Image forming apparatus having a plurality of liquid discharge heads

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a head unit including a plurality of liquid discharge heads configured to discharge liquid droplets, each liquid discharge head having a nozzle face on which a plurality of nozzles are formed;
• a cap unit configured to cap the nozzle faces of the liquid discharge heads;
• a suction device configured to suction an inside of the cap unit while the nozzle faces of the liquid discharge heads are capped with the cap unit;
• a wiper unit configured to wipe the nozzle faces of the liquid discharge heads, nozzle faces of different liquid discharge heads thereof partially overlapping with each other, a first portion of a first nozzle face of one liquid discharge head of the different liquid discharge heads being wiped after a second portion of a second nozzle face of another liquid discharge head of the different liquid discharge heads which is partially overlapped with the first portion is wiped by the wiper unit;
• and
• a control unit configured to control maintenance operation of the liquid discharge heads by selecting a first ejection operation and a second ejection operation, wherein the control unit controls the first ejection operation to eject a first amount of liquid from a first liquid discharge head having a discharge failed nozzle among the plurality of liquid discharge heads, and controls the second ejection operation to eject a second amount of liquid, which is less than the first amount, from a second liquid discharge head having no discharge failed nozzle among the plurality of liquid discharge heads.