A light irradiator includes a light source, a heat-dissipating member thermally connected to the light source, a drive including a drive circuit for the light source, a housing having vents and an irradiation opening for light from the light source to pass, and a blower. The rectangular housing has a first surface having a first side with a first dimension and a second side with a second dimension, a second surface having the second side and a third side with a third dimension, and a third surface having the first and third sides. The opening is in the first surface. A first vent and a second vent are in the second surface, with the first vent nearer the opening, and the second vent opposite to the opening. The heat-dissipating member faces the first vent. The drive is between the first and second vents. The blower faces the second vent.

An image forming apparatus includes a liquid discharge head, an irradiation unit, a carriage, and a moving unit. The liquid discharge head discharges a liquid including a metallic ink and a color ink onto a recording medium. The irradiation unit irradiates the liquid on the recording medium with light. The liquid discharge head and the irradiation unit are mounted on the carriage. The moving unit perform a main scanning movement and a sub-scanning movement. The liquid discharge head discharges the metallic ink in a region of the recording medium in the main scanning movement and discharges the color ink in the region in which the metallic ink has been discharged, in the same main scanning movement in which the metallic ink is discharged. The irradiation unit irradiates the region in which the metallic ink and the color ink have been discharged, with the light in the same main scanning movement.

Disclosed is a method of controlling an inkjet printing process. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method of controlling an inkjet printing process by using an inkjet print system, the method including a printing operation of moving a first support chuck or a second support chuck in a second direction perpendicular to a first direction and performing the inkjet printing process of discharging an ink onto a substrate and a first suction operation of suctioning remaining ink from a nozzle formed on a first head or a second head using a first suction unit, wherein a controller controls the printing operation for a first substrate, the first suction operation for the second head or the printing operation for a second substrate, and the first suction operation for the first head to be sequentially performed.

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.

An ink contains an anionic compound, water, a photoacid generator, and one or more organic solvents containing at least one organic solvent having a solubility parameter of from 9 to 11.8 (J/cm.sup.3).sup.1/2.

A printer control unit controls a fan, based on an acquired reference temperature and an output of a sensor, to cause a temperature of a platen drum or a temperature of a sheet supported by the platen drum to be the reference temperature. Specifically, at step S100, the printer control unit acquires a type of the printing medium to be used for printing, acquires the reference temperature at step S110, and at step S150, controls an operating state of the fan, based on the temperature of the platen drum output by the sensor, such that the temperature of the platen drum becomes the reference temperature acquired at step S110. As a result, a temperature increase of the platen drum becomes substantially saturated at the targeted reference temperature.

A machine for drying inks of the UV type, the machine including a supporting frame, which forms at least one exposure chamber, which can be accessed from the outside and accommodates at least one UV ray emission source. On the supporting frame, there is at least one carriage which supports rotatably at least one pan for supporting at least one object to be processed which is provided, on its surface, with at least one print provided by UV inks. Elements are furthermore provided for the rotational actuation of the pan; the carriage is movable in order to move the pan from an exposure position to at least one respective access position, in which the pan is arranged outside of the exposure chamber, in order to allow the loading or unloading of the object on or from the pan.

An image forming method includes discharging ink containing water, a coloring material, a polymerization initiator, and a polymerizable compound to a recording medium by a line head to obtain an image, exposing the image to active energy radiation, applying a processing fluid to the image, and drying the image with heat, wherein the time interval between when the ink is discharged in the discharging from the line head to the recording medium passing under a bottom portion of the line head and when the recording medium is exposed to the active energy radiation in the exposing is from 0.5 to 15 seconds.

The present invention provides a method of inkjet printing, comprising: (i) inkjet printing an inkjet ink on to a substrate, wherein the ink comprises: an N-vinyl monomer selected from N-vinyl caprolactam, N-vinyl pyrrolidone, N-vinyl piperidone, N-vinyl carbazole, N-vinyl formamide, N-vinyl indole, N-vinyl imidazole, N-vinyl acetamide, and mixtures thereof; one or more difunctional monomers; and a radical photoinitiator; and (ii) curing the ink by exposing the printed ink to a UV radiation source, wherein the UV radiation source moves relative to the substrate at a speed of 70 m/min or more.

An information processing device controlling a printing device is provided. The printing device includes an ejection unit ejecting a paint that is cured by ultraviolet light, and an irradiation unit irradiating the paint ejected on a print medium with ultraviolet light. The information processing device includes: an acquisition unit acquiring characteristic information of the paint, a print condition in printing by the printing device, and image data representing an image printed by the printing device; and a determination unit determining whether execution of follow-up irradiation, which is additional ultraviolet irradiation, is needed or not, after the printing of the image involving ultraviolet irradiation by the irradiation unit, based on the characteristic information, the print condition, and the image data.