JP2007111919A - Image formation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation device which is able to improve a printing speed (recording speed) at a low cost. <P>SOLUTION: When a printing of the following page is discriminated to be necessary during printing the present page, the driving of a conveying motor 205 and paper-feed roller 43 are started at the same time of the completion of the present page printing, then the paper for the following page is fed while delivering the paper for the present page. When the conveyance quantity of the paper for the following page reaches the predetermined conveyance quantity, the feeding of the paper for the following page is stopped. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to control related to conveyance and feeding of a recording medium.

  In general, as an image forming apparatus that combines a printer / fax / copier or a combination of these functions, for example, a recording medium composed of a liquid ejection head that ejects liquid droplets of a recording liquid is used. However, the material is not limited, and a recording medium and a transfer material are also used synonymously.) While transporting a recording liquid droplet (hereinafter also referred to as an ink droplet), the liquid is adhered to the paper. It is known that an image forming unit of an ink jet system that performs image formation (recording, printing, printing, and printing are also used synonymously) is known.

By the way, from the viewpoint of increasing the printing speed in an image forming apparatus such as an ink jet printer, in order to save the time required for paper feeding and increase the printing speed, as described in Patent Document 1, a recording operation is in progress. In addition, there is a recording apparatus in which recording paper for the next recording is fed from a paper feeding cassette.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-096450

From the viewpoint of shortening the ink drying waiting time, which is a problem peculiar to inkjet recording, and increasing the printing speed, as described in Patent Document 2, the drying waiting time of the preceding paper is a predetermined value. A print processing apparatus is known in which, when the value is smaller than the value, the feeding of the next page is started immediately after the preceding sheet is discharged.
JP 2004-130565 A

  By the way, in the recording apparatus described in Patent Document 1, on the assumption that the paper feeding operation and the paper feeding operation are performed by rotation driving by the same motor, the paper feeding during the recording operation and the recording medium of the next page are recorded. However, in a configuration in which a plurality of paper feeding units (paper feeding cassettes and the like) are provided and at least a part of the paper feeding units can be detached from the apparatus main body as an option, the patent document In some cases, the paper feeding operation and the paper feeding operation as assumed in No. 1 cannot be performed by the same motor, and there is a problem that it cannot be applied to such a configuration.

  In addition, in an image forming apparatus capable of stacking a large amount of paper such as a laser beam printer, a paper feeding operation is performed during a recording operation. It is independent and the paper feeding operation is a series of operations. This is because a large-sized image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer can be configured to perform a paper feeding operation and a paper feeding operation independently, and thus a small-sized image forming apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus. However, from the viewpoint of cost, it is difficult to configure the sheet feeding operation during the recording operation as a series of operations.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming apparatus capable of improving a printing speed (recording speed) at low cost.

  In order to solve the above problems, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention determines whether or not the next page image recording is necessary when recording the current page image on the recording medium, and the next page image recording is necessary. In some cases, there is provided a means for controlling the conveyance of the recording medium for the current page by the conveyance means after the completion of image recording to the current page and the feeding of the recording medium for the next page by the feeding means. It was.

  Here, when image recording of the next page is necessary, at the same time as the recording of the current page on the recording medium is completed, the recording medium of the current page is transported by the transporting means and the next page by the feeding means is It is preferable to control the recording medium to be fed.

  The image forming apparatus according to the present invention determines whether or not image recording of the next page is necessary when recording the image of the current page on the recording medium. Thus, the recording medium is started to be fed, and a means for controlling the feeding according to the transport amount of the recording medium to be fed is provided.

  Here, the feeding is stopped when the transport amount of the recording medium by the feeding means reaches a predetermined amount, and the recording of the current page by the transport means is completed at the same time when the recording of the current page to the recording medium is completed. It is preferable to perform control so that the medium is transported and the feeding of the recording medium by the feeding unit is resumed.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is determined whether or not image recording of the next page is necessary when recording the image of the current page on the recording medium. When the recording of the page is completed, the printing speed can be improved at a low cost by transporting the recording medium for the current page and feeding the recording medium for the next page in parallel.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it is determined whether or not image recording of the next page is necessary when recording the image of the current page on the recording medium. Since the feeding of the recording medium is started by the feeding means and the feeding is controlled according to the feeding amount of the recording medium to be fed, the feeding and feeding are performed simultaneously, and the recording of the next page is performed at low cost. The recording start position of the medium can be determined correctly.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory perspective view of an ink jet recording apparatus as an image forming apparatus according to the present invention as viewed from the front side.

  The ink jet recording apparatus includes an apparatus main body 1, a paper feed tray 2 for loading paper loaded in the apparatus main body 1, and a sheet on which an image is recorded (formed) by being detachably mounted on the apparatus main body 1. A paper discharge tray 3 for stocking is provided. Further, a cartridge loading for loading an ink cartridge that protrudes from the front surface to the front side of the apparatus main body 1 and is lower than the upper surface is provided at one end side of the front surface of the apparatus main body 1 (side of the paper supply / discharge tray section). The cartridge loading unit 4 has an operation / display unit 5 provided with operation buttons and a display.

  The cartridge loading unit 4 includes a plurality of recording liquid cartridges that contain recording liquids (inks) of different colors, for example, black (K) ink, cyan (C) ink, magenta (M) ink, and yellow (Y) ink. Ink cartridges 10k, 10c, 10m, and 10y (referred to as “ink cartridge 10” when colors are not distinguished) are inserted from the front side to the rear side of the apparatus main body 1 and can be loaded. A front cover (cartridge cover) 6 that is opened when the ink cartridge 10 is attached or detached is provided on the front side of the unit 4 so as to be openable and closable.

  Further, the operation / display unit 5 has the remaining amounts of the ink cartridges 10k, 10c, 10m, and 10y of each color at the arrangement positions corresponding to the mounting positions (arrangement positions) of the ink cartridges 10k, 10c, 10m, and 10y of the respective colors. The remaining amount display portions 11k, 11c, 11m, and 11y for each color for displaying the near end and the end are arranged. Further, the operation / display unit 5 is also provided with a power button 12, a paper feed / print resume button 13, and a cancel button 14.

  Next, an outline of an internal configuration and a mechanism part of the ink jet recording apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 is a schematic side view for explaining the outline of the internal structure, FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view for explaining the same, FIG. 4 is a schematic side view for explaining the overall structure of the mechanism, and FIG. It is principal part plane explanatory drawing of a part.

  4 and 5, the carriage 33 is slidably held in the main scanning direction by a guide rod 31 and a stay 32 which are guide members horizontally mounted on the left and right side plates 21A and 21B constituting the frame 21. The main scanning motor 201 (FIG. 2) moves and scans in the arrow direction (carriage main scanning direction) in FIG.

  As described above, the carriage 33 is provided with a recording head 34 including a droplet discharge head for discharging ink droplets of each color of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (Bk). The ejection ports are arranged in a direction crossing the main scanning direction, and are mounted with the ink droplet ejection direction facing downward.

  As an inkjet head constituting the recording head 34, a piezoelectric actuator such as a piezoelectric element, a thermal actuator that uses a phase change caused by film boiling of a liquid using an electrothermal transducer such as a heating resistor, and a metal phase change caused by a temperature change. It is possible to use a shape memory alloy actuator to be used, an electrostatic actuator using an electrostatic force, or the like provided as pressure generating means for generating a pressure for discharging a droplet.

  A driver IC is mounted on the recording head 34 and is connected to a control unit (not shown) via a harness (flexible print cable) 22.

  In addition, the carriage 33 is equipped with a sub tank 35 for each color for supplying ink of each color to the recording head 34. As described above, each color sub-tank 35 is supplementarily supplied with ink of each color from the ink cartridge 10 of each color mounted in the cartridge loading unit 4 via the ink supply tube 36 of each color. The cartridge loading 4 is provided with a supply pump unit 24 for feeding ink in the ink cartridge 10, and the ink supply tube 36 is engaged with the rear plate 21 </ b> C constituting the frame 21 in the middle of turning. It is held by a stop member 25.

  On the other hand, as a sheet feeding unit that is a feeding unit for feeding the sheets 42 stacked on the sheet stacking unit (pressure plate) 41 of the sheet feeding tray 2, the sheets 42 are separated and fed one by one from the sheet stacking unit 41. A half paddle (feed roller) 43 and a separation pad 44 made of a material having a large friction coefficient are provided opposite to the half-moon roller (sheet feed roller) 43, and the separation pad 44 is urged toward the sheet feed roller 43 side.

  In order to feed the paper 42 fed from the paper feeding unit to the lower side of the recording head 34, a guide member 45 for guiding the paper 42, a counter roller 46, a transport guide member 47, and a tip pressure roller. And a holding belt 48 which is a conveying means for electrostatically attracting the fed paper 42 and conveying it at a position facing the recording head 34.

  The transport belt 51 is an endless belt, and is configured to wrap around the transport roller 52 and the tension roller 53 and circulate in the belt transport direction (sub-scanning direction). This transport belt 51 is, for example, a surface layer that is a sheet adsorbing surface formed of a pure resin material having a thickness of about 40 μm that is not subjected to resistance control, such as ETFE pure material, and resistance control by carbon with the same material as this surface layer. And a back layer (medium resistance layer, ground layer).

  A charging roller 56 is provided as charging means for charging the surface of the conveyor belt 51. The charging roller 56 is disposed so as to come into contact with the surface layer of the conveyor belt 51 and to be rotated by the rotation of the conveyor belt 51, and applies a predetermined pressing force to both ends of the shaft as a pressing force. The transport roller 52 also functions as an earth roller, and is in contact with the middle resistance layer (back layer) of the transport belt 51 and is grounded.

  In addition, a guide member 57 is disposed on the back side of the conveyance belt 51 so as to correspond to a printing area by the recording head 34. The guide member 57 has an upper surface that protrudes toward the recording head 35 from the tangent line of two rollers (the conveyance roller 52 and the tension roller 53) that support the conveyance belt 51, thereby maintaining high-precision flatness of the conveyance belt 51. Like to do.

  The transport belt 51 rotates in the belt transport direction of FIG. 5 when the transport roller 52 is rotationally driven by the sub-scanning motor 205 (see FIG. 3) via the drive belt 204.

  As shown in FIG. 4, a paper detection lever 50 is provided for detecting the presence or absence of the paper 42 to be fed with the guide 45 positioned between the feeding means and the conveying means. The paper detection lever 50 is out of paper when the lever is at the position indicated by the solid line, and paper is present when the lever is at the position shown by the broken line.

  Further, as a paper discharge unit for discharging the paper 42 recorded by the recording head 34, a separation claw 61 for separating the paper 42 from the conveying belt 51, a paper discharge roller 62, and a paper discharge roller 63 are provided. The paper discharge tray 3 is provided below the paper discharge roller 62.

  A duplex unit 71 is detachably mounted on the back surface of the apparatus body 1. The duplex unit 71 takes in the paper 42 returned by the reverse rotation of the conveyance belt 51, reverses it, and feeds it again between the counter roller 46 and the conveyance belt 51. The upper surface of the duplex unit 71 is a manual feed tray 72.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, a maintenance / recovery mechanism 81 including a recovery means for maintaining and recovering the state of the nozzles of the recording head 34 is provided in the non-printing area on one side of the carriage 33 in the scanning direction. It is arranged.

  The maintenance / recovery mechanism 81 includes cap members (hereinafter referred to as “caps”) 82a to 82d (hereinafter referred to as “caps 82” when not distinguished from each other) for capping the nozzle surfaces of the recording head 34, and nozzle surfaces. A wiper blade 83 that is a blade member for wiping the ink, and an empty discharge receiver 84 that receives liquid droplets when performing empty discharge for discharging liquid droplets that do not contribute to recording in order to discharge the thickened recording liquid. ing. Here, the cap 82a is a suction and moisture retention cap, and the other caps 82b to 82d are moisture retention caps.

  Then, the waste liquid of the recording liquid generated by the maintenance / recovery operation by the maintenance / recovery mechanism 81, the ink discharged to the cap 82, the ink attached to the wiper blade 83 and removed by the wiper cleaner 85, and the idle ejection to the idle ejection receiver 94. The discharged ink is discharged and stored in a waste liquid tank (not shown).

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, in the non-printing area on the other side of the carriage 33 in the scanning direction, idle discharge is performed to discharge liquid droplets that do not contribute to recording in order to discharge the recording liquid thickened during recording or the like. An empty discharge receiver 88 for receiving the droplets at the time is disposed, and the empty discharge receiver 88 is provided with an opening 89 along the nozzle row direction of the recording head 34.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a communication circuit unit (interface) 101 such as a USB for transmitting / receiving data to / from the host is provided on the inner rear side of the apparatus body 1, and this image formation is performed. A control circuit board 102 that constitutes a control unit that controls the entire apparatus is provided.

  In the ink jet recording apparatus configured as described above, the sheets 42 are separated and fed one by one from the sheet feeding tray 2, and the sheet 42 fed substantially vertically upward is guided by the guide 45, and the transport belt 51 and the counter roller 46, and the leading end is guided by the conveying guide 37 and pressed against the conveying belt 51 by the tip pressing roller 49, and the conveying direction is changed by approximately 90 °.

  At this time, a charging voltage pattern in which a positive voltage and a negative output are alternately repeated from the AC bias supply unit to the charging roller 56 by a control unit (not shown), that is, an alternating voltage is applied, and the conveying belt 51 alternates. That is, plus and minus are alternately charged in a band shape with a predetermined width in the sub-scanning direction which is the circumferential direction. When the paper 42 is fed onto the conveyance belt 51 charged alternately with plus and minus, the paper 42 is attracted to the conveyance belt 51, and the paper 42 is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction by the circular movement of the conveyance belt 51.

  Therefore, by driving the recording head 34 according to the image signal while moving the carriage 33, ink droplets are ejected onto the stopped paper 42 to record one line, and after the paper 42 is conveyed by a predetermined amount, Record the next line. Upon receiving a recording end signal or a signal that the trailing edge of the paper 42 has reached the recording area, the recording operation is finished and the paper 42 is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 3.

  Further, during printing (recording) standby, the carriage 33 is moved to the maintenance / recovery mechanism 81 side, and the recording head 34 is capped by the cap 82 to keep the nozzles in a wet state, thereby preventing ejection failure due to ink drying. . Further, the recording liquid is sucked from the nozzle by a suction pump (not shown) with the recording head 34 capped by the cap 82 (referred to as “nozzle suction” or “head suction”), and the thickened recording liquid and bubbles are discharged. Perform recovery action. In addition, an idle ejection operation for ejecting ink not related to recording is performed before the start of recording or during recording. As a result, the stable ejection performance of the recording head 34 is maintained.

Next, an outline of the control unit of the image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. This figure is an overall block diagram of the control unit.
The control unit 300 controls the entire image forming apparatus, and includes a main control unit 301 configured by a microcomputer that also functions as a unit for controlling determination, sheet feeding, conveyance, and the like according to the present invention, and a microcomputer that controls printing. And a print control unit 302 configured by a computer.

  Then, as described above, the main control unit 301 uses the main scanning motor 201 and the sub-scanning motor 205 to form an image on the paper 42 based on the print processing information input from the communication circuit 101. Drive control is performed via the drive circuit 303 and the sub-scanning motor 304, and control such as sending print data to the print control unit 302 is performed.

  The main control unit 301 receives a detection signal from a carriage position detection circuit 305 that detects the position of the carriage 33, and the main control unit 301 controls the movement position and movement speed of the carriage 33 based on the detection signal. To do. The carriage position detection circuit 305 detects the position of the carriage 33 by, for example, reading and counting the number of slits of an encoder sheet arranged in the scanning direction of the carriage 33 with a photosensor mounted on the carriage 33. The main scanning motor drive circuit 303 rotates the main scanning motor 201 according to the carriage movement amount input from the main control unit 301 to move the carriage 33 to a predetermined position at a predetermined speed.

  Further, the main control unit 301 receives a detection signal from a conveyance amount detection circuit 306 that detects the movement amount of the conveyance belt 51, and the main control unit 301 moves the movement amount and movement speed of the conveyance belt 51 based on the detection signal. To control. The conveyance amount detection circuit 306 detects the conveyance amount by, for example, reading and counting the number of slits of the rotary encoder sheet attached to the rotation shaft of the conveyance roller 52 with a photo sensor. The sub-scanning motor driving circuit 304 rotates the sub-scanning motor 205 in accordance with the conveyance amount input from the main control unit 301 and rotationally drives the conveyance roller 52 to move the conveyance belt 51 to a predetermined position at a predetermined speed. Move with.

  The main control unit 301 rotates the sheet feeding roller 43 once by giving a sheet feeding roller driving command to the sheet feeding roller driving circuit 307.

  The print control unit 302 ejects droplets of the recording head 34 (recording head 134) based on the signal from the main control unit 301 and the carriage position and conveyance amount from the carriage position detection circuit 305 and the conveyance amount detection circuit 306. Data for driving the pressure generating means is generated and applied to the head drive circuit 310.

  The head drive circuit 310 drives the pressure generating means (a piezoelectric element in the case of a piezo head) of the recording head 34 (recording head 134) based on the print data from the print control unit 302, and drops liquid droplets from a required nozzle. To discharge.

  Further, a detection signal from the paper feed presence / absence detection circuit 308 is input to the main control unit 301. The paper feed presence / absence detection circuit 308 outputs a detection signal corresponding to the position of the paper detection lever 50 described above, for example, “1” when there is paper and “0” when there is no paper.

Next, a printing process in the image forming apparatus configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.
When the main control unit 301 receives a print request from the host side via the communication circuit 101, the main control unit 301 starts execution of the print processing shown in FIGS.

  First, referring to FIG. 7, when the execution of the printing process is started, the carriage 33 is moved to the printing position, and at the same time, the driving of the transport motor (sub-scanning motor) 205 is started. In addition, the driving of the paper feed roller 43 is started by turning on the paper feed clutch via the paper feed roller driving circuit 307. These are done almost simultaneously.

  Then, the paper feed presence / absence detection circuit 308 starts detecting whether or not there is paper feed (whether there is paper 42). The paper feed roller 43 is driven until the paper feed presence / absence detection circuit 308 determines that there is paper feed, and when it is determined that paper feed is present, the drive of the paper feed roller 43 is stopped.

  At this time, the paper 42 is also moved by the transport belt 51 (moved when the transport motor 205 is driven to rotate).

  Further, it is determined whether or not the paper 42 has reached the printing position (recording position by the recording head 34). When the paper 42 has reached the printing position, the driving of the transport motor 205 is stopped and received via the communication circuit 101. The set image data is set in the print control unit 302 to prepare for drawing.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 8, during this preparation process, it is determined whether there is a page (page) to be printed next to the sheet that has come to the current printing position. After M2S is set to “1”, detection of the carry amount is started. If there is no next page to be printed, the flag M2S is set to “0”.

  Thereafter, scanning of the carriage 33 is started in this state, and ejection of recording liquid droplets from the recording head 34 is started. As described above, ejection of liquid droplets and main scanning are performed according to the received image data. However, when the image is formed and the ink ejection is completed, the printing of the current page is completed, and whether the flag M2S is “1”, that is, whether the next page is printed. Is determined.

  At this time, if printing in the current page is not completed and flag M2S = 1 is not satisfied, that is, printing in the current page has not been completed, or if there is no printing on the next page, the transport motor 205 is started to determine whether printing within the current page has been completed. If printing within the current page is not completed, the process returns to the determination processing to determine whether the printing position has been reached, and printing within the current page is completed. When the paper discharge is completed, it is determined whether or not the discharge of the paper 42 of the page has been completed. When the paper discharge is completed, the conveyance motor 205 is stopped and the printing is ended.

  On the other hand, when the printing of the current page is completed and the flag M2S = 1, that is, when the printing of the current page is completed and the next page is printed, as shown in FIG. In addition, the driving of the transport motor 205 is started and the driving of the paper feed roller 43 is started. That is, when printing of the current page is completed, the paper 42 of the current page is discharged and paper feeding is started at the same time.

  Then, it is determined whether or not the detection result of the paper feed presence / absence detection circuit 308 is paper feed. When paper feed is present, the predetermined transport amount is reached based on the detection output of the transport amount detection circuit 306. It is determined whether or not a predetermined transport amount has been reached, the transport amount detection process is terminated, and the process returns to the paper feed roller 43 stop process shown in FIG.

  As described above, when it is determined that image recording of the next page is necessary at the time of image recording on the recording medium of the current page, conveyance (discharge) of the recording medium of the current page is completed when recording of the current page is completed. At the same time, by feeding the recording medium of the next page in parallel (paper feeding), it is possible to close the recording medium with a simple configuration and improve the printing speed at a low cost.

  Further, by controlling the paper feeding based on the transport amount of the paper to be fed, it is possible to correctly position the fed paper and start the recording of the next page from the correct position. become.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the driving start and stop of the conveyance motor 205 are omitted, but it is assumed that the conveyance motor 205 is driven when printing is performed.
First, paper for the current page is fed and printing of the current page is started. When one line printing is completed, it is determined whether printing of the next page (recording of the image of the next page) is necessary. When printing of the next page is necessary, feeding of the paper of the next page is completed. If the next page is not fed, the next page is fed. At this time, the paper conveyance of the current page and the paper feeding of the next page are performed in parallel.

  After that, it is determined whether or not printing of the current page has been completed. When printing of the current page is completed, it is determined whether or not there is printing of the next page. Start printing as the current page. At this time, the paper of the current page is conveyed for paper discharge, and at the same time, the paper of the next page is fed to the printing position.

  When this process is repeated and the next page is no longer printed, the final page is discharged, and the printing process is terminated.

  In the paper feeding process for the next page, as shown in FIG. 11, when the paper feeding roller is started and the presence of paper feeding is detected based on the detection result of the paper feeding presence / absence detection circuit 308, the conveyance amount is detected. Based on the detection result of the circuit 306, it is determined whether or not the fed sheet has been conveyed by a predetermined amount, and when the predetermined amount has been conveyed, feeding is stopped.

  In this way, the paper of the next page is fed during recording of the current page, and the next page is fed to a predetermined position based on the carry amount. , And the feeding of the next page of paper can be reduced, so that the space between the sheets can be reduced, the printing speed can be improved at low cost, and the fed paper can be correctly positioned, Even if the printing speed is improved, the recording of the next page can be started from the correct position.

FIG. 3 is a perspective explanatory view seen from the front side of the ink jet recording apparatus as the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. 2 is a schematic side view illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the apparatus. FIG. It is a plane schematic explanatory drawing similarly. It is a side schematic block diagram explaining the whole structure of a mechanism part similarly. It is principal part plane explanatory drawing of the mechanism part. It is block explanatory drawing which shows the outline | summary of the control part of the apparatus. It is a flowchart with which it uses for description of the printing process which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart with which it uses for description of the process which similarly follows FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the next page feeding process performed when it is determined in FIG. 8 that printing of the next page is necessary. It is a flowchart with which it uses for description of the printing process which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the sheet feeding process on the next page of FIG. 10.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Apparatus main body 2 ... Paper feed tray 3 ... Paper discharge tray 10k, 10c, 10m, 10y ... Ink cartridge 33 ... Carriage 34 ... Recording head 35 ... Sub tank 50 ... Paper presence detection lever 51 ... Conveyance belt 301 ... Main control part 302 ... Print control unit 305 ... Sub-scanning motor 306 ... Conveyance amount detection circuit 308 ... Paper feed presence / absence detection circuit

Claims (4)

A feeding unit that separates and feeds the recording media one by one from a housing unit that houses a plurality of recording media, and discharges recording liquid droplets from the recording medium fed by the feeding unit. An image forming apparatus including a conveying unit that conveys the recording head at a recording position
It is determined whether or not image recording of the next page is necessary at the time of image recording on the recording medium of the current page, and when image recording of the next page is necessary, the current means by the conveying means after completion of image recording on the current page. An image forming apparatus comprising: a means for controlling the recording medium for a page to be conveyed and the recording medium to be the next page by the feeding means.   2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when image recording of the next page is necessary, at the same time when recording of the current page on the recording medium is completed, the conveying means transports the recording medium of the current page. And an image forming apparatus that controls the recording medium to be a next page by the feeding unit. A feeding unit that separates and feeds the recording media one by one from a housing unit that houses a plurality of recording media, and discharges recording liquid droplets from the recording medium fed by the feeding unit. In an image forming apparatus comprising a transport unit that transports at a recording position by a recording head
It is determined whether image recording of the next page is necessary when recording an image on the recording medium of the current page. When image recording of the next page is necessary, the recording medium is fed by the feeding means. An image forming apparatus comprising: means for starting and controlling feeding according to the transport amount of the recording medium to be fed. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the feeding is stopped when the transport amount of the recording medium by the feeding means reaches a predetermined amount, and the recording of the current page on the recording medium is completed at the same time. An image forming apparatus that controls to transport the recording medium of the current page by the transporting unit and to resume the feeding of the recording medium by the feeding unit.

Images