Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Shinichiro Naruse

Soichi Saiga

Takayuki Niihara

Mamoru Yorimoto

Ichiro Komuro

Kenji Shimizu

Ryusuke Mase

Tetsu Morino

Akihiro Fujita

Yohzoh Dohki

Manabu Nonaka

Yasuhiro Kawashima

Hajime Nishida

Kenichi Kawabata

Taku Kudoh

Eiki Yoshimizu

Shoji Asanuma

Takumi Hagiwara

Kazumasa Ishikawa

Shigeyuki Ito

Masato Ogawa

Yasunobu Youda

Koji Watanabe

Kenji Kameyama

Shuji Tanaka

Masatoshi Sakakitani

Hideki Sueoka

Keisuke Sekine

Tomonori Naito

Takayuki Nihara

Yohzoh c/o Ricoh Elemex Corp Dohki

Shigeyuki c/o Ricoh Elemex Corp Ito

An image forming apparatus includes a sheet feeder, a carriage, a cutter, a cutter unit, and a controller. A first standby position and a second standby position are disposed on both ends of a range of movement of the carriage. The carriage does not contact the cutter unit at each of the first standby position and the second standby position. The controller is configured to control the carriage and the cutter unit to overlappingly move. In an image recording condition in which images are consecutively recorded in a plurality of pages on a sheet, the controller is configured to change a direction of movement of the carriage at a leading end of a page so that the direction of movement of the carriage is the same as a direction of movement of the cutter unit at a sheet cutting position at which the cutter cuts the sheet.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes at least one recording head, at least one head holder, a carriage, a reference member, a sub-reference member, and an adjuster. The at least one recording head includes a plurality of nozzles to discharge droplets. The at least one head holder holds the at least one recording head. The carriage holds the at least one head holder and movable in a main scanning direction. The reference member is provided at the carriage and arranged along the main scanning direction. The sub-reference member is provided at the carriage in separation from the reference member. The adjuster adjusts parallelism of the sub-reference member to the reference member. The at least one head holder is supported by and detachable from the reference member, positioned in contact with the sub-reference member, and held in the carriage.

An interlocking mechanism includes an axial member reciprocating in a width direction of arrangement of first and second front doors by linking with an opening/closing operation of a side door. A stop member is provided rotatably and fixed in the width direction to the axial member. A restriction member presses the axial member toward the side door and having a pressing/urging member that urges the stop member in one of rotating directions. A pressing claw presses the stop member in the other of the rotating directions in a state where the second front door and the side door are closed. A restriction claw abuts on the stop member when the first front door is closed in a state where at least one of the side door and the second front door is open. An interlock switch is actuated by an actuator being inserted into the interlock switch.

Interlocking mechanism and image forming apparatus having the interlocking mechanism

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head including plural nozzles discharging liquid droplets, a head holder holding the recording head, a carriage holding the head holder, a guide member extending in a main scanning direction of the image forming apparatus, and a reference member extending in the direction substantially parallel to the direction of the guide member. Further, the carriage moves along the guide member, a part of the reference member is disposed in the carriage, and the head holder is attachably and detachably hooked on and held by the reference member.

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head, a head holder, a carriage, a guide member, a reference member, and a pressing unit. The recording head has a plurality of nozzles to eject liquid droplets. The head holder holds the recording head. The carriage is reciprocally movable in a main scanning direction and holds the head holder. The guide member is disposed along the main scanning direction to guide the carriage along the main scanning direction. The reference member is disposed parallel to the guide member in the carriage to rotatably hold the head holder. The pressing unit presses the head holder toward the carriage. The head holder is pressed against the reference member and the carriage by the pressing unit.

Image forming apparatus including recording head for ejecting liquid droplets

An image forming apparatus including a main carriage to move and scan in a main scanning direction, a sub-carriage connectable to the main carriage to move and scan in the main scanning direction together with the main carriage, a positioning guide provided on one of the main carriage and the sub-carriage, and a position detector provided on the other one of the main carriage and the sub-carriage. The position detector reads the positioning guide as the main carriage and the sub-carriage connect to each other to detect relative positions of the main carriage and the sub-carriage.

An image forming apparatus includes a carriage, a drive mechanism, a flexible harness, and a support member. The carriage includes a recording head to jet liquid droplets. The drive mechanism, which moves the carriage in a main scanning direction, includes a belt extending in the main scanning direction. The flexible harness, connecting the recording head and another unit, transmits signals between the recording head and another unit. The support member supports the flexible harness in an upright position over the belt. The flexible harness is routed at least partially in the main scanning direction of the carriage. The support member includes a regulation member at an exit portion of the support member to set a vertical height of the support member at the regulation member smaller than a width of the flexible harness.

An image forming apparatus includes a carriage, an image forming unit, a driving pulley, a driven pulley, a driving source, an open-ended carriage drawing member, and a mount. The drawing member is extended between the pulleys and having end portions mounted to the carriage. Each end portion has a surface including an indented area. The mount is disposed on the carriage and having first engagement portions and second engagement portions. Each first engagement portion has at least one indented area to engage the indented area of the drawing member. Each second engagement portion is connected to a corresponding first engagement portion in an orientation to be folded back relative to the corresponding first engagement portion. The end portions are mounted to the mount in a state in which the surface having the indented area is directed to a portion folded back along a corresponding second engagement portion.

Image forming apparatus including carriage that mounts image forming unit

An image forming apparatus includes recording heads, head holders, a carriage, a guide member, a reference member, and a pressing member. The recording heads have nozzles to eject liquid droplets. The holders hold the recording heads. The carriage is reciprocally movable in a main scanning direction and holding the holders. The guide member is disposed along the main scanning direction to guide the carriage along the main scanning direction. The reference member is disposed parallel to the guide member in the carriage to hold the holders. The pressing member presses at least one of the holders toward at least another of the holders. The holders have reference faces to contact each other in the main scanning direction to determine relative positions of the holders. With the recording heads positioned based on the reference faces of the holders, the recording heads are held by the holders.

An image forming apparatus includes a carriage movably supported to move reciprocally in a main scanning direction, an image forming unit mounted on the carriage to form an image, a driving pulley disposed at a first end in the main scanning direction, a driven pulley disposed at a second end opposite the first end in the main scanning direction, a driving source operatively connected to the driving pulley to rotate the driving pulley, a carriage drawing member extended between the driving pulley and the driven pulley and partially mounted to the carriage to draw the carriage, a mount disposed on the carriage to mount the carriage drawing member, a holder disposed on the carriage to hook the carriage drawing member extended from the mount during assembly, and a guide member to guide the carriage drawing member extended from the mount and the holder.

An image forming apparatus including a first carriage having a first recording head to eject black liquid droplets, a second carriage having a second recording head to eject color liquid droplets and separatably dockable with the first carriage, a position detector to detect a position of the second carriage relative to the first carriage in a state in which the first and second carriages are docked with each other, and a landing position corrector to correct landing positions of liquid droplets ejected from at least one of the first and second recording heads. The landing position corrector holds the position of the second carriage obtained by the position detector as a reference position and adjusts a correction amount for correcting the landing positions based on an amount of shift between the reference position and a present position of the second carriage docked with the first carriage.

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head, a head holder, a carriage, a guide member, a reference member, an intermediate member, and an adjuster. The recording head has a plurality of nozzles to eject liquid droplets. The head holder holds the recording head. The carriage is reciprocally movable in a main scanning direction and holds the head holder. The guide member is disposed along the main scanning direction to guide the carriage along the main scanning direction. The reference member is disposed parallel to the guide member in the carriage to hold the head holder. The intermediate member is displaceably disposed between the head holder and the carriage and held by the carriage. The adjuster adjusts a position of the head holder by displacing the intermediate member.

An image forming apparatus including a first carriage having a recording head that ejects black liquid droplets and is movable in a main scanning direction and a second carriage having a recording head that ejects color liquid droplets and is detachably attachable to the first carriage within a scanning range of the first carriage in the main scanning direction. The second carriage when attached to the first carriage is movable in the main scanning direction together with the first carriage. Attachment and detachment of the second carriage to and from the first carriage are performed based on a predetermined reference position of the first carriage in the main scanning direction.

An image forming apparatus including a first carriage having at least two first recording heads, a second carriage separatably dockable with the first carriage, a pattern forming unit to control the at least two first recording heads to form on a recording medium adjustment patterns for correcting a shift in landing positions of liquid droplets ejected from the at least two first recording heads, a pattern detector provided to the first carriage to read the adjustment patterns, and a landing position corrector to correct the shift in the landing positions of the liquid droplets based on a result obtained by the pattern detector. The at least two first recording heads form multiple rows of the adjustment patterns, and the pattern detector successively reads at least two rows of the multiple rows of the adjustment patterns without docking and separation of the first and second carriages.

Image forming apparatus and method for correcting landing positions of liquid droplets

An image forming apparatus including a first carriage having a recording head that ejects black liquid droplets and is movable in a main scanning direction, a second carriage having a recording head that ejects color liquid droplets and is detachably attachable to the first carriage to move in the main scanning direction together with the first carriage while attached to the first carriage, and a cap member that caps the recording head of the second carriage while the first carriage is moving with the second carriage separated from the first carriage. Attachment and detachment of the second carriage to and from the first carriage are performed within a scanning range through which the first carriage is movable.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Shinichiro Naruse