Print job cost estimate method and system
Automatically determining the cost of a printed job on a digital printing press before the job is run. A job control component in the digital front end of the printing press collects and stores the processing information from the job processing components from prior runs. A job-reporting component displays the stored and estimated processing information and automatically computes and displays the estimated cost of the job. The method includes determining a future toner cost using a toner cost, a future press usage cost, and a substrate cost based on historical toner consumption and then rasterizing the job to determine the total job cost.
1. A method of automated cost determination for a print job using a printer controller, said method comprising:
a.) determining a future toner cast using a toner cost coefficient (TCC) based on historical toner consumption comprising:
i) determining a volume-weighted toner cost constant per job mass value (gimK) determined by dividing a total actual toner weight used over a desired time period by a total calculated toner mass usage value (jtcTotal) using historical toner consumption stored values;
ii) determining the toner cost coefficient (TCC) by multiplying the volume-weighted toner cost constant per job mass value (gimK) by a historical toner cost per weight stored value from historical stored values; and
iii) determining the future toner cost for the job by multiplying the TCC by a toner mass consumption (JTU) value such that total toner cost =[JTU* TCC];
b) determining a future press usage cost using a press wear coefficient (PWC) based on historical operator replaceable component (ORC) stored values;
c.) rasterizing the print job to determine a future surface count to be printed for the print job;
d.) determining a substrate cost based on the surface count and a substrate cost coefficient (SCC) based on historical substrate costs; and
e.) determining a total job cost by adding the future toner cost to the substrate cost and the future press usage cost using a single-action selection component that in response to performance of only a single action, sends a request to the printer controller to select from stored data including one or more of SCC, TCC, and PWC, the request including an identifier so that the printer controller can access the stored data to complete the determination of the total job cost.
2. The method of claim 1 , the step of determining the toner cost further comprising determining a media independent TCC by dividing the total grams of toner consumed by the toner laydown mass using historical toner mass and ink replacement machine-specific stored values from a set historical time period (t 2 −t 1 ) for each color channel (CMYK).
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating the (JTU*TCC) value for each channel and summing up the (JTU * TCC) values for all the channels.
4. The method of claim 1 , the step of determining the JTU using a surface toner consumption calculated by rasterizing the job using a reduced dpi that is lower then a press dpi.
5. The method of claim 4 , the step of determining the toner cost further comprising using a ratio of press dpi to reduced dpi to adjust surface toner consumption when determining the job.
6. The method of claim 1 , the step of determining the toner cost further comprising determining the total toner cost by summing individual color channel toner costs for CMYK As follows:
Cost
Cyan
=
JTU
Cyan
*
TCC
Cyan
Cost
Magenta
=
JTU
Magenta
*
TCC
Magenta
Cost
Yellow
=
JTU
Yellow
*
TCC
Yellow
Cost
Black
=
JTU
Black
*
TCC
Black
Toner
Cost
=
Cost
Black
+
Cost
Cyan
+
Cost
Magenta
+
Cost
Yellow
.
7. The method of claim 1 , the step of determining the total toner cost by summing the individual toner costs (TCC * JTU) further comprising summing atoner mass consumed values for all surfaces.
8. The method of claim 1 , the step of determining the press usage cost further comprising calculating a total press wear cost by determining a media independent historical press wear value using historical press wear machine-specific stored values from a set historical time period (t 2 −t 1 ) and summing these up for the time period.
9. The method of claim 8 , the step of determining the press usage cost further comprising using different sets of automatically generated press cost coefficients from multiple printers.
10. The method of claim 8 , the step of determining the press usage cost further comprising using ORC replacement data and ORC average life information to calculate PWC.
11. The method of claim 10 , the step of determining the PWC further comprising recalculating the PWC on a periodic basis.
12. The method of claim 10 , the step of determining the PWC further comprising recalculating the PWC when a purchase price adjustment takes place.
13. The method of claim 1 , the step of determining the toner cost using a toner cost coefficient based on historical toner consumption further comprising generating an empirical relationship between post-screen toner density data and toner mass consumption.
14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising generating an empirical non-linear relationship between post-screen toner density data and toner mass consumption.
15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising using the empirically derived relationship when creating press toner cost coefficients when there is no post screened data available.
16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising using the empirically derived relationship for converting toner pixel density to toner mass.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising using the empirically derived relationship to calculate relative toner consumption from the actual toner mass empirical data.
18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising using the toner replacement information to map the calculated toner mass to actual toner consumption.