In a drying system for a printing system, a plurality of dryers can be arranged along a drying route to dry a recording medium. The plurality of dryers can including multiple resistive heating elements configured to dry the recording medium. The dryers can be supplied via two or more supply lines with an alternating current having a sequence of alternating positive and negative half-waves. A controller of the drying system can be coupled to the dryers and can couple the dryers uniformly on average with the at least two supply lines given positive and negative half-waves based on a nominal temperature curve along the drying route. The controller can jointly couple the resistive heating elements of a corresponding dryer with a multiphase supply grid or jointly decouple the resistive heating elements of the dryer with the multiphase supply grid during a half-wave.

A heater assembly is disclosed. The heater assembly has a frame that has a first and a second opening. There is a heater element located in the first opening. A flow valve is mounted to the frame and movable from a first position to a second position. In the first position, the flow valve blocks airflow through the first opening. In the second position, the flow valve blocks airflow through the second opening. When the flow valve is between the first and second position the flow valve blocks at least some airflow through the first opening and blocks at least some airflow through the second opening.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to form an image on a recording medium by discharging liquid droplets onto the medium; and a media heater to heat the medium by contacting a rear surface of the medium opposite a surface of the medium on which the image is formed, in which the media heater includes a contact member with a contact surface having a predetermined curvature that the medium contacts, the contact member is a roller member, and the medium closely contacts the contact surface of the contact member across an entire width of the medium in a direction perpendicular to the media conveyance direction.

The object is to suitably satisfy a condition for preventing smearing of a printed object and a condition for endowing glossiness to the printed object. As a solution therefor, a plurality of inkjet heads (12y, 12m, 12c, 12k), a print heater (104) being a medium heating heater, and a sub-scan driving unit (16) being an opposing position changing unit that sequentially causes each of positions in a medium (50) in a moving direction of the medium (50) to oppose the respective inkjet heads (12y, 12m, 12c, 12k) are provided, where ink is ink containing solvent and is fixed onto the medium (50) by the solvent being dried, and the print heater (104) dries the ink that has been discharged from one of the inkjet heads and struck onto the medium before another inkjet head further discharges an ink droplet onto a struck position of the ink.

An inkjet recording apparatus includes an ink jetter that jets ink and a transfer unit that has a ring-shaped intermediate transfer body. The transfer unit transfers, to a recording medium, a primary image formed on an outer circumferential surface of the intermediate transfer body with the ink that is jetted to land on the outer circumferential surface by the ink jetter. The transfer unit includes a heater that heats air in an internal space of the intermediate transfer body enclosed by an inner circumferential surface of the intermediate transfer body, and an air mover that flows the air in the internal space.

To provide an ink, which contains: water; a pigment; and a first water-soluble organic solvent, wherein the first water-soluble organic solvent contains a water-soluble organic solvent (G) having a boiling point of 280° C. to 300° C., a water-soluble organic solvent (X) having a boiling point of 180° C. to 190° C., and a water-soluble organic solvent (Y) having a boiling point of 190° C. to 200° C., wherein the first water-soluble organic solvent contains a water-soluble organic solvent (G) having a boiling point of 280° C. to 300° C., a water-soluble organic solvent (X) having a boiling point of 180° C. to 190° C., and a water-soluble organic solvent (Y) having a boiling point of 190° C. to 200° C., wherein the ink satisfies the following formulae: 24≦X≦40 2≦X/Y≦20 where X [% by mass] is an amount of the water-soluble organic solvent (X), and Y [% by mass] is an amount of the water-soluble organic solvent (Y).

An image forming apparatus includes a drying section, a cooling section, and an exhaust section. The drying section dries a recording medium on which an image is formed. The cooling section cools the recording medium dried by the drying section. The exhaust section exhausts air from the drying section and the cooling section through an exhaust port. The exhaust section includes a plurality of flow path determiners disposed on opposing walls of the exhaust section, to form an air flow path from the drying section to the exhaust port. The plurality of flow path determiners alternately projects from the opposing walls.

A medium processing apparatus includes a third support surface configured to support a medium downstream from a recording unit in a transport direction, the transport direction being a direction in which the medium to be printed by the recording unit putting a liquid on the medium is transported, a heating unit facing the third support surface and including a heating element configured to heat the medium supported by the third support surface, a first outlet opening toward the support surface, and a blower configured to blow out gas from the first outlet, wherein the first outlet is located closer to the recording unit than the heating unit is located, and is configured such that the gas blown out from the first outlet is directed along the third support surface and is directed away from the recording unit.

Provided is a highly reliable ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing the occurrence of image defects. The ink jet recording apparatus includes a liquid absorbing device including a porous body configured to absorb/remove an aqueous liquid component from an image containing the aqueous liquid component and a coloring material, a heat drying device configured to perform a heat drying treatment of the image after being subjected to the liquid absorption treatment, a temperature measuring device configured to measure the temperature of the image after being subjected to the heat drying treatment with the heat drying device, and a determination unit configured to determine the state of the liquid absorbing device from the measured temperature.

In one example, a multi-stage hot air dryer in which each successive stage is configured to take in air discharged from a prior stage and discharge it on to an article moving through the dryer from the last stage to the first stage such that the article is exposed to higher humidity air first in the dryer and to lower humidity air last in the dryer.