Patent ID: 7708378

Claim:
An ink cartridge for supplying ink to an ink jet type recording head that has nozzles to discharge the ink toward a recording material to record an image, said ink cartridge comprising: a recording ink storage portion storing the ink to be supplied to said recording head; a waste-ink storage portion for storing waste-ink collected by cleaning said recording head; and an ink coagulant contained in said waste-ink storage portion, wherein said ink coagulant, in response to an output signal from a residual ink detection sensor indicating that the ink in said recording ink storage portion is used up, melts as heated up to a given melting temperature and mixes with the stored waste-ink and, thereafter, solidifies the stored waste-ink as cooled, wherein the solidified waste-ink and said ink coagulant are configured to be liquefied again as heated up to the melting temperature, and are configured to be solidified again as cooled.