Patent ID: 7316476

Claim:
An image recording apparatus, comprising: a recording head which discharges a photo curable ink which is cured by photo irradiation; a light irradiating device which irradiates the photo irradiation to the photo curable ink on a recording medium and includes a plurality of light sources; a detector which detects an illumination intensity of each of the light sources; a first judgment section which judges whether the illumination intensity of each of the light sources is less than a first illumination intensity based on a result of detection by the detector or not; and a controller which controls an energy of the photo irradiation for the photo curable ink in accordance with a detected illumination intensity which is less than the first illumination intensity, when the first judgment section judges one of the light sources having an illumination intensity which is less than the first illumination intensity exists, wherein the image recording apparatus has three image recording modes, which are a normal recording mode where an image recording operation is executed by moving the recording medium and/or the light irradiating device relatively in a predetermined speed and by supplying a power supply for the light irradiating device at a predetermined power, a speed controlled mode where the image recording operation is executed in a speed lower than the predetermined speed, and a power controlled mode where the image recording operation is executed in a power higher than the predetermined power, and wherein the controller executes the image recording operation based on either the normal recording mode, the speed controlled mode, or the power controlled mode, and wherein the controller selects the power controlled mode and executes the recording operation based on the power controlled mode, when the first judgment section judges one of light sources having the illumination intensity which is less than the first illumination intensity exists, after that, when the first judgment section judges one of light sources having the illumination intensity which is less than the first illumination intensity exists again, the controller selects the speed controlled mode and executes the recording operation based on the speed controlled mode.