Patent ID: 7824006

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an ink cartridge having a plurality of print heads arranged in a widthwise direction of a print medium; a wiping unit to wipe the print heads while moving in the print medium feeding direction; a positional information providing unit to provide positional information about a relative position of the wiping unit in relation to the nozzles of the print heads when the wiping unit is operated; and a controller to operatively control the print heads in such a manner that on the basis of the positional information provided from the positional information providing unit and offset information of the ink cartridge, the controller estimates a wiping timing to wipe the nozzles of the print heads with the wiping unit and determines a spitting timing to eject a predetermined amount of ink in the wiped sequence of the nozzles, whereby the controller controls the nozzles to eject ink sequentially as the nozzles are wiped by the wiping unit.