Patent ID: 8746828

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a recording head that is provided with a discharge port surface having a plurality of discharge ports for discharging an ink; a scan unit that causes the recording head to scan in a predetermined direction; a wiping unit that wipes the discharge port surface; a count unit that counts the number of dots discharged from the recording head for each of a plurality of areas obtained by dividing a scan region of the recording head in the predetermined direction; a calculation unit that calculates a contamination value indicating a contamination state of the discharge port surface when each of the plurality of areas is recorded, wherein the calculation unit (i) calculates the contamination value by multiplying a first coefficient by the number of dots counted by the count unit when the number of dots is less than a threshold value and (ii) calculates the contamination value by multiplying a second coefficient by the number of dots when the number of dots is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the second coefficient being greater than the first coefficient; and a determination unit that determines a timing of wiping of the discharge port surface by the wiping unit based on the sum of the contamination values.