Patent ID: 7121749

Claim:
A carriage drive control device in an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium by moving the recording medium in a sub-scanning direction as well as moving the carriage which mounts a recording head thereon in a main scanning direction, the carriage drive control device moving the carriage in the main scanning direction, and comprising: an actuator that moves the carriage to and fro in the main scanning direction; a detector that detects a position and a moving speed of the carriage; a position controller that sets a target speed based an a position error between a target stop position and a current position of the carriage detected by the detector, the target speed being not more than a predetermined first speed; a speed controller that calculates a controlled variable of the actuator based on a speed error between the target speed set by the position controller and the moving speed of the carriage detected by the detector; a driving unit that drives the actuator according to the controlled variable calculated by the speed controller; and a speed control switcher that sets a control rule used for calculation of the controlled variable by the speed controller, the speed control switcher setting a first control rule when the actuator starts moving the carriage for recording operation, the speed control switcher setting second control rule when the actuator starts moving the carriage for non-recording operation.