IPC분류정보
국가/구분 |
United States(US) Patent
등록
|
국제특허분류(IPC7판) |
|
출원번호 |
US-0457465
(2003-06-10)
|
등록번호 |
US-7266313
(2007-09-04)
|
우선권정보 |
JP-2002-169177(2002-06-10) |
발명자
/ 주소 |
- Yokoi,Katsuyuki
- Hattori,Tomoaki
- Suzuki,Masashi
|
출원인 / 주소 |
- Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
|
대리인 / 주소 |
|
인용정보 |
피인용 횟수 :
3 인용 특허 :
19 |
초록
▼
A system of printers uses replicable toner boxes, which each has a unique serial number. Each printer determines once the toner box is empty. At this time, the printer registers the serial number of the used toner box in used toner box list in a memory. Each time a toner box is mounted in the printe
A system of printers uses replicable toner boxes, which each has a unique serial number. Each printer determines once the toner box is empty. At this time, the printer registers the serial number of the used toner box in used toner box list in a memory. Each time a toner box is mounted in the printer, the printer reads and compares the serial number of the freshly inserted toner box with the serial numbers in the list in the memory. If the serial number of the presently mounted toner box matches any in the list, this means that the toner box has previously been judged to reach life end, so the printer displays a message that the toner box is not suitable for use in the printer and prevents further printing operations until the toner box is replaced with a new one.
대표청구항
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What is claimed is: 1. An image forming apparatus that uses a plurality of consumable items one at a time, each of the consumable items being provided to the image forming apparatus during use and having a usable life that ends when the consumable item reaches life end, each of the consumable items
What is claimed is: 1. An image forming apparatus that uses a plurality of consumable items one at a time, each of the consumable items being provided to the image forming apparatus during use and having a usable life that ends when the consumable item reaches life end, each of the consumable items being provided with a distinction information indicator that indicates information for distinguishing between individuals in the plurality of consumable items, the image forming apparatus comprising: a distinction information reading unit that reads the distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of each consumable item that is presently provided; a life end determining unit that judges whether a consumable item that is presently being used has reached life end; a memory; a registering unit that registers, in the memory and for each consumable item that the life end determining unit judges to have reached life end, the distinction information read by the distinction information reading unit; and a suitability determining unit that determines that a consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use when distinction information read by the distinction information reading unit for the consumable item that is presently provided is the same as distinction information registered in the memory. 2. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a communication unit for communicating with other image forming apparatuses; and a registered information determination unit that, by using the communication unit, determines the distinction information of consumable items that other image forming apparatuses determined to have reached life end, the suitability determining unit determining that a consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use when distinction information read by the distinction information reading unit for the consumable item that is presently provided is the same as distinction information determined by the registered information determination unit. 3. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a detection unit that detects cumulative use of a consumable item presently provided; a storage unit for storing the cumulative use detected by the detection unit; and an initialization unit that initializes the cumulative use stored by the storage unit. 4. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a consumable item replacement detector that detects when a consumable item that is presently provided is replaced with another consumable item, the initialization unit initializing the cumulative use stored by the storage unit when the consumable item replacement detector detects that a consumable item is replaced. 5. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the suitability determining unit determines that the consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use when the distinction information reading unit is unable to read the distinction information of the consumable item that is presently provided. 6. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an elimination unit that eliminates the distinction information from the distinction information indicator of the consumable item that is presently provided when the suitability determining unit determines that the consumable item is unsuitable for use. 7. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the distinction information indicators are semi-conducting elements, the elimination unit applying an excessive voltage to the semi-conducting element of the consumable item that is presently provided to eliminate the distinction information. 8. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: an image forming unit that forms images on a recording medium; and an image formation preventor that prevents image formation by the image forming unit when the suitability determining unit determines that the consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use. 9. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the image forming unit requires image data to form images, the image formation preventor preventing image formation by prohibiting receipt of image data from an external source. 10. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a display that displays a message indicating that the consumable item being is unsuitable for use when the suitability determining unit determines that the consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use. 11. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an image formation unit that performs image formation operations using developing agent, the consumable items being developing agent containing units for holding the developing agent used by the image formation unit. 12. An image forming apparatus that uses a plurality of consumable items one at a time, each of the consumable items being provided to the image forming apparatus during use and being provided with a semi-conductor element that stores information, the image forming apparatus comprising: an image formation unit that performs image formation operations for forming images on a recording medium; and an eliminating unit that selectively eliminates information from a semi-conductor element of a consumable item that is presently provided by applying an excessive voltage to the semi-conductor element of the consumable item that is presently provided. 13. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the image formation unit performs image formation operations using developing agent, the consumable items being developing agent containing units for holding the developing agent used by the image formation unit. 14. A method of changing consumable items in an image forming apparatus, the method comprising: providing a distinction information indicator to each consumable item, each distinction information indicator indicating distinction information for distinguishing each of the plurality of consumable items from others of the plurality of consumable items; judging life end of a consumable item that is presently being used in the image forming apparatus; reading distinction information indicated by a distinction information indicator of each consumable item judged to have reached life end; registering, in a memory, distinction information indicated by a distinction information indicator of each consumable item judged to have reached life end; judging whether distinction information indicated by a distinction information indicator of a consumable item that is presently provided in the image forming apparatus is the same as distinction information registered in the memory; determining that the consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use in the image forming apparatus when the distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of the consumable item that is presently provided is judged to be the same as distinction information registered in the memory. 15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the step of registering distinction information registers the distinction information in a memory provided in the image forming apparatus. 16. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the step of judging whether distinction information is the same includes comparing distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of the consumable item that is presently provided with distinction information registered in a memory of another image forming apparatus that is connected to the image forming apparatus. 17. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein: the step of registering in the memory includes registering in a memory of a host computer that is connected to the image forming apparatus; and the step of judging whether distinction information is the same includes comparing distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of the consumable item that is presently provided with the distinction information registered in the memory of the host computer. 18. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising: detecting cumulative use of a consumable item that is presently provided; storing the cumulative use in a cumulative use memory, the step of judging life end including judging that the consumable item that is presently being used has reached life end when the cumulative use stored in the cumulative use memory is equal to or greater than a predetermined amount; comparing, with registered distinction information, distinction information indicated by a distinction information indicator of a subsequently consumable item provided after a consumable item is judge to have reached life end; and initializing the cumulative use memory when no registered distinction information is the same as the distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of the subsequent consumable item. 19. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising reading distinction information indicated by a distinction information indicator of a consumable item that is presently provided, the consumable item that is presently provided being judged to be unsuitable for use when the distinction information cannot be read. 20. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising eliminating distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of the consumable item that is presently provided when the life end of the consumable item that is presently being used is judged to have been reached. 21. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising preventing image forming processes when the consumable item that is presently provided is judged to be unsuitable for use. 22. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising: replacing the distinction information indicator of the consumable item that is judged to have reached life end with a new distinction information indicator that indicates new distinction information; and reusing the consumable item in the image forming device. 23. A system of image forming apparatuses connected to each other through a network, each image forming apparatus using a plurality of consumable items one at a time, each of the consumable items being provided to the image forming apparatus during use and having a usable life that ends when the consumable item reaches life end, each of the consumable items being provided with a distinction information indicator that indicates information for distinguishing between individuals of the plurality of consumable items, the system comprising: a memory; and a plurality of image forming apparatuses, each image forming apparatus including: a distinction information reading unit that reads the distinction information indicated by the distinction information indicator of a consumable item that is presently provided; a life end determining unit that judges whether a consumable item that is presently being used has reached life end; a registering unit that registers, in the memory and for each consumable item that the life end determining unit judges to have reached life end, the distinction information read by the distinction information reading unit; and a suitability determining unit that determines that a consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use when distinction information read by the distinction information reading unit for the consumable item that is presently provided is the same as distinction information registered in the memory. 24. The system as claimed in claim 23, wherein the memory includes a plurality of memories each provided to a corresponding one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses. 25. The system as claimed in claim 23, further comprising a host computer connected to the plurality of image forming apparatuses, the memory being provided in the host computer, the registering unit of each of the image forming apparatuses registering the distinction information in the host computer by transmitting the distinction information to the host computer. 26. The system as claimed in claim 23, wherein each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses includes: an image forming unit that forms images on a recording medium; and an image formation preventor that prevents image formation by the image forming unit when the suitability determination unit determines that the consumable item that is presently provided is unsuitable for use. 27. A printer, comprising: a communication unit for communicating with a host computer; a memory; and a comparison unit; wherein: the communication unit is configured to retrieve distinction information associated with one or more used consumable items from the host computer and store the distinction information associated with one or more used consumable items in the memory; the comparison unit is configured to compare distinction information associated with a consumable item installed in the printer with the stored distinction information associated with one or more used consumable items; and printing is prohibited when the comparison unit determines that the distinction information associated with the consumable item installed in the printer corresponds to any of the stored distinction information associated with one or more used consumable items. 28. The printer of claim 27, wherein the communication unit comprises at least one of a network interface and a parallel interface. 29. The printer of claim 27, wherein the communication unit is configured to communicate with the host computer over the internet. 30. The printer of claim 27, wherein the memory comprises at least one of RAM, NVRAM and ROM. 31. The printer of claim 27, wherein the consumable items are toner boxes. 32. The printer of claim 27, wherein: the distinction information associated with one or more used consumable items comprises one or more serial numbers associated with the one or more used consumable items; and the distinction information associated with the consumable item installed in the printer comprises a serial number associated with the consumable item installed in the printer. 33. The printer of claim 32, wherein printing is prohibited when the comparison unit determines that the serial number associated with the consumable item installed in the printer is identical to any of the stored serial numbers associated with one or more used consumable items. 34. A host computer, comprising: a communication unit for communicating with a printer; and a memory; wherein the communication unit is configured to retrieve distinction information associated with a consumable item that is unsuitable for use from the printer and store the distinction information in the memory, the consumable item being unsuitable for use when the printer judged that the consumable item reached life end. 35. The host computer of claim 34, wherein the communication unit is configured to communicate with the printer over the internet. 36. The host computer of claim 34, wherein the consumable item is a toner box. 37. The host computer of claim 34, wherein the distinction information associated with the consumable item that is unsuitable for use comprises a serial number associated with the consumable item that is unsuitable for use. 38. The host computer of claim 34, wherein the communication unit is configured to retrieve distinction information associated with consumable items that are unsuitable for use from a plurality of printers. 39. The host computer of claim 34, wherein judgment that the consumable item is unsuitable for use is performed automatically upon mounting the consumable item in the printer.
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