Patent · US Expired

Maintenance management system for image forming equipment

US5752125A · kind A · utility

35Cited by
7References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 20, 1996
Grant dateMay 12, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 20, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG03G15/55
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

In a maintenance management system in which communications control devices of electronic photocopiers are connected through public telephone lines or the like with a host computer of a maintenance company that manages the photocopiers, preventive-maintenance-oriented, omission-free instructions for maintenance work are obtained by determining items of work to be performed based on how many times maintenance has been performed or based on a count of copies produced. For example, in the case where maintenance work to be performed on a first occasion includes items of work belonging to a work item setting area of a second order of precedence within a maintenance table, if items of work that need to be performed do not agree with those specified in the table, items of work of a first order of precedence are added. To achieve this, based on a count at a moment, a work item setting area in the maintenance table is judged to determine its array number, a maintenance state flag is judged, and the array number is incremented by one, so that instructions of the second order of precedence are indicated. Then, the array number of the area is decremented by one, and the flag is judged to be OFF…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.