Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet having a downstream end portion by using a recording device, comprising:

• a platen positioned opposite to said recording device, said platen having a Plurality plurality of small holes, and said platen being arranged to draw by suction and hold the sheet through said plurality of small holes;
• and
• a conveyor, arranged upstream of said small holes of said platen in a sheet conveyance direction, for pushing and conveying the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction, and
• wherein said recording device starts recording of an image only when the downstream end portion of the sheet reaches the recording device.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet by using a recording device, comprising:

• a platen positioned opposite to said recording device to draw by suction and hold the sheet through a plurality of small holes;
• a conveyor, arranged upstream of said small holes of said platen in a sheet conveyance direction, for pushing and conveying the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction;
• and
• a sheet roll positioned upstream of said conveyor in the sheet conveyance direction, said sheet roll being arranged to wind the sheet such that a recorded surface of the sheet faces outward.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a stay fixed to a frame of a main body of said image forming apparatus;
• a platen fixed to said stay;
• a recording device for recording an image on a sheet conveyed on said platen;
• and
• a guide fixed to said frame to hold said recording device.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of sheet roll holding units capable of holding a plurality of sheet rolls formed by winding a plurality of sheets into rolls;
• guide paths extending from said sheet roll holding units and having a joint portion at which sheets fed from said sheet rolls the guide paths join;
• a sheet conveyor, provided downstream of said joint portion of said guide paths, for pinching and conveying sheets passing through said joint portion by making an urging member act on said sheets;
• and
• a holding member for holding said urging member so that said urging member is brought into contact with and or separated from said sheet conveyor, said holding member having a guide surface which guides said sheets fed from said sheet rolls to said joint portion in a direction of said sheet conveyor.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet conveyed along a sheet conveyance path, comprising:

• a carriage for holding a recording device for recording an image on the sheet, said carriage moving said recording device in a direction crossing said sheet conveyance path when performing image recording and retracting said recording device from said sheet conveyance path when in a stand by mode;
• a sheet sensor arranged on said carriage to detect information relating to the sheet prior to image recording;
• and
• a control device for controlling conveyance of the sheet and movement of said carriage, and
• wherein said sheet sensor is arranged upstream of said recording device in a sheet conveyance direction and closer to said sheet conveyance path than a retracting position of said recording device, so as to oppose the sheet.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a feeding device for simultaneously feeding a plurality of sheets arranged at predetermined intervals in a sheet widthwise direction;
• a recording device for forming images on the sheets;
• and
• a carriage for reciprocatingly moving said recording device in a direction crossing a sheet conveyance direction,
• wherein image formation is simultaneously performed by said recording device on all of the plurality of sheets during one recording movement of said carriage based on file information of images to be formed on the sheets.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a feeding device for feeding a sheet to a recording unit;
• a recording device for performing a recording operation to record an image on the sheet in said recording unit;
• a carriage for reciprocating said recording device a distance not less than a width of the sheet in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveyance direction;
• a control device for controlling recording of the image onto the sheet by moving said carriage based on file information containing image recording information and cut position information and in synchronism with conveyance of the sheet;
• and
• a sheet cutting device for cutting the sheet on which the image is recorded,
• wherein when the sheet is not to be cut, the sheet is conveyed a length L (L>0) based on the image recording information and in synchronism with reciprocation of said carriage, and when the sheet is to be cut, the sheet is conveyed a length α (0<α,<L) based on the cut position information, while the recording operation is temporarily stopped, so that a cut position of the sheet opposes said sheet cutting device, the sheet is cut and conveyed a length L−α, and the recording operation is restarted.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a feeding device for feeding a plurality of sheets to a recording unit;
• a recording device for performing a recording operation to record images on the sheets in said recording unit;
• a carriage for reciprocating said recording device a distance not less than a width of the sheets in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveyance direction;
• a control device for controlling recording of images onto the sheets by moving said carriage based on file information containing image recording information and cut position information and in synchronism with conveyance of the sheets;
• and
• a sheet cutting device for cutting the sheets on which the images are recorded,
• wherein when the sheets are not to be cut, the sheets are intermittently conveyed based on the image recording information and in synchronism with reciprocation of said carriage, and when a selected one of the sheets is to be cut, only the selected sheet is conveyed a predetermined length based on the cut position information, while the recording operation is temporarily stopped, so that only a cut position of the selected sheet opposes said sheet cutting means device, the selected sheet is cut, the sheets are conveyed a predetermined length, and the recording operation is restarted.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a conveyor for conveying, in forward and backward directions, a sheet fed from a roll sheet formed by winding the sheet into a roll;
• a recording device for recording an image on the sheet while said conveyor conveys the sheet in the forward and backward directions;
• a sheet cutter for performing a cut operation to cut the sheet on which the image is recorded;
• and
• a suction device arranged to suck the sheet toward a platen located to face the recording device by applying a negative pressure to the sheet, and to remove dust produced in said apparatus during and after the cut operation.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a recording device for recording an image on a sheet having a downstream end portion;
• a platen having a plurality of holes through which the sheet is drawn and held by suction of the sheet on the platen when the image is recorded on the sheet by the recording device;
• and
• a conveyor arranged upstream of the holes of said platen in a sheet conveyance direction, for pushing and conveying the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction,
• wherein said recording device starts recording of the image when the downstream end portion of the sheet reaches the recording device.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a recording device for recording an image on a sheet;
• a platen having a holding part and a plurality of holes through which the sheet is drawn and held by suction of the sheet on the platen when the image is recorded on a part of the sheet between the holding part and the recording device, by the recording device;
• a first conveyor arranged upstream of the holding part of said platen in a sheet conveyance direction, for pushing and conveying the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction;
• and
• a second conveyor arranged downstream of the holding part of said platen in a sheet conveyance direction for conveying the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction,
• wherein said recording device starts recording of the image on the part of the sheet between the holding part and the recording device, before the sheet conveyed by the first conveyor in the sheet conveying direction reaches the second conveyor.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a recording device for recording an image on a sheet;
• a platen having a plurality of holes through which the sheet is drawn and held by suction of the sheet on the platen when the image is recorded on the sheet by the recording device;
• a conveyor arranged upstream of the holes of said platen in a sheet conveyance direction, for conveying the sheet in the sheet conveyance direction;
• and
• a sheet roll positioned upstream of said conveyor in the sheet conveyance direction, said sheet roll being arranged to wind the sheet such that a recording side of the sheet faces outward in a roll state.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a recording device for recording an image on a sheet;
• a conveyor for conveying, in forward and backward directions, the sheet fed from a roll sheet formed by winding the sheet into a roll;
• a sheet cutter for performing a cut operation to cut the sheet on which the image is recorded;
• and
• a platen including a suction chamber having a platen board, and a suction device for creating a negative pressure in the suction chamber to suck the sheet toward the platen board by applying a negative pressure to the sheet through the platen board, and to suck dust produced in the image forming apparatus into the suction chamber during and after the cut operation.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a recording device having a recording area in which an image is recorded on a sheet fed from a sheet roll formed by winding the sheet;
• a sheet cutter for performing a cutting operation of the sheet on which the image has be recorded;
• and
• a platen including a suction device for sucking the sheet toward the platen by a suction force and for sucking to remove dust generated in the image forming apparatus by the cutting operation.