Patent ID: 7364251

Claim:
An inkjet recording apparatus comprising: a recording head which discharges ink toward a recording medium; a recording medium moving section which moves the recording medium in a sub-scanning direction; a position information detecting section which detects position information from the recording medium moving section, in synchronization with a movement of the recording medium moving section; a mark recording section which records a predetermined mark on the recording medium; a mark detecting section, which is arranged at a predetermined distance from the mark recording section in the sub-scanning direction, and which detects the mark recorded by the mark recording section while the recording medium is moved; and a control section which obtains a reference detection position of the mark corresponding to an actual moving distance of the recording medium, which is equivalent to the predetermined distance between the mark detecting section and the mark recording section, based on: (i) a signal outputted when the mark detecting section detects the mark and (ii) the position information detected by the position information detecting section, and which determines a residual moving distance of the recording medium, based on the reference detection position of the mark and a target moving distance of the recording medium, the residual moving distance being a difference between the target moving distance and the actual moving distance; wherein the control section controls the recording medium moving section to move the recording medium by the residual moving distance from the reference detection position of the mark and then to stop moving the recording medium, such that the recording medium moving section stops moving the recording medium when the recording medium has been moved by the target moving distance; wherein, based on the position information detected by the position information detecting section, the control section calculates an estimated timing at which the recording medium will be close to a position where the mark detecting section will detect the predetermined mark, wherein the control section starts receiving an output signal from the mark detecting section to obtain sampling data at the estimated timing, and wherein the control section calculates the reference detection position of the mark from the sampling data; and wherein the recording medium moving section moves the recording medium at high speed before the estimated timing and moves the recording medium at low speed after the estimated timing, and the mark detecting section detects the mark when the recording medium moving section moves the recording medium at low speed.