Printing system supporting unattended printing and a method of unattended printing by a printing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9858020-B2
Application number	US-201615285074-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2016
Priority date	Oct 12, 2015
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

The invention relates to a printing system for printing a plurality of print jobs, the printing system having a receiving unit for receiving the print jobs, a controller for controlling a scheduling process and a printing process of the print jobs, a print unit for printing the print jobs, a plurality of supply holders for holding supply material for printing, and a user interface for communicating to the operator scheduled supply operator actions. Each of the scheduled supply operator actions is linked to one of the plurality of supply holders. The controller has an establishing unit for establishing a time period of unattended printing of the printing system, and a determination unit for determining scheduled supply operator actions per holder needed to be done before the time period of unattended printing starts. The user interface displays the established time period of unattended printing and the determined supply operator actions per holder. The invention also relates to a method suitable for application in the printing system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing system for printing a plurality of print jobs, the printing system comprising:
a controller for controlling a scheduling process and a printing process of the plurality of print jobs;
a printer for printing the plurality of print jobs;
a plurality of supply holders for holding supply material needed to print the plurality of print jobs; and
a user interface for communication to the operator of scheduled supply operator actions for printing the plurality of print jobs, each of the scheduled supply operator actions linked to one of the plurality of supply holders;
wherein the controller is configured to:
receive the plurality of print jobs;
establish a time period of unattended printing of the printing system; and
deteimine scheduled supply operator actions per holder needed to be done before the time period of unattended printing starts,

wherein the user interface is configured to display the established time period of unattended printing and the determined supply operator actions per holder,
wherein the controller is configured to establish a start time of the period of unattended printing,
wherein the user interface is configured to receive a user action at the user interface of entering the start time of the time period of unattended printing at the user interface by user, and
wherein the controller is further configured to determine a maximum end time for the time period of unattended printing such that none of the scheduled supply operator actions is needed to be performed after the start time of the time period of unattended printing and before the maximum end time of the time period of unattended printing, and the user interface is configured to display the determined maximum end time.

2. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to set the start time of the time period of unattended printing to the current time.

3. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to establish a duration and an end time of the time period of unattended printing.

4. The printing system according to claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to receive the duration and/or the end time of the time period of unattended printing by a user action at the user interface, and
wherein the user interface is configured to receive the user action at the user interface of entering the duration and/or the end time of the time period of unattended printing at the user interface by a user.

5. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein, upon a change of the start time, the end time and/or the duration of the time period of unattended printing, the controller re-determines the corresponding supply operator actions and the re-determined supply operator actions are displayed automatically at the user interface.

6. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of supply holders comprises at least one media input holder, at least one media output holder, and at least one image recording material holder.

7. The printing system according to claim 6 , wherein the plurality of supply holders comprises at least one finishing material holder.

8. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the maximum end time of the time period of unattended printing is displayed near the start and end time of the time period.

9. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the operator will be prohibited to change the end time into a time beyond the maximum end time in the user interface.

10. A method for printing a plurality of print jobs by a printing system, the printing system comprising a plurality of supply holders configured to hold supplies needed to print the plurality of print jobs, and a user interface, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a plurality of print jobs at a controller of the printing system;
scheduling, via the controller, the plurality of print jobs in time;
scheduling, via the controller, supply operator actions for printing the plurality of print jobs, each of the scheduled supply operator actions linked to one of the plurality of supply holders;
establishing, via the controller, a time period of unattended printing of the printing system;
determining, via the controller, supply operator actions per supply holder which are needed to be executed before the established time period of unattended printing starts;
displaying at the user interface the established time period of unattended printing;
displaying at the user interface the determined supply operator actions per supply holder; and
unattended printing of the scheduled print jobs,
wherein the step of establishing the time period of unattended printing of the printing system comprises the step of receiving a start time of the time period of unattended printing by a user action of entering the start time at the user interface,
wherein the step of establishing the time period of unattended printing of the printing system comprises determining a maximum end time for the time period of unattended printing such that none of the scheduled supply operator actions is needed to be performed after the start time of the time period of unattended printing and before the maximum end time for the time period of unattended printing, and
wherein the step of displaying at the user interface the established time period of unattended printing comprises displaying the determined maximum end time.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the step of establishing the time period of unattended printing of the printing system comprises the step of receiving a duration and/or an end time of the time period of unattended printing by a user action of entering the duration and/or the end time at the user interface.

12. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium and configured to execute the method of claim 10 when executed on a processor.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon the computer-program product according to claim 12 .

14. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the maximum end time of the time period of unattended printing is displayed near the start and end time of the time period.

15. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the operator will be prohibited to change the end time into a time beyond the maximum end time in the user interface.

Assignees

• Océ-Technologies B V

Inventors

• Westerhoff Jurgen
• Gerrits Antonius M
• Kalloe Vijay A

Classifications

• G06F3/1258

  by updating job settings at the printer · CPC title

• H04N1/00482

  outputting a plurality of job set-up options, e.g. number of copies, paper size or resolution · CPC title

• H04N2201/0094

  Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception · CPC title

• G06F3/1256

  User feedback, e.g. print preview, test print, proofing, pre-flight checks · CPC title

• G03G15/5083

  for scheduling · CPC title