Patent ID: 7448737

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a conveying unit for conveying a recording medium in a first direction; a plurality of recording heads positioned to face the recording medium being conveyed by the conveying unit, each of the recording heads having a plurality of ink ejecting holes and an ink dispensing inlet provided therein from which ink is supplied; a plurality of cartridge loading units into which corresponding ink cartridges are loaded from the outside; a plurality of ink dispensing units provided corresponding to the cartridge loading units, each of the ink dispensing units having an ink dispensing outlet for dispensing the ink from the corresponding ink cartridge loaded in the cartridge loading unit; and a plurality of ink tubes for connecting the ink dispensing outlets and the ink dispensing inlets respectively, wherein the recording heads are arranged so that their ink dispensing inlets are aligned in the first direction, the cartridge loading units are aligned in a second direction, which extends substantially at a right angle to the first direction, so that their corresponding ink cartridges are inserted and loaded in the first direction, the ink dispensing units are arranged with their ink dispensing outlets aligned in the second direction, and the ink dispensing inlets communicated with the corresponding ink dispensing outlets are arranged so that one ink dispensing inlet is located further from an intersecting point between a line along which the ink dispensing inlets are aligned and a line along which the ink dispensing outlets are aligned than the another ink dispensing inlet communicated with the ink dispensing outlet which is distanced further from the intersecting point than the ink dispensing outlet communicated with the one ink dispensing inlet.