An ink jet recording apparatus includes a carriage on which is mountable a recording head provided with discharge ports to discharge ink and which is movable to move the head, a movable cap to cover the discharge ports, and a pump to suck ink from the discharge ports through the cap when the cap covers the discharge ports. A controller controls the recording head to wait for a given period of time in a position facing the cap before the carriage is moved to carry the recording head, subsequent to suction by the pump and separation of the cap from the recording head. This arrangement reduces the possibility that a recording material will be stained by ink following a suction of ink by the pump.
A liquid ejection apparatus comprising: a liquid ejection head, operable to eject liquid to a target; a printing region, at which the liquid ejection head ejects liquid to the target; a flushing region, at which the liquid ejection head ejects liquid to perform a flushing operation; a flushing receiver, provided at the flushing region and adapted to receive liquid ejected from the liquid ejection head at the flushing region; a liquid ejection head carrier, operable to carry the liquid ejection head at least between the printing region and the flushing region; a waiting time information generator, operable to generate a waiting time based on estimation information to estimate a time in which liquid ejected from the liquid ejection head arrives at the flushing receiver; and a controller, operable to control the liquid ejection head carrier to carry the liquid ejection head from the flushing region toward the printing region after the waiting time elapses.
An ink jet recording apparatus with a carriage lock mechanism is provided with a timer for counting a waiting time at a home position when detecting the return of a carriage to the home position HP. When this waiting time has reached or exceeded a reference time, a carriage lock mechanism is driven to lock the carriage. A time (reference time) taken while the carriage is returned to the home position and is then locked can be set and/or changed to be an optimum time according to the configuration of use of the recording apparatus through a reference time setting part.
The invention features a method and apparatus for an ink jet recording apparatus in which a carriage lock is provided. When a return of the carriage to the home position HP is detected, the waiting time at the home position HP is counted. When this waiting time has reached a predetermined time, a carriage lock is engaged. When the carriage lock is engaged immediately after the carriage returns to the home position HP, the frequency of the carriage lock is reduced, thus enhancing its durability. Further, there is no need of disengaging the carriage lock at a restart of the printing, thus improving responsiveness at the restart of the printing.
