Patent Application
20240351336
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus.
As recording apparatuses such as facsimile machines, copiers, and printers, ink-jet recording apparatuses, which form images by ejecting ink on recording media such as sheets and OHP sheets, are widely used for their ability to form high-definition images.
In such ink-jet recording apparatuses, when the solvent in ink inside ink ejection nozzles in a recording head evaporates, the ink concentrates, and this can lead to clogging in ink ejection apertures at the tip of the ink ejection nozzles. Thus, some ink-jet recording apparatuses include a cap for capping the ink ejection apertures to prevent the solvent in ink inside the ink ejection nozzles from evaporating (Patent Document 1).
The ink-jet recording apparatus of Patent Document 1 includes a rubber cap, a cap moving mechanism for moving the cap, and a control portion for controlling the cap moving mechanism. The cap has an annular rib that projects from a circumferential part of the main body. The cap moving mechanism can move the cap between a first position at which the cap is away from the ink ejection face and a second position at which the cap is attached to the ink ejection face. The cap moving mechanism keeps the annular rib of the cap in pressed contact with the ink ejection face of the recording head to prevent dehydration in the ink ejection apertures located inward of the annular rib. The control portion controls the cap moving mechanism so that, when a predetermined time passes after previous ink ejection from the ink ejection face before subsequent ink ejection, the cap is moved from the first position to the second position.
In the ink-jet recording apparatus of Patent Document 1, in order to prevent ink ejection failure due to dehydration or clogging in the recording head, purging is performed by pushing ink with high viscosity in the nozzles out of the ejection nozzles in the recording head at the start of printing after a long out-of-operation period or during intermissions of printing. Purging is performed also when ink ejection apertures clog so as to clear the clog by forcibly pushing ink out of the ejection nozzles.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application published as No. 2014-144585.
In the ink-jet recording apparatuses like the one described above, there are cases where, at the time when the cap is supposed to be attached to the ejecting nozzles, the cap cannot be attached due to various faults. In this case, the time for which ink ejection apertures are open is longer than usual, and the ink in the ink ejection apertures dries more easily. This results in an increased frequency of purging described above, leading to a drop in productivity in the form of, for example, delay in printing and an increase in ink consumption for purging.
Thus, the present invention is aimed at providing an ink-jet recording apparatus that can suppress a drop in productivity.
To achieve the above object, an ink-jet recording apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a conveying portion, a recording head, a cap member, a cap moving mechanism, and a control portion. The conveying portion conveys a recording medium. The recording head has an ink ejection face from which ink is ejected and ejects ink from the ink ejection face to the recording medium conveyed by the conveying portion to perform printing. The cap member is removably attached to the ink ejection face and protects the ink ejection face. With the cap moving mechanism, the cap member is movable between the first position at which the cap member is away from the ink ejection face and the second position at which the cap member is attached to the ink ejection face. The control portion controls the cap moving mechanism so that, at a cap closing timing that occurs a predetermined time after previous ink ejection from the ink ejection face before subsequent ink ejection, the cap member is moved from the first position to the second position. The ink-jet recording apparatus further includes a fault detection portion that can detect occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor that inhibits the movement of the cap member to the second position and a storage portion that can store fault information including the movement inhibiting factor. The control portion can execute a measurement mode in which, based on the detection result from the fault detection portion, the fault information is stored in the storage portion.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to detect occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor for a cap member and store fault information in a storage portion. A user can, based on the fault information stored in the fault storage portion, perform maintenance of the ink-jet recording apparatus or review the operation sequence and print settings on the ink-jet recording apparatus. In this way, it is possible to suppress occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor and reduce the frequency of execution of purging. Thus, it is possible to provide an ink-jet recording apparatus that can suppress a drop in productivity.
With reference to the accompanying drawings, embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
As shown in
On the downstream side of the sheet feeding cassettes 2a and 2b in the sheet conveying direction, that is, to the upper right of the sheet feeding cassettes 2a and 2b in
On the side face of the printer main body 1, a main body cover 51 is provided. The main body cover 51 is supported on the printer main body 1 so as to be pivotable about a rotary shaft 52 provided at one end (here, the bottom end) of the cover 51 in the up-down or horizontal direction. Pivoting the main body cover 51 in a direction away from the main body cover 51 exposes the inside of the printer main body 1. In this state, a user can access different devices provided in the printer main body 1 (such as a maintenance unit 19, a recording portion 9, and the like, which will be described later). A plurality of main body covers 51 can be provided at different places in the printer main body 1.
Around the main body cover 51, a cover open/closed detection sensor 53 is provided. The cover open/closed detection sensor 53 is a sensor that can sense the open/closed state of the main body cover 51. As the cover open/closed detection sensor 53, a photo sensor of an optical type can be used. In that case, the cover open/closed detection sensor 53 includes a light receiving portion and a light emitting portion (neither is shown). The cover open/closed detection sensor 53 receives at the light receiving portion a light beam emitted from the light emitting portion. Based on how the light is received, the cover open/closed detection sensor 53 can sense the open/closed state of the main body cover 51.
Inside the printer 100, a first sheet conveying passage 4a (conveying portion) is provided. An upstream-side end part of the first sheet conveying passage 4a in the sheet conveying direction is, via the sheet feeding devices 3a and 3b, connected to the sheet feeding cassettes 2a and 2b. The first sheet conveying passage 4a extends from its upstream-side end part in the sheet conveying direction upward along the side face of the printer main body 1. The manual feed tray 2c is connected to the first sheet conveying passage 4a via the sheet feeding device 3c. The sheet feeding devices 3a and 3b feed sheets P from the sheet feeding cassettes 2a and 2b to the first sheet conveying passage 4a. The sheet feeding device 3c feeds sheets P from the manual feed tray 2c to the first sheet conveying passage 4a.
In a downstream-side end part of the first sheet conveying passage 4a in the sheet conveying direction, a pair of registration rollers 13 is provided. On the downstream side of the pair of registration rollers 13, close to it, there are arranged a first belt conveying portion (conveying portion) 5 and the recording portion 9. The pair of registration rollers 13, while correcting skewed conveying of sheets P and coordinating with the timing of ink ejecting operation by the recording portion 9, feeds out the sheets P toward the first belt conveying portion 5.
On the upstream side of the pair of registration rollers 13, close to it, there is arranged a pre-registration sensor 20 that senses a sheet P fed out from the sheet feeding cassette 2a or the manual feed tray 2c. Between the pair of registration rollers 13 and the first belt conveying portion 5, a CIS (contact image sensor) 21 for sensing the positions of end parts of the sheet P in the width direction (the direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction) is arranged.
The first belt conveying portion 5 includes a first conveying belt 8, a driving roller 6, and a driven roller 7. The first conveying belt 8 is an endless belt. The driving roller 6 and the driven roller 7 are arrayed on the inner side of the first conveying belt 8, parallel in the sheet conveying direction. The first conveying belt 8 is wound around the driving roller 6 and the driven roller 7. The inner circumferential face of the first conveying belt 8 makes contact with the outer circumferential face of the driving roller 6. As the driving roller 6 rotates, the first conveying belt 8 rotates by following it.
In the inner side of the first conveying belt 8, opposite the reverse side of the conveying face of the first conveying belt 8, a sheet sucking portion 22 is provided. The sheet sucking portion 22 has a plurality of holes (unillustrated) in its top face for sucking air and has a fan inside it, so that air can be sucked in from the top face downward. Also in the first conveying belt 8, a number of vent holes (unillustrated) for sucking in air are provided. With the structure described above, a sheet P fed out from the pair of registration rollers 13, while being held by suction on the conveying face of the conveying belt, passes under the recording portion 9.
Around the recording portion 9, the sheet detection sensor 50 (recording medium detection sensor) is arranged. The sheet detection sensor 50 can sense whether a sheet P is present or not between the recording portion 9 and the first conveying belt 8 (at a position where the sheet P faces the recording portion 9 in the up-down direction). When printing is interrupted, based on the detection result from the sheet detection sensor 50, it is possible to judge whether a sheet P is causing a sheet jam between the recording portion 9 and the first conveying belt 8.
On the downstream side (left side in
On the downstream side of the second belt conveying portion 12 in the sheet conveying direction, a second sheet conveying passage 4b (conveying portion) is provided. At a downstream-side end part of the second sheet conveying passage 4b in the sheet conveying direction, a pair of discharge rollers 31 for discharging sheets P out of the printer main body 1 is provided. A sheet P that has passed through the second belt conveying portion 12 is, when not subjected to duplex recording, discharged through the second sheet conveying passage 4b via the pair of discharge rollers 31 onto a sheet discharge tray 15 provided on the left side face of the printer 100, outside it. When recording is performed on both sides of a sheet P, the sheet P having undergone recording on its first side and having passed through the second belt conveying portion 12 is conveyed through the second sheet conveying passage 4b to a reversing conveying passage 16. The sheet P conveyed to the reversing conveying passage 16 has its conveying direction switched so as to be reversed between its obverse and reverse sides, and is conveyed to the pair of registration rollers 13 via an upper part of the printer 100. Then, with the face on which no image has been recorded yet pointing up, the sheet P is conveyed to the first belt conveying portion 5 again.
Under the second belt conveying portion 12, a maintenance unit 19 and a cap unit 30 (cap member) are arranged. The maintenance unit 19, when it performs purging, which will be described later, horizontally moves to under the recording portion 9 where it wipes off the ink pushed out of ejection nozzles (see
The recording portion 9 includes, as shown in
To the recording heads 17a to 17c constituting the line heads 11C to 11K, ink of four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) stored in ink tanks (unillustrated) is supplied, ink of different colors being supplied to corresponding one of the line heads 11C to 11K respectively.
Based on image data received from an external computer or the like, the recording heads 17a to 17c eject ink from the ejection nozzles 18 (see
In order to prevent ink ejection failure due to dehydration or clogging in the recording heads 17a to 17c, purging is performed by pushing ink with high viscosity in the nozzles out of, at the start of printing after a long out-of-operation period, all the ejection nozzles 18 (see
In addition, in order to prevent ink ejection failure due to dehydration or clogging in the recording heads 17a to 17c, the cap unit 30 can be attached to them. The cap unit 30 is coupled to a unit horizontal-movement mechanism 65 (cap moving mechanism) and a unit ascent/descent mechanism 66 (cap moving mechanism). The unit horizontal-movement mechanism 65 and the unit ascent/descent mechanism 66 move the cap unit 30 in the horizontal direction (here, the direction along the sheet conveying direction) and in the up-down direction, and thereby move the cap unit 30 between a first position where cap portions 30b, described later, are away from the ink ejection faces F of the recording heads 17a to 17c and a second position where the cap portions 30b are attached to the ink ejection face F.
As shown in
The cap portions 30b are arranged on the top face of the cap tray 30a, at positions corresponding to the arrangement (staggered arrangement) of the recording heads 17a to 17c. The cap portions 30b are formed as recesses so that, when the recording heads 17a to 17c are attached, the ink ejection faces F fit in the cap portions 30b. When the cap portions 30b are attached to the recording heads 17a to 17c, the ink ejection faces F make contact with the bottom faces of the cap portions 30b. Four height-direction positioning projections 30c are provided on the top face of the cap tray 30a.
The cap unit 30 can, by the action of the unit horizontal-movement mechanism 65, reciprocate between a facing position (the position in
When the cap unit 30 in the facing position described above is raised toward the recording portion 9 to cap the recording heads 17a to 17c, the tip ends of the height-direction positioning projections 30c make contact with the head housing 10 in the recording portion 9 at a predetermined height. The contact between the height-direction positioning projections 30c and the head housing 10 restricts the upward movement of the cap unit 30 to keep constant the state of contact between the cap portions 30b and the ink ejection face F.
As shown in
The guide rails 60a and 60b support the carriage 71 such that this is slidable in the sheet conveying direction. As shown in
Back in
The maintenance unit 19 (carriage 71) can reciprocate between a facing position (the position in
The maintenance unit 19 (carriage 71) can reciprocate together with or separately from the cap unit 30. The carriage 71 and the cap unit 30 may be configured to have an engagement mechanism (not shown) with the help of which, when they move together, the carriage 71 is engaged with the cap unit 30 and, when they move separately, the carriage 71 is disengaged from the cap unit 30.
As shown in
The wipe ascent/descent motor 76 is provided outside the carriage 71 (here, on its downstream side in the sheet conveying direction). The wipe ascent/descent motor 76 includes a gear train (not shown) composed of an output shaft and a plurality of gears. The gear train of the wipe ascent/descent motor 76 is engaged (not shown) with the rotary shaft 75. As the output shaft of the wipe ascent/descent motor 76 rotates forward, the rotation is transmitted via the gear train to the rotary shaft 75. When, with the support arms 74 collapsed (the state in
As shown in
When the cap unit 30 is attached to the recording heads 17a to 17c, first, as indicated by hollow arrows in
The control device 110 is configured to include, for example, a CPU (central processing unit) and a memory. Specifically, the control device 110 includes a main control portion 110a, a print completion time setting portion 110b, a sheet feeding control portion 110c, a maintenance control portion 110d, and a fault detection portion 110e.
The main control portion 110a controls the operation of different parts of the printer 100. For example, the driving of the rollers inside the printer 100 and the ejection of ink from the line heads 11C to 11K during image recording are controlled by the main control portion 110a. The main control portion 110a further includes a counting portion for counting time and a time setting portion for setting the hour (neither is shown), and stores the settings of time and hours in the storage portion 28. The main control portion 110a counts the time between one incidence of ink ejection and the next.
The print completion time setting portion 110b sets a theoretical printing completion time at the start of printing. The theoretical printing completion time is calculated based on size information on the sheet P entered from the operation panel 27, which will be described later, printing time based on the number of sheets to be printed, maintenance time needed for calibration for density correction, flushing (purging) for suppressing ink ejection failure in the line heads 11C to 11K, purging by the maintenance unit 19 and the like, and user response time needed for replenishment with sheets P or switching of sheet feeding trays.
The sheet feeding control portion 110c controls the pair of registration rollers 13 and the sheet feeding devices 3a to 3b. For example, the sheet feeding control portion 110c controls the pair of registration rollers 13 based on the timing at which the CIS 21 senses the rear end of the sheet P to control the conveying timing of the subsequent sheet P.
The maintenance control portion 110d controls to have the above-mentioned purging performed in which ink is forcibly pushed out of the ink ejection nozzles 18 in the recording heads constituting the line heads 11C to 11K. The maintenance control portion 110d also controls the driving of the unit horizontal-movement mechanism 65 and the unit ascent/descent mechanism 66 described above. When the ink ejection time described above reaches a predetermined time (for example, one minute), the maintenance control portion 110d performs an operation to attach the cap unit 30 to the recording heads 17a to 17c (hereinafter referred to as “capping operation”). The timing at which the ink ejection time reaches a predetermined time is referred to as the cap closing timing.
Here, if, for example, a sheet P jams around the recording portion 9 during printing and the capping operation is executed in this state, the sheet P is caught between the cap unit 30 and the recording heads 17a to 17c. This may cause the recording heads 17a to 17c to be scratched or soiled, the cap unit 30 to be deformed, or the sheet P to tear, making it difficult to clear the sheet jam. Thus, if, at the cap closing timing, based on the detection result from the sheet detection sensor 50, it is judged that the sheet P is stuck around the recording portion 9, the maintenance control portion 110d stops executing the capping operation.
With the main body cover 51 open, the unit horizontal-movement mechanism 65 and the unit ascent/descent mechanism 66 are disconnected from a power supply. Thus, with the main body cover 51 open, even at the cap closing timing, the maintenance control portion 110d stops executing the capping operation.
The fault detection portion 110e can detect a movement inhibiting factor based on the status of the devices and sensors in the printer 100. The movement inhibiting factor is a factor that interferes with the movement of the cap unit 30 to the second position. For example, the movement inhibiting factors can be a jam of the sheet P around the recording portion 9 as described above or an open state of the main body cover 51. Other examples include a case where the capping operation cannot be performed for some reason, a case where a user has intentionally stopped the execution of the capping operation, a case where the main control portion 110a has decided to suspend the capping operation based on the status of the devices in the printer 100, and the like.
The operation panel 27 is an operation portion (input portion) for receiving input of various settings. For example, a user can operate the operation panel 27 to enter size information on the sheets P to be set in the sheet feeding cassettes 2a and 2b or on the manual feed tray 2c. The user can also operate the operation panel 27 to enter the number of sheets P to be printed or enter an instruction to start a printing job. The operation panel 27 functions also as a notification device (display portion) for displaying notifications related to the operation status of the printer 100.
The storage portion 28 is a memory for storing an operation program for the control device 110 along with various kinds of information and is configured to include a ROM (read-only memory), a RAM (random-access memory), and a non-volatile memory. Information set on the operation panel 27 is stored in the storage portion 28.
The storage portion 28 includes a capping time storage portion 26 and a fault storage portion 24. The capping time storage portion 26 stores a cap closure time. The cap closure time is a cumulative time of periods during which the cap unit 30 has been attached to the recording heads 17a to 17c. More specifically, the cap closure time is the cumulative time of periods after the cap unit 30 is attached to the recording heads 17a to 17c at the cap closing timing until the cap unit 30 is separated from the recording heads 17a to 17c for subsequent ink ejection.
The fault storage portion 24 stores information related to various faults that occur in the printer 100 (hereinafter referred to as “fault information”). Fault information includes the movement inhibiting factor described above, the time and frequency of occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor, a cap unmovable time, described later, and the difference value between the cap closure time and the cap unmovable time.
The cap unmovable time refers to the time, as observed on occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor described above at the cap closing timing, from the occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor until its elimination. Here is one example of the cap unmovable time. As described above, when the main body cover 51 is open, based on the detection result from the cover open/closed detection sensor 53, the fault detection portion 110e detects occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor. When the main body cover 51 is closed, based on the detection result from the cover open/closed detection sensor 53, the fault detection portion 110e detects that the movement inhibiting factor has been eliminated. The time after the timing that occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor is detected (the timing that the main body cover 51 is detected to be open) until the timing that the movement inhibiting factor is eliminated (the timing that the main body cover 51 is closed) is one example of the cap unmovable time.
Here is another example of the cap unmovable time. When a sheet P jams around the recording portion 9 during printing, the fault detection portion 110e detects occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor based on the detection result from the sheet detection sensor 50. The time after the timing that occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor is detected (the timing that a jam of the sheet P is detected) until the timing that the movement inhibiting factor is eliminated (the timing that the sheet P is removed) also is an example of the cap unmovable time.
The main control portion 110a calculates the difference value by subtracting the cap unmovable time from the cap closure time. The difference value is stored as fault information in the fault storage portion 24. The difference value represents the time during which the cap unit 30 could not be attached due to occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor relative to the time during which the cap unit 30 was supposed to be kept attached to the recording heads 17a to 17c.
The main control portion 110a can execute a measurement mode. An instruction to start and end the measurement mode is directly entered by a user on the operation panel 27. If, while the measurement mode is executed, a movement inhibiting factor occurs, the main control portion 110a stores in the fault storage portion 24 fault information including the movement inhibiting factor. If an instruction to end the measurement mode is entered on the operation panel 27, the fault information stored in the storage portion 28 is displayed on the operation panel 27.
The measurement mode can be started at the beginning of or in the middle of printing, and can be ended in the middle of or at the completion of printing. It is also possible to make a setting previously so that the measurement mode is executed during a predetermined time period. An example of control in the measurement mode will be described in detail later.
The communication portion 29 is a communication interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from an external device (for example, a personal computer (PC)). For example, when a user operates a PC and transmits to the printer 100 a print command together with image data, the image data and print command are fed to the printer 100 via the communication portion 29. In the printer 100, the main control portion 110a can control the recording heads 17a to 17c based on the image data to make them eject ink and thereby record an image on a sheet P.
Next, an example of control in the measurement mode described above will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in
As shown in
If an image formation command is entered (Yes in step S1), the main control portion 110a starts image formation and in addition checks whether an instruction to execute the measurement mode has been entered (step S2). So long as no instruction to execute the measurement mode is entered (No in step S2), while image formation is continued, a measurement-mode standby state is maintained until an instruction to execute the measurement mode is entered.
If an instruction to execute the measurement mode is entered (Yes in step S2), fault information stored in the fault storage portion 24 is deleted (step S3). Next, whether a movement inhibiting factor has occurred during image formation is checked (step S4). If a movement inhibiting factor has occurred (Yes in step S4), fault information related to the movement inhibiting factor (information including the movement inhibiting factor, the occurrence time of the cap movement inhibiting factor, and the difference value between the cap closure time and the cap unmovable time) is stored in the fault storage portion 24 (step S5). If no movement inhibiting factor has occurred (No in step S4), the procedure skips step S5 and proceeds to step S6.
Next, whether an instruction to end the measurement mode has been entered is checked (step S6). If an instruction to end the measurement mode has been entered (Yes in step S6), the fault information stored in the fault storage portion 24 is displayed on the operation panel 27 (step S7), and the control in the measurement mode ends. So long as no instruction to end the measurement mode is entered (No in step S6), the procedure returns to step S4, and step S4 to step S6 are repeated until an instruction to end the measurement mode is entered.
If, between steps S4 and S6, fault information is repeatedly stored, the cap unmovable time and the difference value described above are stored in a cumulative manner with respect to the already-stored times. Specifically, after a cap unmovable time is stored in step S5, if no instruction to end the measurement mode is entered (No in step S6) and, again in step S5, another cap unmovable time due to a different movement inhibiting factor is stored, the main control portion 110a calculates the cumulative time by adding the latest cap unmovable time to the previously stored cap unmovable time, and stores the cumulative time in the fault storage portion 24. The main control portion 110a calculates the difference value described above using the cumulative time of the cap unmovable time as the cap unmovable time and stores the result in the fault storage portion 24.
As described above, the printer 100 according to the embodiment can detect occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor and store fault information in the fault storage portion 24. A user can, based on the fault information stored in the fault storage portion 24, perform maintenance of the printer 100 or review the operation sequence and the print settings on the printer 100. In this way, it is possible to suppress occurrence of movement inhibiting factors and to reduce the frequency of execution of purging. Thus, it is possible to provide a printer 100 that can suppress a drop in productivity.
If the printer 100 is used for what is called business purposes such as in a case where printing is performed on thousands of sheets in a single print job, the user operating the printer 100 is often skilled and knowledgeable about printing. Such a skilled user may be interested to monitor occurrence of movement inhibiting factors in a certain time zone out of the long period of printing. To cope with this, the printer 100 according to the above embodiment can execute and terminate the measurement mode through operation on the operation panel 27 as described above. Thus, the user can obtain information on the movement inhibiting factors that occur during a given period (time zone).
As described above, the fault information stored in the fault storage portion 24 includes the cap unmovable time. In this way, a user can recognize the time during which a movement inhibiting factor has occurred. As described above, the printer 100 according to the embodiment stores the cap closure time in the storage portion 28, and in addition calculates the difference value between the cap closure time and the cap unmovable time to store the result as fault information in the fault storage portion 24. In this way, the user can recognize the time during which the cap unit 30 could not be attached due to occurrence of a movement inhibiting factor relative to the time during which the cap unit 30 was supposed to be kept attached to the recording heads 17a to 17c. Thus, the user can guess the dryness of the ejection nozzles 18 and the timing of purging and perform maintenance on the printer 100, and this helps suppress a drop in productivity.
As described above, the fault information includes the frequency of occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor. Thus, a user can recognize the frequency of occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor and take appropriate measures (such as reviewing the operation sequence and the print settings on the printer 100 and performing maintenance on the printer 100) to suppress occurrence of the movement obstruction factor. As described above, the fault information includes the time of occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor. Thus, it is possible to recognize the timing of occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor.
The embodiment described above is in no way meant to limit the present disclosure, which thus allows for many modifications and variations within the spirit of the present disclosure. For example, movement inhibiting factors may be previously stored in the storage portion 28, or the fault detection portion 110e and the main control portion 110a may be configured to identify them based on the operation state of the printer 100.
While, in the above description, a photo sensor of an optical type is employed as the cover open/closed detection sensor 53, it can instead be a mechanical button or switch that can detect the open/closed state of the main cover 51.
While, in the embodiment described above, the sheet detection sensor 50 detects the presence of a sheet P between the recording portion 9 and the first conveying belt 8, it is also possible to adopt a configuration where, instead of the sheet detection sensor 50, the CIS 21 detects the presence of a sheet P between the recording portion 9 and the first conveying belt 8.
The present invention is applicable to image forming apparatuses which form an image on a recording medium by ink-jet recording and in which a cap is attached to a recording head at intermissions during printing. Based on the present invention, in the event of an increase in the frequency of purging or in the amount of ink used for purging, a user can obtain information (fault information) on the factor (movement inhibiting factor) that is preventing the cap from being attached to the recording head. This makes it easier to suppress occurrence of the movement inhibiting factor and makes it possible to provide an image forming apparatus that can suppress a drop in productivity.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-193973 | Nov 2021 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2022/043342 | 11/24/2022 | WO |
