A sheet conveyor includes an endless conveyance belt configured to rotate to convey a sheet, a belt heater configured to heat the conveyance belt; and circuitry configured to control the conveyance belt to rotate. The conveyance belt has a belt joint joining both ends of a sheet member to form the conveyance belt, and the circuitry controls the conveyance belt to rotate to receive the sheet in an area of the conveyance belt other than the belt joint of the conveyance belt.

A transport device includes: a first transport body; a second transport body that is movable between a contact position and a separate position with respect to the first transport body and that nips a transported material with the first transport body at the contact position; and a transport section that includes a holder to hold a leading end portion of the transported material and that transports the transported material toward a nip region where the first transport body and the second transport body nip the transported material in a state in which the second transport body is located at the separate position. After holding of the leading end portion by the holder for the transported material transported by the transport section has been released, the second transport body nips the transported material with the first transport body and transports the transported material.

A transport device includes: a first rotating body including a shaft portion, a cylindrical portion on an outer periphery of the shaft portion, and a recessed portion in an outer surface of the cylindrical portion; a second rotating body capable of moving from the first rotating body while contacting an outer surface of the first rotating body and nipping a recording medium; a transport unit that includes a holding portion that holds the recording medium, and that transports the recording medium by moving the holding portion in a rotation direction of the first rotating body while the holding portion is disposed in the recessed portion; and a moving mechanism including a cam portion on a side of the cylindrical portion and a contact portion connected to the second rotating body and that comes into contact with the cam portion to separate the second rotating body from the first rotating body.

A droplet discharging device includes a head including a nozzle configured to discharge a droplet onto a medium, a heater configured to heat, the medium onto which the droplet is discharged from the head, at a position opposing to the head, an air blowing fan configured to blow outside air from an outside toward an inside of a housing that accommodates the head and the heater, a temperature sensor configured to detect a temperature of the outside air blown by the air blowing fan, and a control unit, and when the temperature of the outside air detected by the temperature sensor is lower than a preset temperature, the control unit changes a set temperature of the heater to a temperature lower than a predetermined temperature.

A contacting member contacts a region of a contacted member to which a liquid composition has been applied. The contacting member contains a substrate, a fluororesin fiber layer, an adhesive layer, and a mixed layer. The fluororesin fiber layer contains a fluororesin fiber and is configured to contact the contacted member. The adhesive layer contains an adhesive member directly or indirectly fixing the fluororesin fiber layer to the substrate. In the mixed layer, the fluororesin fiber in the fluororesin layer and the adhesive member in the adhesive layer are mixed. A thickness of the mixed layer is from 5% or more and 60% or less with respect to a thickness of the fluororesin fiber layer.

A heating device includes a heater and a heating range variable member. The heater heats an object to which a liquid is applied. The object is conveyed in a conveyance direction. The heating range variable member changes a heating range of the heater in a width direction of the object. The width direction is orthogonal to the conveyance direction.

Method and system for thermal transfer printing are disclosed. The system includes a transfer member having an imaging surface on the front side, a coating station at which a monolayer of particles made of, or coated with, a thermoplastic polymer is applied to the imaging surface, an imaging station at which electromagnetic radiation (EM) is applied via the rear side of the transfer member to selected regions of the particles-coated imaging surface to render the particles thereon tacky within the selected regions, and a transfer station at which only the regions of the particles coating that have been rendered tacky are transferred to a substrate. The transfer member includes on its rear side a body transparent to EM radiation and on its front side an EM radiation absorbing layer, the imaging surface being formed on, or as part of, the absorbing layer.

There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a conveyer configured to convey a sheet in a conveying direction; a head configured to discharge a liquid toward the sheet; a heater configured to heat the sheet and/or the liquid on the sheet; a reader positioned downstream in the conveying direction of the heater, the reader being configured to read an image, on the sheet, formed by the head and the heater; and a holder positioned between the reader and the heater in the conveying direction, the holder being configured to hold a body of rotation configured to contact a recording surface of the sheet. In a crossing direction orthogonal to the conveying direction and crossing the recording surface of the sheet being conveyed by the conveyer, both ends in the crossing direction of the holder are positioned outside of both ends in the crossing direction of the reader.

There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a casing; a conveyor positioned inside the casing and configured to convey a sheet in a conveying direction; a recording part positioned inside the casing and configured to record an image, with an ink, on the sheet conveyed by the conveyor; a heater positioned inside the casing, on a downstream side in the conveying direction of the recording part, and configured to heat at least one of the sheet and the ink; a reading part positioned inside the casing, on the downstream side in the conveying direction of the heater, and configured to optically read the image recorded on the sheet; and a blower positioned inside the casing and configured to generate an air current toward the reading part and toward the sheet located at a position on the downstream side in the conveying direction of the heater.

A printing apparatus includes a conveyance path including a curving part, an inversion path for inverting a medium upside down, and a control unit, and the control unit includes a first mode for conveying the long medium at a first speed when a surface that faces inside when the long medium is rolled in a roll shape and a surface that faces inside when conveyed in a curved shape through the curving part are the same, and a second mode for conveying the long medium at a second speed lower than the first speed of the first mode when the surface that faces inside when the long medium is rolled in the roll shape and the surface that faces inside when conveyed in the curved shape through the curving part are different from each other.