Patent ID: 7854502

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a plurality of rollers; an endless conveyor belt that is stretched between the rollers; a nip roller that cooperates with an outer surface of the conveyor belt to sandwich a recording medium; and an ink jet head having a plurality of nozzles from which ink is ejected to the recording medium that is conveyed in a predetermined conveyance direction by the conveyor belt, wherein: the conveyor belt has a base member, an elastic layer formed on an outer surface of the base member, and an adhesive layer formed on an outer surface of the elastic layer and holding thereon the recording medium; the nip roller comprises a rotation shaft and an elastic member formed on an outer surface of the rotation shaft; the elastic and the adhesive layers of the conveyor belt form at least one separate island protrusion; the at least one separate island protrusion has a substantially planar shape and has a size smaller than a size of the recording medium, and the at least one separate island protrusion overlaps an inner portion of the recording medium and does not overlap any of a front end, a rear end, and both side ends of the recording medium; and the nip roller is positioned with respect to the endless conveyor belt such that: (i) the outer surface of the rotation shaft and the outer surface of the base member are separated by a distance equal to or more than a thickness of the at least one separate island protrusion and an outer surface of the elastic member of the nip roller and the outer surface of the base member are separated by a distance equal to or less than the thickness of the at least one separate island protrusion when the at least one separate island protrusion is not positioned between the nip roller and the base member.