Patent ID: 9517621
Filing Date: 2016-12-13
CPC Classification: B41J

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: a recording head including a plurality of nozzles to eject liquid droplets, a plurality of individual liquid chambers communicating with the plurality of nozzles, and a plurality of pressure generators to generate pressure to pressurize liquid in the plurality of individual liquid chambers; a head driving control circuit to apply an ejection pulse to a pressure generator of the plurality of pressure generators corresponding to an ejection nozzle of the plurality of nozzles; and a dummy ejection control circuit to control a dummy ejection operation to eject liquid droplets not contributing to image formation, wherein the dummy ejection control circuit controls a first dummy ejection operation to eject the liquid droplets to a non-image-forming area per a constant length of a continuous recording medium and a second dummy ejection operation to eject the liquid droplets to an image forming area of the continuous recording medium, wherein the head driving control circuit applies a first non-ejection pulse to pressure generators corresponding to at least one of non-ejection nozzles to vibrate a meniscus of liquid in the non-ejection nozzles without ejecting the liquid droplets in the image forming area of the continuous recording medium, and applies a second non-ejection pulse, which vibrates the meniscus of liquid greater than the first non-ejection pulse, to pressure generators corresponding to the at least one of non-ejection nozzles to vibrate the meniscus of liquid in the non-ejection nozzles without ejecting liquid droplets in the non-image forming area of the continuous recording medium; and the head driving control circuit applies the second non-ejection pulse after the first dummy ejection operation when the recording head faces the non-image forming area of the continuous recording medium.