Patent ID: 8690315
Filing Date: 2014-04-08
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. An image recording apparatus, comprising: a first sheet-supply tray and a second sheet-supply tray on each of which a recording medium is to be placed; a first sheet-supply roller rotatable to supply the recording medium to be placed on the first sheet-supply tray; a second sheet-supply roller rotatable to supply the recording medium to be placed on the second sheet-supply tray; a conveyor configured to convey the recording medium supplied from one of the first sheet-supply roller and the second sheet-supply roller in a conveyance direction; a recording head configured to eject ink onto the recording medium conveyed by the conveyor; a carriage reciprocable in a main scanning direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, the recording head being mounted on the carriage; a drive source configured to generate a drive power by rotating in a forward direction and in a reverse direction; a switching portion provided outside a recording area in the main scanning direction, the recording area being an area through which the recording medium conveyed by the conveyor passes, a posture of the switching portion being switchable to a first posture and a second posture different from the first posture by contact of the carriage moving in the main scanning direction with the switching portion, the drive power of the drive source being received by the switching portion being in the first posture or the second posture; a first drive-power transmitting mechanism configured to transmit the drive power of the drive source to the first sheet-supply roller via the switching portion when the switching portion is in the first posture; a second drive-power transmitting mechanism configured to transmit the drive power of the drive source to the second sheet-supply roller via the switching portion when the switching portion is in the second posture; an image-recording processing section configured to control the recording head, the carriage, and the conveyor to execute an image recording processing for recording an image on the recording medium on the basis of image data; a switching processing section configured to execute a switching processing for switching a target of the transmission of the drive power of the drive source from the first drive-power transmitting mechanism to the second drive-power transmitting mechanism or from the second drive-power transmitting mechanism to the first drive-power transmitting mechanism by moving the carriage to contact the switching portion to change a posture of the switching portion; a forward-and-reverse-rotation processing section configured to execute a forward and reverse rotation processing for rotating the drive source in the forward direction and the reverse direction; a switching-processing-requirement judging section configured to judge whether a sheet setting of a next-recording recording medium is different from that of a currently-recording recording medium placed on one tray of the first sheet-supply tray and the second sheet-supply tray, and whether the sheet setting of the next-recording recording medium is the same as that of the sheet placed on the other tray of the first sheet-supply tray and the second sheet-supply tray; and a control section configured, where the switching-processing-requirement judging section has judged that the sheet setting of the next-recording recording medium is different from that of the currently-recording recording medium, and the sheet setting of the next-recording recording medium is the same as that of the other tray, to control the switching processing section to start the switching processing in the image recording processing on the currently-recording recording medium by the image-recording processing section and then to control the forward-and-reverse-rotation processing section to execute the forward and reverse rotation processing.