Patent ID: 8390898

Claim:
An image recording apparatus comprising: a sheet feed tray configured to store a plurality of stacked recording medium; a sheet feed roller configured to feed the plurality of recording medium, one by one, from the sheet feed tray; an image recording unit configured to record an image on the recording medium fed by the sheet feed roller; an output unit configured to output the recording medium recorded by the image recording unit; a first conveying unit configured to convey the recording medium from the sheet feed tray to the output unit via the image recording unit; a second conveying unit configured to return the recording medium, which has conveyed via the image recording unit, to the sheet feed tray; an image memory configured to store image data to be recorded by the image recording unit; and a controller configured to control the sheet feed roller, the image recording unit, the first conveying unit, and the second conveying unit to record the image on the recording medium; and a detection unit configured to detect a position of the recording medium with respect to the sheet feed tray, wherein the controller is configured to control the sheet feed roller to start feeding a following recording medium subsequent to a preceding recording medium fed by the sheet feed roller irrespective of whether the image data for the following recording medium is stored in the image memory, wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the image data for the following recording medium is stored in the image memory after having started the sheet feeding of the following recording medium, and whether first and second following recording media had been fed from the sheet feed tray, wherein, when the controller determines that an image data for the following recording medium fed from the sheet feed tray is not stored in the image memory and that a trailing edge of the first following recording medium has passed the sheet feed roller, the controller is configured to control the first conveying unit and the second conveying unit to return the first following recording medium to the sheet feed tray by conveying the first following recording medium through the image recording unit and the second conveying unit, and wherein, when the controller determines that an image data for the following recording medium fed from the sheet feed tray is not stored in the image memory and that the trailing edge of the second following recording medium has not passed the sheet feed roller, the controller is configured to control the sheet feed roller to return the second following recording medium to the sheet feed tray without passing through the image recording unit and the second conveying unit.