Image forming apparatus, droplet discharge detecting method in the image forming apparatus, and computer program product

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes: a droplet discharging head that includes nozzles; a light emitting unit that irradiates laser light emitted in a direction intersecting a discharging direction of a droplet discharged from each of the nozzles; a light-receiving unit that receives scattered light when the droplet is irradiated by the laser light and outputs a detection signal; and a droplet discharge detecting unit that detects a droplet discharging state of each of the nozzles based on the detection signal from the light-receiving unit. The light emitting unit emits the laser light such that intensity of the laser light gradually increases or decreases as the laser light travels farther, and the droplet discharge detecting unit selects nozzles so as to cause a variation in the detection signal depending on a droplet discharging state, and detects the droplet discharging state of the detection target nozzles based on the scattered light.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a droplet discharging head that includes a plurality of nozzles; a light emitting unit configured to irradiate laser light emitted from a light-emitting element in a direction intersecting a discharging direction of a droplet discharged from each of the nozzles of the droplet discharging head; a light-receiving unit that is deviated from an optical axis of the light emitting unit such that the light-receiving unit is configured to receive scattered light the light-receiving unit being configured to outputs a detection signal corresponding to an amount of the scattered light, the scattered light being light that is scattered by the discharged droplet as a result of the discharged droplet being irradiated by the laser light; and a droplet discharge detecting unit configured to detect a droplet discharging state of each of the nozzles based on the detection signal output from the light-receiving unit, wherein the light emitting unit is configured to emit the laser light such that intensity of the laser light increases or decreases as the laser light travels farther from the light emitting unit, and the droplet discharge detecting unit is configured to select as detection target nozzles, from the droplet discharging head, a plurality of nozzles located at different distances from the light emitting unit so as to cause a variation in the detection signal depending on a droplet discharging state, and configured to detect the droplet discharging state of each of the detection target nozzles based on the scattered light scattered by irradiation of droplets that are simultaneously discharged from the detection target nozzles.