Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yuusuke Matsuki

Daisuke Mezaki

Kiyoshi Tsukamura

Yuki Tsuchiya

Atsushi Yanaka

An image forming apparatus includes a metallic ink discharge head, a color ink discharge head, an irradiation unit, a carriage, and a moving unit. The metallic ink discharge head discharges a metallic ink onto a recording medium. The color ink discharge head discharges a color ink onto the recording medium. The irradiation unit irradiates the metallic ink with light. The metallic ink discharge head, the color ink discharge head, and the irradiation unit are mounted on the carriage. The moving unit alternately perform a main scanning movement and a sub-scanning movement. The metallic ink discharge head discharges the metallic ink in a region of the recording medium in a former main scanning movement. The irradiation unit irradiates the region with the light in a latter main scanning movement. The color ink discharge head discharges the color ink in the region irradiated with the light by the irradiation unit.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and storage medium

An image forming apparatus includes a liquid discharge head, an irradiation unit, a carriage, and a moving unit. The liquid discharge head discharges a liquid onto a recording medium. The liquid includes a metallic ink and a color ink. The irradiation unit irradiates the liquid on the recording medium with light. The liquid discharge head and the irradiation unit are mounted on the carriage. The moving unit alternately perform a main scanning movement and a sub-scanning movement. The liquid discharge head discharges the metallic ink in a region of the recording medium in a former main scanning movement and discharges the color ink in the region in which the metallic ink has been discharged, in a latter main scanning movement after the former main scanning movement. The irradiation unit irradiates the region in which the color ink has been discharged with the light.

An image forming apparatus includes a liquid discharge head, an irradiation unit, a carriage, and a moving unit. The liquid discharge head discharges a liquid including a metallic ink and a color ink onto a recording medium. The irradiation unit irradiates the liquid on the recording medium with light. The liquid discharge head and the irradiation unit are mounted on the carriage. The moving unit perform a main scanning movement and a sub-scanning movement. The liquid discharge head discharges the metallic ink in a region of the recording medium in the main scanning movement and discharges the color ink in the region in which the metallic ink has been discharged, in the same main scanning movement in which the metallic ink is discharged. The irradiation unit irradiates the region in which the metallic ink and the color ink have been discharged, with the light in the same main scanning movement.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge head to discharge a liquid onto a recording medium conveyed in a sub-scanning direction, an irradiator to irradiate the liquid discharged onto the recording medium with a curing ray, an irradiation area of the curing ray being variable in the sub-scanning direction, and a scanner to scan the liquid discharge head and the irradiator in a main scanning direction perpendicular to the sub-scanning direction.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yuusuke Matsuki