Drying device

A drying device for blowing warm air on a sheet on which an image is formed by discharging ink and for drying the sheet, the drying device comprising:

• a casing;
• a belt accommodated in the casing and provided with a plurality of through holes which penetrate through an inner peripheral side and an outer peripheral side thereof, and configured to convey the sheet;
• a blowing unit provided upward of a conveyance surface of the belt in a vertical direction, and provided with a blowing duct including a suction opening for sucking air and a blowout opening for blowing out the air sucked from the suction opening toward the sheet conveyed by a rotatable member and a blowing fan for blowing from the suction opening toward the blowout opening in the blowing duct;
• a suction unit provided downward of the conveyance surface of the belt in the vertical direction, and provided with an exhaust duct including an exhaust opening for sucking the air from the inner peripheral side of the belt through the plurality of through holes and for exhausting the air sucked and a suction fan for blowing from the plurality of through holes toward the exhaust opening inside the exhaust duct;
• and
• a connecting duct configured to connect the exhaust opening and the blowing duct and to guide the air exhausted from the exhaust opening to the blowing duct, the connecting duct being disposed on a further backside of the casing opposite to a frontside of the casing than a sheet conveyance portion with respect to a widthwise direction of the sheet crossing to a conveyance direction of the sheet.