Patent ID: 9168766
Filing Date: 2015-10-27
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. A recording apparatus comprising: a plurality of recording modules each having a conveyance path through which a recording medium is conveyed; a recording portion configured to record an image on the recording medium that is conveyed along the conveyance path; a connection path that is connected to the conveyance path of each of the recording modules for conveying the recording medium; a housing in which the recording modules and the connection path are accommodated; and a first common tray connected to the connection path and having a support surface for supporting the recording medium; wherein the recording modules are identical in external shape; wherein, where an imaginary plane on which the recording medium is conveyed in the conveyance path is defined as a conveyor surface and a direction which is parallel to the conveyor surface and in which the recording medium is conveyed in the conveyance path is defined as a conveyance direction, the recording modules are disposed such that the conveyor surfaces of the respective recording modules are parallel to each other, and such that portions of the respective recording modules align with each other in a first direction which intersects the conveyor surface and which includes a component of the conveyance direction, the portions having the same shape; wherein, in a certain cross section that is orthogonal to the conveyor surface and that is parallel to the first direction, where a dimension of each recording module in a second direction orthogonal to the conveyor surface is L1 and a dimension of each recording module in a third direction orthogonal to the second direction is L2, a dimension L3, in the second direction, of two recording modules among the plurality of recording modules that are adjacent in the first direction is smaller than twice the dimension L1, and a dimension L4, in the third direction, of the two recording modules is smaller than twice the dimension L2 and is larger than the dimension L2; wherein the connection path includes an inclined path that extends in the first direction; wherein an opposing portion of the housing has an outer surface that extends in the first direction, the opposing portion being a portion of the housing that is opposed to the inclined path in the conveyance direction; and wherein the recording modules are disposed such that a shift amount, in the conveyance direction, of one of the recording modules from a connection point of the first common tray and the connection path is larger than that of another one of the recording modules that is located nearer to the first common tray than the one of the recording modules in the first direction.