Image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorYasuhiro Kawashima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus in which air or dust does not enter a recording liquid tube when an ink cartridge is changed is disclosed. An engine unit, in which an image forming section and a sub scanning direction paper carrying section are integrated as one unit, is removably attached to an apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus. Further, an ink cartridge storing section, in which an ink cartridge is removably stored, is integrated into the engine unit, and is changed together with the engine unit. In addition, a carriage, the recording liquid tube, and the ink cartridge storing section are removed as one unit from the engine unit.
Claims4
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- an engine unit which forms an image on a recording medium by moving a carriage in the main scanning direction and by carrying the recording medium in the sub scanning direction, wherein the carriage includes a recording head for ejecting droplets of recording liquid and a sub tank for supplying the recording liquid to the recording head, and the engine unit can be removed and attached to a main body of the image forming apparatus;
- and
- an ink cartridge storing unit that stores a recording liquid cartridge for supplying recording liquid to the sub tank via a recording liquid tube such that the recording liquid cartridge can be removed and attached to the ink cartridge storing unit, wherein the ink cartridge storing unit is integrated to the engine unit;
- wherein,
- the carriage, the recording liquid tube, and the ink cartridge storing unit can be removed from the engine unit as one unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.