Image forming apparatus performing non-printing discharge

• US 8,382,241 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Saitoh, Atsushi, Izumikawa, Manabu, Kobayashi, Kazumi, Shimosaka, Shiho, Shiramura, Shingo, Takeuchi, Shohgo
• Primary Examiner(s): HUFFMAN, JULIAN D
• Application Number:
  US13/047,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20110227980A1
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 347/16, 347/35
• US Class Current: 347/35
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0085 Using suction for maintaining printing material flat on rotatable drums B41J13/226
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0095 Detecting means for copy material, e.g. for detecting or sensing presence of copy material or its leading or trailing end
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/16526 by applying pressure only
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/16585 for paper-width or non-reciprocating print heads
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2002/1657 Cleaning of only nozzles or print head parts being selected
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/38 Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head having nozzles to form an image by squirting droplets onto a recording medium, a transfer member transferring the recording medium and having holes which allows passage of droplets squirted by the recording head for non-printing discharge, an area detecting unit to detect a plurality of non-printing discharge areas that are areas between adjacent recording media, and a non-printing discharge instructing unit to cause the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge such that all the nozzles perform non-printing discharge at least once in the non-printing discharge areas.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

a recording head having nozzles to form an image by squirting droplets onto a recording medium;

a transfer member transferring the recording medium and having holes which allows passage of droplets squirted by the recording head for non-printing discharge;

an area detecting unit to detect a plurality of non-printing discharge areas that are areas between adjacent recording media; and

a non-printing discharge instructing unit to cause the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge such that all the nozzles perform non-printing discharge at least once in the non-printing discharge areas,

wherein the area detecting unit detects the non-printing discharge areas based on a size of the recording medium and a speed of the transfer member,

wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises;

a setting unit to make a setting indicative of a size of a frequently used recording medium, and

wherein the area detecting unit detects the plurality of non-printing discharge areas based on the size of the print medium indicated by the setting of the setting unit and the speed of the transfer member when a next image is formed.

2. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a mark detecting unit,

wherein the transfer member includes a hole mark indicative of a position of the holes, and the mark detecting unit detects the position of the holes by detecting the hole mark,

and wherein the non-printing discharge instructing unit causes the non-printing discharge to be performed based on the detected position of the holes and a number of the plurality of non-printing discharge areas detected by the area detecting unit.

3. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a memory unit to store a history of non-printing discharge of the nozzles,

wherein the non-printing discharge instructing unit causes non-printing discharge to be performed based on the history of non-printing discharge.

4. A image forming apparatus, comprising:

a recording head having nozzles to form an image by squirting droplets onto a recording medium;

a transfer member transferring the recording medium and having holes which allows passage of droplets squirted by the recording head for non-printing discharge;

an area detecting unit to detect a plurality of non-printing discharge areas that are areas between adjacent recording media;

a non-printing discharge instructing unit to cause the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge such that all the nozzles perform non-printing discharge at least once in the non-printing discharge areas,

a check unit to check whether all the nozzles have performed the non-printing discharge; and

an adjustment unit to adjust a length of at least one of the non-printing discharge areas and to adjust the speed of the transfer member in response to detection by the check unit that not all the nozzles have performed the non-printing discharge.

5. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the adjustment unit obtains the speed of the transfer member such that time required to provide the adjusted length of at least one of the non-printing discharge areas falls within a predetermined time range.

6. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a modifying unit to modify discharge frequency of droplets discharged by the recording head such that the discharge frequency stays within a predetermined frequency range,

wherein the adjustment unit adjusts the speed such that the discharge frequency falls within the predetermined frequency range.

7. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a selecting unit to allow a choice to be made as to whether the non-printing discharge instructing unit causes all the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge in the plural non-printing discharge areas, or causes all the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge in a single non-printing discharge area.

8. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the adjustment unit adjusts the speed of the transfer member once in a predetermined time period or each time a predetermined number of recording media receive images formed thereon.

9. A image forming apparatus, comprising:

a recording head having nozzles to form an image by squirting droplets onto a recording medium;

a transfer member transferring the recording medium and having holes which allows passage of droplets squirted by the recording head for non-printing discharge;

an area detecting unit to detect a plurality of non-printing discharge areas that are areas between adjacent recording media;

a non-printing discharge instructing unit to cause the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge such that all the nozzles perform non-printing discharge at least once in the non-printing discharge areas,

a check unit to check whether all the nozzles have performed the non-printing discharge;

a productivity obtaining unit to obtain productivity of the image forming apparatus; and

an adjustment unit to adjust a length of at least one of the non-printing discharge areas and to adjust the speed of the transfer member in response to detection by the check unit that not all the nozzles have performed the non-printing discharge, such that the productivity obtained by the productivity obtaining unit falls within a predetermined productivity range, and such that nozzles having not performed non-printing discharge perform non-printing discharge.