Patent ID: 7410248

Claim:
An ink jet printer, comprising: a recording head which has at least one nozzle and records an image on a recording medium by ejecting a droplet of ink from the nozzle; a carriage on which the recording head is mounted; at least one tank supporter which supports at least one ink tank which stores the ink to be supplied to the recording head; at least one ink flow passage which supplies the ink from said at least one ink tank to the recording head; at least one air bubble collecting chamber which collects air bubbles produced in the ink flow passage; at least one air bubble discharging passage which communicates with the air bubble collecting chamber; an opening and closing valve device which opens and closes the air bubble discharging passage, wherein the air bubble collecting chamber, the air bubble discharging passage, and the opening and closing valve device are provided on the carriage; and an air bubble removing device which removes the air bubbles collected by the air bubble collecting chamber, by opening, in a state in which a positive pressure is applied to the ink flow passage, the opening and closing valve device and thereby opening the air bubble discharging passage; wherein the air bubble removing device is provided at a location different from a location where the carriage is provided, and comprises at least one valve operating member which opens the opening and closing valve device.