Patent ID: 8348379

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a droplet discharge head; a maintenance and recovery mechanism including: a head sealing member facing the droplet discharge head and moving to a position where a surface of the droplet discharge head is sealed off from outside of the head sealing member; and a suction force generator generating a suction force inside the head sealing member to suction ink from nozzles of the droplets discharge head, wherein the head sealing member moves the droplets remaining on a nozzle surface of the droplet discharge head along the nozzle surface and suctioning the droplets, the head sealing member includes a cap having an upper surface, suctioning droplets from a nozzle surface of the droplet discharge head, and being in close contact with the surface of the droplet discharge head, a suction port connected to the suction force generator and suctioning droplets from the droplet discharge head in a droplet discharge direction, and an air introducer introducing air along the nozzle surface of the droplet discharge head, the nozzle surface being substantially orthogonal to the droplet discharge direction, and the air introducer includes slits at a rim of the head sealing member contacting the nozzle surface of the droplet discharge head, and wherein the slits are grooves previously formed on the upper surface of the cap.