US Patent 7461915 Inkjet recording apparatus

An inkjet recording apparatus includes a recording head, a carriage, a movable body, a moving mechanism, and a relative position controller. The recording head is provided with a sub-tank and an ejection nozzle. The sub-tank includes an air discharging unit having a communication hole that allows communication of the interior of the sub-tank with atmospheric air. The movable body includes an open-close switching member so as to switch a state of the communication hole corresponding to a change of the relative position of a nozzle surface with respect to the movable body. The relative position controller controls the moving mechanism for moving the movable body and switches the state of the inkjet recording apparatus into a recording mode, a discharge performance recovery mode and an air discharge mode.