Patent ID: 7527346
Filing Date: 2009-05-05
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. An ink-jet recording apparatus, comprising: an ink-jet recording head which ejects droplets of ink toward one of opposite surfaces of a recording sheet so as to record a first image on said one surface; a pair of upstream-side rollers which are provided on an upstream side of the recording head with respect to a sheet-feed path and which are rotated to feed the recording sheet to the recording head in a downstream direction along the sheet-feed path; a pair of downstream-side rollers which are provided on a downstream side of the recording head with respect to the sheet-feed path and which are rotated to feed the recording sheet from the recording head in the downstream direction along the sheet-feed path; at least one rotating device which rotates, in a forward direction corresponding to the downstream direction, the pair of upstream-side rollers and the pair of downstream-side rollers, and rotates, in a backward direction corresponding to an upstream direction opposite to the downstream direction, at least the pair of downstream-side rollers; a sheet reversing device which reverses, on an opposite side of the pair of upstream-side rollers that is opposite to the recording head, the recording sheet having the first image on said one surface thereof, and which feeds the reversed recording sheet to the pair of upstream-side rollers so that the pair of upstream-side rollers feed the reversed recording sheet to the recording head again so as to record a second image on an other of the opposite surfaces of the reversed recording sheet; and a control device, wherein when the recording head records the first image on said one surface of the recording sheet, the control device controls said at least one rotating device to rotate, in the forward direction, the pair of upstream-side rollers and the pair of upstream-side rollers such that a trailing end of the recording sheet is fed to a position outside a radius range between (a) a nip position where the pair of upstream-side rollers nip the recording sheet and (b) a downstream-side position that is distant from the nip position in the downstream direction by a distance equal to a radius of one of the pair of upstream-side rollers that is located on one side of the sheet-feed path on which side the recording head is provided, wherein the control device controls, in a state in which the pair of upstream-side rollers are maintained in contact with each other, said at least one rotating device to rotate, in the backward direction, the pair of downstream-side rollers to feed the recording sheet in the upstream direction along the sheet-feed path from said position outside said range toward the nip position such that the trailing end of the recording sheet enters said range within a first predetermined time duration, wherein when the recording sheet is fed in the upstream direction toward the nip position, the control device controls said at least one rotating device to decrease a speed of rotation of the pair of upstream-side rollers in the backward direction, such that the trailing end is maintained within said range for at least a second predetermined time duration.