Abstract:
A recycle information system for recycling reusable parts from machines and equipment such as image forming apparatus, and reutilize the recovered member as a manufacturing material. A recycle information system utilizing a production control computer to manage information on production parts being used or scheduled for use in manufacturing and maintenance services, is linked by a communications line with a control device for machines and equipment scheduled for recycling, monitors information on parts of machines and equipment capable of recycling, and when a machine is recovered from a user, compares production part information stored in the production control computer with recovered part information stored in the recovered device, and acquires information on whether individual parts used in the recovered machine are capable of being recycled, and information on a factory destination address.

Description:
[0001]    This application is based on the patent application No. 2000-265133 filed in Japan, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to a recycle information system for machines and equipment and relates in particular to a recycle information system for image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers and facsimile machines, etc. and image forming apparatus for recycling.  
           [0004]    2. Description of Prior Art  
           [0005]    Interest in protecting the environment has heightened in recent years and the recycling of component parts constituting machines including image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers and facsimiles is under evaluation. The product life span of image forming apparatus is determined by the number of years of service or the frequency of usage, however even if the apparatus overall has reached the end of its product life, many parts of the apparatus have not reached the end of their product life. Therefore, the overall apparatus can be recovered and dismantled, sorted into parts for reuse and parts for discarding, and after undergoing the required inspection, the usable parts can then be recycled. A recycle system for toner cartridges for example, is already in operation.  
           [0006]    A task indicator system for plants recycling office equipment such as copiers has already been proposed (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 10-216689) that predicts the service life of recoverable parts, and specifies recycling tasks for each recovered part of office equipment per manufacturing period and component part based on a database of usage records of office equipment on the market, and a characteristic information database holding information on the particular characteristics of parts used in the recovered office equipment.  
           [0007]    In this system, when the machine number of a recovered parts of office equipment is input, whether or not the parts listed for that piece of office equipment can be reused is designated, and a processing method for reusing those parts are designated, so that the recycle operation can proceed quickly and accurately.  
           [0008]    However in the above described task indicator system for the recycling plant, after the machine was recovered, in order to dismantle and attempt to reuse parts of the machine, the entire machine including components that were not reusable had to be shipped to the recycling plant, causing the problem of a large burden when recovering a machine for recycling.  
           [0009]    Further, in order to supply reusable parts recovered at the recycling plant, to the production line at the manufacturing plant, the recycling plant had to be located adjacent to the manufacturing plant. A location adjacent to the manufacturing plant was satisfactory when all the recovered parts are used at the manufacturing plant, however, when some of the recovered parts had to be used at a manufacturing plant in a remote location, a shipping fee was added to the expenses creating the problem of higher costs.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0010]    In view of the problems with the related art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a recycle information system for machines and equipment to compare information relating to the production member with information relating to the recovered parts and determine if recycling of the recovered parts is possible or not in the recycling system that recovers reusable parts from used machines and equipment and reuses the recovered parts as production members.  
           [0011]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a recycle information system having machines and equipment linked by a communications line with a control station for monitoring information on production parts in use or scheduled for use in manufacture and in maintenance servicing; and the information on reusable parts in machines and equipment scheduled for recycling can be controlled from the machines and equipment side.  
           [0012]    Still another object of the present invention is to provide machines or equipment for receiving information on production parts in use or scheduled for use in manufacture and in maintenance servicing from the control station linked by way of the communications line, and for determining whether or not the individual parts used in the machines or equipment scheduled for recycling is reusable. 
       
    
    
       [0013]    Other objects of the invention will become apparent to one skilled in the related art after reading the detailed description of the invention and referring to the accompanying drawings.  
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the recycle information system of the embodiment of the invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the control circuit of the copier for recycling.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the process for comparing part information implemented on the copier for recycling.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing in detail the process for comparing recovered part information B with production part information A.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the control operation implemented by the CPU of the production control computer of the manufacturing plant.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 6 is a list showing a typical recording format for recovered part information of the parts comprising the copier.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 7 is a list showing a typical recording format for manufacturing plant production part information.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 8 is a typical recording format for recycle information. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0022]    The embodiments of the present invention are hereafter described. The structure of a recycle information system  100  of the embodiment of the present invention is described while referring to FIG. 1.  
         [0023]    A manufacturing plant production control computer  120  is connected to a communication line  110  by a modem  131 , and a plurality of commercially available copiers  150  for future recycling are also connected to the communication line  110  by way of the modem  161 . A plurality of personal computers  170  are also connected by way of the modem  181  to the communication line  110 , and are capable of accessing external information. A conventional public communications line may be used as the communication line  110 . The copiers  150  are here assumed to be digital type copiers but are not limited to the digital type.  
         [0024]    Needless to say, facsimiles and printers intended for future recycling may also be connected to the communication line  110  and comprise the recycle information system, however in the description here, a plurality of copiers for recycling are connected to the communication line  110 .  
         [0025]    The computer utilized as the production control computer  120  is a known computer composed of a CPU  121  and a RAM  122 , a ROM  123 , a hard disk  124 , a display  125 , a keyboard  126  and a printer  127  connected to the input/output ports of the CPU  121 .  
         [0026]    Information on parts used in a plurality of copier models during manufacture at the plant is stored in the hard disk  124  and constantly updated. In the following description, the information on the parts used in the copiers during production is referred to here as production part information and is appended with a code letter A for reference.  
         [0027]    The portion of the copier  150  used as image forming apparatus is already known in the conventional art so a description is omitted here, however as a copier for recycling, the copier  150  comprises the following portions not provided in conventional copiers.  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 2 is a block diagram for describing the structure of the control circuit  151  of the copier  150  for recycling. The control circuit  151  is used to control the normal image forming operation, and is composed of the CPU  152 , and the RAM  153 , ROM  154 , drive unit  156  for various type of image forming mechanisms, a display  157  and a control panel  158 , connected to the input/output ports of the CPU  152 .  
         [0029]    Besides the above, in terms of a unique structure of a copier for recycling, a hard disk  155 , a recovered part information key  159 , and a printer  160  are connected to the input/output ports of the CPU  152 . A configuration allowing connection to the output terminal of portable computers may also be provided.  
         [0030]    Information on all types of parts of the copier  150 , such as part codes showing initially manufactured parts, the fact that part was replaced or not, and if a part was replaced with a substitute part, replaced part code is stored in the hard disk  155 . In the following description, information on each of the parts comprising the copier  150 , is referred to as recovered part information and appended with a code letter B for reference.  
         [0031]    A recovered part information key  159  is a key for requesting the transmission of production part information from the production control computer  120 . In other words, though explained in detail later on, when the copier is recovered from the user, recycle information is made for determining whether the parts of the copier is recyclable or not, and the recovered part information B compared with the production part information A. These functions are performed by using the recovered part information key  159 , and since these functions are not used in normal copying operation, the recovered part information key  159  is installed inside the copier to prevent the user from operating by mistake, and may be configured only to be operated by the serviceman as needed.  
         [0032]    The printer  160  utilizes the print function of the copier  150  and so is shown as printer  160  on FIG. 2 to designate those print functions. If the copier  150  is an analog copier not provided with a character generator, a separate printer may be connected as a printer  160 .  
         [0033]    The CPU  152  is connected to the communications line by way of the modem  161  and configured to allow data communication to exchange all kinds of part information with the production control computer  120  of the manufacturing plant.  
         [0034]    Control of the comparison processing of the various part information implemented on the CPU  152  of the copier  150  is described next while referring to the flow chart of FIG. 3.  
         [0035]    A check is first made as to whether the recovered part information key  159  was operated or not (step P 11 ), and if not operated, the operation returns to the main routine, and shifts to executing normal copier control functions.  
         [0036]    When determined in step P 11  that the recovered part information key  159  was operated, the recovered part information B of copier  150  is read from the hard disk  155  (step P 12 ). A transmit request signal for production part information A is sent to the production control computer  120  of the manufacturing plant by way of the communication line (step P 13 ).  
         [0037]    When the production control computer  120  of the manufacturing plant receives the transmit request signal, the production part information A used in various copier models in current production is sent from the hard disk  124  to the copier  150  by way of the communication line.  
         [0038]    The CPU  152  of the copier  150  awaits completion of receiving the production part information A sent from the production control computer  120  (step P 14 ). When finished receiving the production part information A, a comparison of the recovered part information B of copier  150  is made with the production part information A (step P 15 ), the results of the comparison (see FIG. 8) are printed out (step P 16 ), the comparison processing completed and the process returns to the main routine.  
         [0039]    The flowchart of FIG. 4 illustrates in detail the comparison of the production part information A with the recovered part information B shown in step P 15  in the flowchart of FIG. 3.  
         [0040]    A detailed description of the comparison processing is described next. The production part information A has n pieces, and an identification number (ID No.) K (K=K 1  to Kn) is assigned to these pieces. The recovered part information B has m pieces and the identification number (ID No.) L (L=L 1  to Lm) is assigned to these pieces.  
         [0041]    First, the identification No. K for production part information A is set as K 1 , (step P 21 ), and the production part information A of identification No. k is read (step P 22 ). The identification number L of the recovered part information B is set as L 1  (step P 23 ), and the recovered part information B of identification No. L is read (step P 24 ).  
         [0042]    Search is made for a part code that matches a part code of identification No. K in production part information A from among the recovered part information B (step P 25 ). In the search results of step P 25 , when an identification No. L of recovered part information B was found to match identification No. K of production part information A, a check is made whether a part code of identification No. K of production part information A is part code for a model currently in production (step P 26 ), if the check shows the part code is for a model currently in production, then a “RECYCLABLE” tag is attached to identification No. Ln of recovered part information B (step P 27 ), and the process proceeds to step P 40 .  
         [0043]    If the search results of step P 25  show no matching part code in the recovered part information B that matches a part code of identification No. K of production part information A, and the results of the check in step P 26  do not show part code for a model currently in production, then a search is made for a substitute part code that matches the production part information A part code from among the substitute part information AX (step P 28 ), and if a match is found in the substitute part information AX, a “RECYCLE-SUBSTITUTE OK” tag is attached to the identification No. L of recovered part information B (step P 29 ), and the process shifts to step P 40 . When results of the check in step P 28  show that no match is found in the substitute part information AX, a “NON RECYCLABLE” tag is attached to the identification No. Ln of recovered part information B (step P 30 ) and the process shifts to step P 40 .  
         [0044]    In step P 40 , a check is made if processing for all recovered part information B identification number L 1 -Lm is complete, and if processing is not complete, the identification No. L of recovered part information B is incremented by “1” (step P 41 ) and the process returns to step P 24 .  
         [0045]    If the check made in step P 40  shows that processing is complete for all recovered part information B identification number L 1 -Lm, then a check is made if the processing for all identification No. K 1 -Kn of production part information A is complete (step P 42 ), and if processing is not complete, the identification No. K is incremented by “1” (step P 43 ) and the process returns to step P 22 . If results of the check in step P 42  show that processing is complete, then the operation returns to the main routine.  
         [0046]    [0046]FIG. 5 is a flowchart for describing the control operation implemented by the CPU  121  of the production control computer  120  of the manufacturing plant.  
         [0047]    First of all, a check is made for input of production part information A such as from personal computers not shown in the drawing in order to update the production part information A (step P 51 ). If information has been input then the production part information A stored in the hard disk  124  is updated (step P 52 ), and if information has not been input, then step P 52  is omitted.  
         [0048]    A check is made to find if a production part information A transmit request signal has been input from the copier (step P 53 ), and when information has been input, the production part information A used in a plurality of copier models currently in production is sent from the hard disk  124  to the copier  150  by way of the communication line (step P 54 ). When there was no input of a transmit request signal, step P 54  is omitted.  
         [0049]    Other preset production processing is implemented (step P 55 ) and the process returns to step P 51  for the next processing.  
         [0050]    [0050]FIG. 6 shows a typical recording format for recovered part information B relating to component parts of the copier and stored in the hard disk  155  inside the copier  150 . Information showing the model code (EA350 ) of the copier, and part names, record of parts replacement, parts codes at the time of initial manufacturing as well as parts codes at the time of recovering of the copier is stored in the sequence of identification No. L 1 -Lm. In other words, when the part has not been substituted during usage period, or when substituted with a part identical to the part at the time of initial manufacturing; then that same parts code is recorded as a parts code at the time of recovering on the hard disk during the copier. When the part has been substituted with a substitute part, then the substitute part code is recorded as the parts code at the time of recovering on the hard disk of the copier.  
         [0051]    The operation for recording the substitute part code on the hard disk  155  is performed via the operating panel  158  when the serviceman is making inspections or repairs on the copier, or is performed by connecting a personal computer to the copier control circuit  151  of the CPU  152 .  
         [0052]    [0052]FIG. 7 is a list showing a typical recording format for production part information A used in a plurality of copier models currently in production at the manufacturing plant and stored in the hard disk  124  of the manufacturing plant production control computer  120 . When the model code (EA320, EA350, etc.) showing a plurality of copier models in the identification No. (K 01 -Kn) sequence, and listings of the production status of those models (in production or finished production), parts names and parts codes used in those models, as well as parts capable of substitution are present, then the substitute part code is recorded as substitute parts code information AX.  
         [0053]    This production part information A and substitute parts code information AX are constantly updated. The rewriting of the information may be performed directly via the keyboard  126  of the production control computer  120  or may be updated by accessing the production control computer  120  from a plurality of personal computers  170  connected to the communications line  110 .  
         [0054]    [0054]FIG. 8 is a typical recording format for the comparison processing results shown in step P 15  in the flowchart of FIG. 3. A recycle tag is attached to and recorded on the recovered part information B on the recording format shown in FIG. 6. The recording shown in FIG. 8 is referred to here as “Recycle Information”. The recycle information on the basis of the results of the comparison processing, along with being recorded on the hard disk  155 , is also printed out by the printer  160 .  
         [0055]    In a brief explanation of the recycle information shown in FIG. 8, based on results comparing the production part information A (see FIG. 7), with the recovered part information B composed of a model code (EA350) showing the copier model and, the part name, the part code at the time of recovering (display of part code at the time of initial manufacturing is omitted) in the sequence of identification No. L 1 -Lm, the recycle tags, “RECYCLE-SUBSTITUTE OK”, “NON RECYCLABLE” or “RECYCLABLE” are recorded as recycle information.  
         [0056]    In a brief explanation of the recycle tags, even if the operating panel, front cover and side cover corresponding to identification No. L 1 -L 3  are recyclable as raw material, but a “NON RECYCLABLE” tag is attached if determined the operating panel, front cover and side cover are not reusable as parts.  
         [0057]    The scanner of identification No. L 4  is attached and recorded with a “RECYCLE-SUBSTITUTE OK” tag when determined to be usable as a part in current production (part code 2111-2332-01) or as a substitute part (part No. 2111-2330-01). The photosensitive drum corresponding to identification No. L 5  is attached and recorded with a “RECYCLABLE” tag when determined to be usable as a part in current production (part code 2401-1151-02).  
         [0058]    The remaining life of the copier parts can be estimated in terms of copier usage, for example by the total number of copies made by the copier as shown on the total copy counter, and this information is then appended to the recycle information, so that criteria for judging the parts application after recycling can be provided.  
         [0059]    Further, appending information involving the part standards allows determining which parts cannot be recycled due to a change in the standards.  
         [0060]    In the above structure, when the copier is recovered from the user, and the serviceman operates the recovered part information key  159 , the process for comparing the recovered part information B with the production part information A is performed automatically, and the recycle information is printed out.  
         [0061]    Afterwards, the recovered copier is then dismantled at a service station or recycle facility near the recovered area, and by comparing the recycle information with the recovered parts, the recovered parts are respectively sorted into items to be shipped to the manufacturing plant, items for storage at the service station for use as repair parts, and items to be discarded.  
         [0062]    The usage history record (a substitute part or not) of the part, the remaining service life and other information is clearly known by appending the recycle information, so the appropriate application for the part can be determined.  
         [0063]    The applicable models for the part shipped to the manufacturing plant are also clearly known by appending the recycle information so that which manufacturing plant to ship the part to is also clearly known. Shipping the entire recovered copier to a recycle plant is therefore not necessary and recycling costs can be reduced.  
         [0064]    Further, the recycle information consisting of comparison results for the copier  150  are sent to the production control computer  120 , and the recycle information is checked at the manufacturing plant. As a result, issue of orders for production parts and other supervisory items can be performed before the arrival of the recovered part.  
         [0065]    The above description was for a recycle information system for an image forming device however, the recycle information system of the present invention is applicable not only to image forming devices but also of course to all types of other devices such as personal computers, portable data terminals and digital cameras.  
         [0066]    In the above description, for a recycle information system of the present embodiment, when a machine is recovered from a user, the recovered part information and the production part information are automatically compared, the comparison results are printed out, so that by comparing with the recycle information when the recovered machine is dismantled at a service station or recycle facility near the region of the recovered machine, the recovered parts can then be respectively sorted into parts to be shipped to the manufacturing plant, parts to be stored as replacement parts for making repairs at the service station, and parts to be discarded. Even the destination address to which the parts are to be shipped can be determined. The need to ship the entire recovered machine to the recycle plant is therefore eliminated and a drastic reduction can be made in the recycling expenses.  
         [0067]    Although the present invention has been fully described by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, unless otherwise such changes and modifications depart from the scope of the present invention, they should be construed as being included therein.