Liquid ejection apparatus

A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising:

• a conveyor mechanism configured to convey a recording medium in a conveying direction;
• a recording head having a recording ejection face that has a plurality of ejection openings from which the recording head ejects recording liquid onto the recording medium, an ejection space being defined so as to face the recording ejection face;
• a treatment-liquid application portion provided upstream of the recording head in the conveying direction and configured to apply treatment liquid to the recording medium, the treatment liquid containing a component for coagulating or precipitating a component in the recording liquid;
• a sealing mechanism configured to selectively take one of (i) a sealing state in which the sealing mechanism seals the ejection space from an outside space and (ii) an unsealing state in which the sealing mechanism does not seal the ejection space from the outside space;
• a humid-air supply mechanism configured to perform a humidifying operation in which the humid-air supply mechanism produces humid air to supply the humid air into the ejection space in the sealing state;
• a forcible discharge mechanism configured to perform a forcible discharge operation in which the forcible discharge mechanism applies a pressure to the recording liquid in the recording head to forcibly discharge the recording liquid from the plurality of ejection openings;
• a jam sensing section configured to sense an occurrence of a jam of the recording medium between the conveyor mechanism and the recording ejection face;
• an output portion configured to output a jam-dealing completion signal corresponding to a clearance of the jam which allows the conveyor mechanism to convey the recording medium;
• a measurement section configured to measure a time elapsed from the sense of the occurrence of the jam by the jam sensing section to the output of the jam-dealing completion signal by the output portion;
• and
• a maintenance control section configured, when the time measured by the measurement section is less than a first time, to control the forcible discharge mechanism to perform the forcible discharge operation, and configured, when the time is equal to or greater than the first time, to control the sealing mechanism and the humid-air supply mechanism to perform the humidifying operation in the state in which the sealing mechanism is in the sealing state and then control the forcible discharge mechanism to perform the forcible discharge operation.