Image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsYasuhiro Kawashima, Taku Kudoh, Masaru Watanabe, Hideki Sueoka, Ikoh Soh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A disclosed image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body; a page-width inkjet head unit capable of ejecting fluid droplets without substantially moving the page-width inkjet head unit while forming an image on a medium to be recorded on; a maintaining and recovering unit maintaining and recovering a function of a nozzle of the page-width inkjet head unit; and an engaging unit for engaging the page-width inkjet head unit and the maintaining and recovering unit together as a single unit when the page-width inkjet head unit and the maintaining and recovering unit are removed from the apparatus main body as a single unit.
Claims20
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an apparatus main body;
- a page-width inkjet head unit capable of ejecting fluid droplets without substantially moving the page-width inkjet head unit while forming an image on a recording medium;
- and
- a maintaining and recovering unit maintaining and recovering a function of a nozzle of the page-width inkjet head unit,
- the maintaining and recovering unit including a waste tank configured to store waste fluid that was ejected by the page-width inkjet head unit, was not used for image formation and was recovered by the maintaining and recovering unit;
- and
- an engaging unit that engages the page-width inkjet head unit and the maintaining and recovering unit, including the waste tank, together as a single unit and maintains the positional relationship between the page-width inkjet head unit and the maintaining and recovering unit, including the waste tank, within the single unit, when the page-width inkjet head unit and the maintaining and recovering unit, including the waste tank, are removed from the apparatus main body as a single unit along with the engaging unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.