Patent ID: 8451492

Claim:
A printing apparatus which reciprocates a carriage supporting a printhead by a driving force of a carriage motor and prints on a printing medium using the printhead, the apparatus comprising: a conveyance unit configured to convey the printing medium using a driving force of a conveyance motor; a recovery unit configured to recover the printhead using the driving force of the conveyance motor; a transfer unit configured to transfer the driving force of the conveyance motor to either of said conveyance unit and said recovery unit; a switching unit configured to switch a transfer destination of the driving force of the conveyance motor by said transfer unit; a detection unit configured to detect a home position of reciprocation of the carriage; and a control unit configured to perform control to operate said switching unit based on the home position detected by said detection unit to transfer the driving force of the conveyance motor to either of said conveyance unit and said recovery unit, wherein said switching unit comprises a clutch lever which can move in a moving direction of the carriage as the carriage moves, when said clutch lever moves from a first position to a second position serving as the home position of the carriage as the carriage moves, said control unit performs control to operate said switching unit and cut off transfer of the driving force of the conveyance motor by said transfer unit, when said clutch lever is located at the second position, said transfer unit becomes movable between a third position and a fourth position, said transfer unit moves to the third position serving as a home position of said transfer unit by the driving force of the conveyance motor, and said transfer unit moves in a direction from the third position to the fourth position to reach either of a position where said transfer unit can transfer the driving force of the conveyance motor to said conveyance unit and a position where said transfer unit can transfer the driving force of the conveyance motor to said recovery unit, thereby transferring the driving force of the conveyance motor to either said conveyance unit or said recovery unit.