Patent ID: 8070250

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a recording head that ejects liquid droplets onto a sheet; a transport belt opposing the recording head that intermittently transports the sheet in a sheet transport direction; a pressure device that presses the sheet against the transport belt at an upstream side of the recording head with respect to the sheet transport direction; a sheet detection device that detects the sheet at an upstream side of a nip between the pressure device and the transport belt with respect to the sheet transport direction; an ejection/transport device disposed at a downstream side of the sheet detection device with respect to the sheet transport direction, and that transports the sheet in a sheet ejection direction by driving intermittently in synchronization with the transport belt; and a control device that controls generating a first stop timing of the sheet transportation by the transport belt, at which first stop timing the transfer belt stops transporting the sheet, and that controls a predetermined delay time after which a second stop timing is generated, at which second stop timing the ejection/transport device stops transporting the sheet, and wherein the control device sets the predetermined delay time to be a first value when the sheet detection device detects the sheet, and sets the predetermined delay time to be a second value when the sheet detector device does not detect the sheet, and the second value is less than the first value.