The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 26, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 15, 2011
Atsushi Saitoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Manabu Izumikawa, Tokyo, JP;
Kazumi Kobayashi, Tokyo, JP;
Shiho Shimosaka, Tokyo, JP;
Shingo Shiramura, Kanagawa, JP;
Shohgo Takeuchi, Kanagawa, JP;
Atsushi Saitoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Manabu Izumikawa, Tokyo, JP;
Kazumi Kobayashi, Tokyo, JP;
Shiho Shimosaka, Tokyo, JP;
Shingo Shiramura, Kanagawa, JP;
Shohgo Takeuchi, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
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.