Patent ID: 8177326

Claim:
An image recording apparatus comprising: a carriage which carries a recording head and moves reciprocally in a main scanning direction, said recording head having a nozzle and being capable of recording an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink from the nozzle; a first support member and a second support member disposed on an upstream side and a downstream side, respectively, in a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction, said first support member and said second support member having a first slide surface and a second slide surface, respectively, for supporting said carriage slidably, said first slide surface and said second slide surface being formed on substantially horizontal upper sides of the respective first support member and second support member to be parallel to a surface of said recording head where the nozzle is formed, wherein said second support member is provided with a third slide surface which stands substantially orthogonal to the second slide surface and is positioned between the first slide surface and the second slide surface, said carriage comprises one pair of first slidable projection sections slidable in contact with the third slide surface and one pair of second slidable projection sections facing the first slidable projection sections with the third slide surface therebetween, at a suitable interval in the main scanning direction, and said carriage further comprises a resilient member for resiliently energizing the second slidable projection sections, via a biasing force, toward the third slide surface and the downstream side in the sub-scanning direction, respectively, wherein the second slidable projection sections are disposed in the resilient member at a suitable interval in the main scanning direction; and an endless belt provided on an upper side of said second support member along the main scanning direction, wherein said carriage is joined to a part of said endless belt at a joint section and is movable along the main scanning direction, and said joint section is positioned between the second slide surface and the third slide surface in the sub-scanning direction.