unit 208, the backside printing is started. At the start of backside printing, insert a preliminary discharge into the control recording part at 304. When printing on the back side, the second end on the opposite side of the first end is the head. The pre-discharge pattern is printed on the second end side of the first page on the second side. Next, even pages are printed in descending order. The first page on the back side is printed so that it overlaps the back side of the last printed page on the front side.

Figure 7 (B) shows the print result when printing only on the front surface. The continuous sheet is cut at the rear end of page 4, which is the final page, leaving no preliminary discharge area on the back surface.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a process of performing front side printing in consideration of the processing required for back side printing when performing double-sided printing on the roll sheet. In step 501, surface image data is transmitted from the image processing unit 207 to the engine control unit 208. When the image is transmitted, the surface image printing is started in step 502, and the surface image printing is performed in step 503. If the paper runs out in step 504, the processing area required for backside printing is calculated in step 506. In the case of this embodiment, since the preliminary discharge must be printed on the tip of the back side print, the size of the area required for printing the preliminary discharge is calculated. If the paper was not removed in step 504, it is confirmed in step 505 whether the surface printing is completed. If the surface printing is not completed in step 505, the surface printing in step 503 is continued. If the surface printing is completed in step 505, the cut position at the rear end of the final image of the surface is determined in step 506, and the cut mark is printed. Further, an area for preliminary ejection that needs to be performed on the tip of the continuous sheet at the start of backside printing, an area for printing a cut mark for cutting off the preliminary ejection area, an area for adjusting the printing positions of the front and back surfaces, etc. Calculate the total processing area. In step 507, when the continuous sheet for which the printing of the front surface image is completed is separated from the roll sheet, the cut position for leaving the processing area required at the start of backside printing calculated in step 506 behind the last image of the front surface. To determine. That is, in step 507, the position on the upstream side by the length of the processing region from the cut position at the rear end of the final image of the surface is determined as the cut position. Then, the information on the cut position for separating the continuous paper from the roll paper is registered in the management table, and the cut mark is printed. Finish the surface print in step 508 and cut the paper. The paper whose surface is printed by cutting the paper is wound on the double-sided unit 113, and the unprinted paper is wound on the roll R1 of the sheet supply unit 1. .. After winding, wait for the back image to be sent. When the back image is sent in step 509, pre-discharge the tip to the back of the margin secured in step 507 and to the beginning of the back print in step 510. Print. After printing the tip pre-discharge, the back side printing is started in step 511, and the back side printing is performed in step 512. It is confirmed in step 513 whether the back side printing is completed, and if the back side printing is hunting, the back side printing is finished. If not, the back side printing is continued in step 512.

At the time of front side printing, the rear end of each image is not cut, and the back side is printed with a continuous sheet in which a plurality of images are printed on the front side. When printing on the back side, the rear end of each image is cut by using the cut mark printed at each rear end of the image as a trigger to complete the printed matter with the printed matter on the front and back sides.

Next, as a second embodiment, an example of processing when two types of jobs, a job for printing only the front surface and a job for printing both sides, are randomly sent will be described.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart for creating a print management table. In stepp S601, it is determined whether or not the print being processed is related to the first side. In the case of the first side, the process proceeds to step S602 to create the print management table on the first side. In the process of creating the print management table, the image information and the pattern information and the position information of the cut mark that triggers to cut the rear edge of each page are stored in the print management table for each page. Next, in step S603, it is determined whether or not there is print information on the second side, and if there is no print information, the job is single-sided printing, and the creation of the print management table is completed. If there is print information on the second side, it is a double-sided print. In this case, if the continuous sheet is cut at the rear end of the last page of the first surface, there is no area for pre-discharging at the tip of the continuous sheet at the time of printing on the second surface. In step S604, in order to form an area for preliminary ejection at the tip of the continuous sheet at the time of printing on the second surface, a position rearward by the length required for preliminary ejection or the like from the rear end of the last page of the first surface. Determine the cut position. This area is an area for pre-discharging and an area for printing a cut mark for cutting off the portion on which the pre-discharging pattern is printed. In step S604, the cut mark pattern information and the cut position information are registered in the print management table on the first side.

Next, return to step S601, move to S605, create the print management table on the second side, and finish.

FIG. 10 is a common flowchart for creating a print management table for the first side and the second side, and is the contents of S602 and S605 of FIG. In step S701, the pre-discharge pattern information and position information prior to printing the first page, and the cut mark information at the rear end of the pre-discharge pattern are registered in the management table. In the printing on the first surface, the pre-discharge pattern is printed near the first end, which is the tip of the continuous sheet before being separated from the roll sheet. In the printing on the second side, the printing is performed in the vicinity of the second end portion on the side opposite to the first end portion of the continuous sheet separated from the roll sheet.

In step S702, the image information of each page, the position information of the page, and the cut mark information at the rear end of the page are registered in the print management table. In step S703, it is determined whether or not to perform preliminary discharge after the cut mark on each page. Preliminary ejection is performed, for example, to prevent ink having a high viscosity due to evaporation from staying in an ink ejection port where the ejection frequency of the recording head is infrequent and deteriorating the ejection performance. Normally, in order to maintain the ink ejection performance, the interval between the previous preliminary ejection and the next preliminary ejection is set to be within a predetermined time. When it is determined that the preliminary discharge is necessary, the preliminary discharge pattern data, the position information, and the cut mark information for cutting off the preliminary discharge pattern are registered in step S704. When pre-discharging is not required, and after registering pre-discharging information, the process proceeds to step S705, and it is determined whether or not the page image information of the surface of the continuous sheet being printed is completed, and there is the next page image data. Return to step S702. When the image data is finished, the print management table creation is finished.

Figure 11 (A) shows the information registered in the print management table at the time of the created double-sided printing. In the print management table for the first side, the data of the pattern of the preliminary ejection performed before printing each page is stored first, and then the image data of the odd-numbered pages is stored in ascending order. Preliminary ejection pattern data is also stored in the middle of the image data of the page, and the preliminary ejection is performed at a required timing during printing. The data of each page image and pattern also includes position information indicating the position to be printed.

After the cut mark after page 9, which is the final page of the print management table for the first side, a blank is provided at the beginning of the second side to form an area for printing the preliminary discharge. Behind the blank, information on the cut mark for separating the continuous sheet from the roll sheet is stored. I drew a blank column to make it easier to imagine, but there is not always blank data, and a blank is formed on the continuous sheet by the position information of the cut mark at the end and immediately before it. This blank is a management recording portion where a management image is formed when the image of the second surface is formed.

The print management table on the second side is shown upside down to make it easier to see the correspondence between the print management table on the first side and the front and back. In the print management table on the second side, the data of the pre-discharge pattern to be printed first is stored first, and the page image information and the cut mark information arranged in descending order are stored. Preliminary discharge pattern data is also stored in the middle of the page image information.

For comparison, Fig. 11 (B) also shows a print management table when only the first side is printed. In this case, the cut mark information is stored behind the last page, page 5, and there is no data behind this cut mark. When printing only on the first side, the continuous sheet is cut at the position behind the last page printed on the first side. When printing on the first side and then printing on the second side, the position is behind the last page printed on the first side, and further behind than when printing on the first side only. The continuous sheet is cut.

The print operation is executed after the creation of the print management table is completed or in parallel with the creation of the print management table.

In the case of printing only the first side, the continuous sheet is printed by the printing portion 4, and is cut for each page at the cutter portion 6 downstream of the continuous sheet based on the cut mark.

In the case of double-sided printing, the continuous sheet is cut based on the cut mark immediately after the cut mark immediately after the last page without cutting each page at the time of printing on the first side. The cut continuous sheet is wound on the take-up drum of the reversing part 9, temporarily stored, and transported to the printing part 4 again for printing on the second side. At the time of printing on the second side, the continuous sheet is printed by the print portion 4, and is cut for each page based on the cut mark in the cutter portion 6 downstream of the continuous sheet to form a printed matter on both sides.

In the above embodiment, a preliminary discharge pattern is printed on the tips of the first and second surfaces of the continuous sheet as a maintenance pattern which is a management image. In addition to the pattern for preliminary discharge, the maintenance pattern is a pattern for detecting discharge defects at the discharge port of the print head, a pattern for detecting transfer accuracy, and a pattern for obtaining a correction value for the drive amount of the transfer roller. and so on. In addition to the maintenance pattern, the management information of the printed matter may be recorded as the management image. When securing an area for recording management information such as a control number at the tip of the second surface, as in the case of securing an area for preliminary discharge, control recording is performed at the rear end of the continuous sheet during recording on the first surface. Cut leaving the part.

1 Sheet supply unit 4 Print section 5 Inspection Department 6 Cutter part 8 Dry part 9 Sheet take-up section 10 Discharge transport unit 13 Control unit 14 printhead 15 controller