PURPOSE: To eliminate the wasteful time by absorbing ink discharged from a discharge port of a recording head to an idle discharge exclusive use sheet 3while conveying the sheet by material-to-be-recorded conveying means in the case of idle discharge.
CONSTITUTION: When fixture timer means is not operated and a record starting signal is input, an idle discharge exclusive use sheet contained in a cassette 50 is conveyed, and idle discharge is performed when the sheet is passed directly under a recording head 1. An ink absorber in which idly discharged ink is absorbed, is discharged to a tray 308. After the idle discharging, a normal image recording is executed. If a one-shot timer is monitored, and the time is operated during recording, idle discharging is again performed, and then recording is further continued. Moreover, when the presence or absence of the operation the one-shot timer is monitored, image recording of set number of sheets is finished, and a pressure residue timer is operated, a head down state is held for predetermined time within the set time of the residue timer, and then an input signal of recording start is waited. Thus, idle discharge can be performed with a simple structure without delaying the recording time.
AOKI TOMOHIRO
MURAYAMA YASUSHI
UCHIDA SETSU
MITOMI TATSUO
