Image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsNaoki Kikuchi, Masanori Hirano
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus enables the output of a high-quality image even when an expendable supply, such as ink, recording head, or recording sheet other than a specific expendable supply, such as one designated by a manufacturer, is used. The image forming apparatus includes a carriage for moving a recording head having plural recording nozzles in a horizontal scan direction. The recording head discharges ink onto a recording medium. A detection unit detects whether one or more expendable supplies required for image formation is a specific expendable supply. Upon detection of a non-specific expendable supply, a notifying unit notifies an operator and suggests that the image forming method be changed.
Claims10
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a carriage configured to move in a scan direction;
- a recording head mounted on the carriage, the recording head including plural nozzles and configured to record a recording medium by discharging ink via the nozzles onto the recording medium;
- a detection unit configured to detect whether one or more expendable supplies required for image formation are specific expendable supplies;
- a notifying unit configured to notify an operator upon detection of a non-specific expendable supply;
- and
- an image forming method changing unit configured to automatically change an image forming method that is currently set,
- wherein the changing of the image forming method is performed by modifying a part of a standard image forming method,
- wherein the changing of the image forming method involves increasing the number of scan passes made by the recording head for image formation,
- wherein a standby time between successive vertical scan operations is extended to be longer than that of the image forming method that is currently set, and
- wherein the changing of the image forming method involves extending a standby time that is provided in an interval between a switching of recording surfaces, when printing both top and bottom surfaces of the recording medium successively and when detecting that an expendable supply of the one or more expendable supplies required for image formation is a non-specific expendable supply.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.