Patent ID: 8662612

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a recording head including a plurality of nozzles to eject liquid droplets, a plurality of individual liquid chambers communicated 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 unit 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 to eject liquid droplets from the recording head and a non ejection pulse to a pressure generator of the plurality of pressure generators corresponding to a non ejection nozzle of the plurality of nozzles to vibrate a meniscus of liquid in the non ejection nozzle without ejecting liquid droplets; and a dummy ejection control unit to control dummy ejection operation to eject liquid droplets not contributing to image formation from the recording head, the dummy ejection control unit capable of controlling, as the dummy ejection operation, first dummy ejection operation to eject the liquid droplets not contributing to image formation to a continuous recording medium per a constant length of the continuous recording medium and second dummy ejection operation to eject the liquid droplets not contributing to image formation to an image formation area of the continuous recording medium, wherein, when the dummy ejection control unit controls the first dummy ejection operation, the head driving control unit applies a first non ejection pulse as the non ejection pulse to the pressure generator corresponding to the non ejection nozzle, when the dummy ejection control unit controls the second dummy ejection operation, the head driving control unit applies a second non ejection pulse as the non ejection pulse to the pressure generator corresponding to the non ejection nozzle, and when the second non ejection pulse is applied to the pressure generator corresponding to the non ejection nozzle, an amplitude or number of vibrations of the meniscus of liquid in the non ejection nozzle is greater than when the first non ejection pulse is applied to the pressure generator corresponding to the non ejection nozzle.