Patent Document ID: 8936342
Application ID: 13763496
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A recording defect inspection method for an image recording apparatus, comprising: a recording step of sequentially recording test patterns of respective recording heads onto a recording medium; an image capturing step of capturing an image of a test pattern recorded on the recording medium by means of a scanner; an analysis step of analyzing the captured test pattern and detecting a recording defect of the recording head which has recorded the test pattern; an evaluation frequency setting step of setting an evaluation frequency for each of the recording heads on the basis of a recording defect occurrence frequency for each recording head, the evaluation frequency being higher as the recording defect occurrence frequency increases; and a control step of setting a frequency of analysis and detection for each of the recording heads in the analysis step to the set evaluation frequency, wherein the control step includes an evaluation order setting step of setting an evaluation order by assigning m test patterns, wherein m is a positive integer which is more than a number of the recording head for each recording head on the basis of the set evaluation frequency, and the recording step records the test pattern by at least one recording head for one recording medium in recording an output image, and records the m test patterns on the basis of the set evaluation order.