Patent ID: 8672446

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a recording head having nozzles at a nozzle face thereof to eject droplets of liquid; a cap to seal the nozzle face of the recording head; a suction device connected to the cap to suck the liquid from the recording head; a suction controller to seal the nozzle face of the recording head with the cap and drive the suction device to suck the liquid from the recording head to perform sucking operation; a dummy ejection controller to eject, from the recording head, droplets not contributing to image formation to perform dummy ejection; a first timer to measure a first elapsed time after the dummy ejection controller performs the dummy ejection; and a second timer to measure a second elapsed time after the suction controller performs the sucking operation; wherein a liquid discharge amount of the sucking operation is set to be greater than a liquid discharge amount of the dummy ejection, when the first elapsed time is equal to or greater than a first predetermined threshold time, the dummy ejection controller performs the dummy ejection, and when the second elapsed time is equal to or greater than a second predetermined threshold time which is greater than the first predetermined threshold time, the suction controller performs the sucking operation.