US Patent 7201464 Ink-jet recording apparatus and copying machine

An ink-jet recording apparatus records information within a recording width on a recording surface of a recording medium, and is provided with a multi-nozzle ink-jet recording head which includes a nozzle surface and a plurality of nozzles arranged in an array on the nozzle surface to cover the recording width of the recording medium, a transport section which transports the recording medium to pass a position confronting the nozzle surface of the multi-nozzle ink-jet recording head, and a reliability maintaining mechanism which is provided to cover all of the nozzles of the multi-nozzle ink-jet recording head, so as to maintain reliability of the nozzles.