Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Shohgo Takeuchi

Kazumi Kobayashi

Manabu Izumikawa

Shingo Shiramura

Atsushi Saitoh

Shiho Shimosaka

An image forming device includes: an endless transport belt in which a plurality of through holes are formed, the transport belt circulating to carry sheets; a recording head with a plurality of nozzles through which ink droplets are discharged, the nozzles being arranged in a width direction of the transport belt. The image forming device performs preliminary discharge of ink droplets in which the ink droplets discharged through the nozzles pass through the through holes. The image forming device further includes: a sensor that detects an element to be detected formed on the transport belt when the transport belt circulates; and a preliminary discharge control unit that controls timings of discharge of ink droplets through the nozzles in the preliminary discharge based on a plurality of results of detecting the elements to be detected given from the sensor.

Image forming device and method for controlling discharge of ink droplets based on sensor detection

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head having nozzles to form an image by squirting droplets onto a recording medium, a transfer member transferring the recording medium and having holes which allows passage of droplets squirted by the recording head for non-printing discharge, an area detecting unit to detect a plurality of non-printing discharge areas that are areas between adjacent recording media, and a non-printing discharge instructing unit to cause the nozzles to perform non-printing discharge such that all the nozzles perform non-printing discharge at least once in the non-printing discharge areas.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Shohgo Takeuchi