| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus which can reduce an air amount being fed into a waste liquid tank by reducing the driving load of a suction pump for discharging the waste liquid of ink, which has been preliminarily discharged in a cap, to the waste liquid tank. SOLUTION: This image forming apparatus is equipped with: recording heads 34a and 34b which have nozzles for discharging liquid droplets of ink; a cap 82a which caps the nozzle surfaces of the recording heads; a suction tube which is connected with the cap and guides the waste liquid of ink to be discharged in the discharging direction; the suction pump which generates a suction force for sucking the waste liquid to be discharged into the tube; and the approximately sealed waste liquid tank 101 with which the tube is directly connected and holds the waste liquid. The liquid droplets which do not contribute to the recording is discharged from the recording heads to the caps before the recording motion is performed, and after temporarily storing the waste liquid in the cap in the tube after the recording motion completes, the waste liquid is discharged to the waste liquid tank. COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT |
