Patent ID: 7896458
Filing Date: 2011-03-01
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. An image recording apparatus comprising: a plurality of line-type printheads which are disposed parallel to one another and arranged in a medium feed direction, the printheads recording an image on each of a plurality of recording media which are sequentially fed one by one in the medium feed direction; a feeding device which sequentially feeds the recording media to a recording area, two opposite ends of which in the medium feed direction respectively correspond to a most upstream one and a most downstream one of the printheads; a drive-data supplying portion which generates a plurality of pieces of drive data for driving the printheads on the basis of image data of the image to be recorded on the recording medium, and supplies the pieces of drive data to the respectively corresponding printheads; and a feed control portion which has the feeding device initiate feeding of one of the recording media as a following recording medium which is fed next to another recording medium as a preceding recording medium, (i) at a first feed timing in order that a distance between a trailing end of the preceding recording medium and a front end of the following recording medium becomes smaller than a dimension of the recording area in the medium feed direction, when the drive-data supplying portion can supply the drive data to the printheads at a concurrent-recording enabling timing at which it is possible to concurrently record, at the recording area, an image on a trailing end portion of the preceding recording medium and an image on a front end portion of the following recording medium, and (ii) at a second feed timing in order that the distance between the trailing end of the preceding recording medium and the front end of the following recording medium becomes equal to or larger than the dimension of the recording area in the medium feed direction, when the drive-data supplying portion cannot supply the drive data to the printheads at the concurrent-recording enabling timing wherein the image recording apparatus further comprises a first mode selecting portion configured to select one of a first mode and a second mode which are different from each other in a time necessary for each of the recording medium to pass through the recording area, depending on a time necessary for the drive-data supplying portion to supply the printheads with the drive data for each recording medium, and wherein, when the first mode selecting portion selects the first mode, the feed control portion has the feeding device initiate the feeding of the following recording medium at the first feed timing, and, when the first mode selecting portion selects the second mode, the feed control portion has the feeding device initiate the feeding of the following recording medium at the second feed timing.