CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-022451 filed on Feb. 13, 2020. The entire subject matter of the application is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

Aspects of the present disclosures relate to a recording apparatus configured to perform recording by ejecting liquid from one or more nozzles.

Related Art

As an example of the recording apparatus configured to perform recording by ejecting liquid from one or more nozzles, there has been known an image forming apparatus in which six short length heads each having a plurality of nozzles aligned in a width direction of a recording medium are arranged along the width direction of the recording medium. The short length heads that are closest to each other are arranged while shifting their positions with respect to each other in a conveying direction of the recording medium and such that some of their nozzles overlap in the conveying direction of the recording medium. The conventionally known image forming apparatus records an image on the recording medium by ejecting ink from the plurality of nozzles of the six short length head while conveying the recording medium.

SUMMARY

In the conventionally known image forming apparatus, there are cases where a conveying speed of the recording medium changes while recording an image on the recording medium in the manner described above due to, for instance, jamming or slipping of the recording medium. In such cases, misalignment in landing positions of ink droplets ejected from nozzles of short length heads on an upstream side in the conveying direction and landing positions of ink droplets ejected from nozzles of short length heads on a downstream side in the conveying direction may occur and may cause degradation in image quality of a recorded image.

According to aspects of the present disclosures, there is provided a recording apparatus including a liquid ejection head having a nozzle surface to which a plurality of nozzles are formed, a relative displacement unit configured to cause the liquid ejection head and a recording medium to relatively displace in a relative displacement direction parallel to the nozzle surface, and a controller. The liquid ejection head has two head units each having the nozzle surface to which the plurality of nozzles arranged in a nozzle arrangement direction intersecting with the relative displacement direction are formed. The two head units are arranged while shifting their positions with respect to each other in the relative displacement direction and the nozzle arrangement direction. Some of the nozzles of the two head units overlap with each other in the relative displacement direction within a particular overlapping range in the nozzle arrangement direction. When a recording command instructing to record an image on a recording medium is input, the controller controls the relative displacement unit to cause the liquid ejection head and the recording medium to relatively displace in the relative displacement direction and, at the same time, controls the two head units to eject liquid from the plurality of nozzles to record an image on the recording medium. When the recording command is an instruction to record, in an area of the recording medium including an area within the overlapping range in the nozzle arrangement direction, a specific image whose length in the nozzle arrangement direction is equal to or less than an arrangement range of the plurality of nozzles of the head unit, the controller controls the two head units to cause only one of the two head units to record the specific image.

