Patent ID: 7806524

Claim:
A platen which supports an under side of a recording medium being conveyed in a conveying direction in an image recording apparatus, and which is disposed below a recording head capable of marginless image recording on the recording medium, the platen comprising: a plurality of upstream ribs which support the recording medium and which are disposed upstream in the conveying direction; a downstream rib which supports the recording medium and which is disposed downstream in the conveying direction outside an image recording region where the recording head records an image on the recording medium; a regional rib which extends between the upstream ribs and the downstream rib in the conveying direction and which supports and physically contacts a front end portion of the recording medium in a marginless recording region located inside the image recording region; an ink absorber which absorbs ink dropped onto the regional rib, the ink absorber being positioned under the downstream rib; and an ink guide which guides the ink dropped onto the regional rib toward the ink absorber; wherein the ink absorber has an upstream end positioned downstream in the conveying direction with respect to the image recording region, and the ink guide extends in the conveying direction from the regional rib to the upstream end of the ink absorber.