Ink jet recording apparatus and method of flushing a recording head of the same

A method of carrying out flushing of an ink jet recording head of an ink jet recording apparatus by ejecting ink droplets regardless of contents to be printed during a printing process, said ink jet recording apparatus including feeding means for comprising the steps of:

• feeding a recording medium along a predetermined feeding passage in a predetermined feeding direction, and said ink jet recording head which is arranged in a manner movable;
• moving an ink jet recording head along a width of said recording medium, in directions orthogonal to said predetermined feeding direction, for effecting printing on said recording medium fed by said feeding means while moving within a range of printing motion which is larger than said width of said recording medium, and
• wherein controlling said ink jet recording head eject to eject ink droplets toward an area outside said recording medium within said range of printing motion, to carry out a flushing operation of ejecting ink droplets regardless of contents to be printed during a printing process,
• wherein the recording medium is a tape-like recording medium which includes a printing surface having a predetermined width and a waste ink-absorbing surface formed along at least one side edge of said printing surface, and the step of controlling the ink jet recording head causes ink droplets to be ejected toward said waste ink-absorbing surface during execution of said flushing operation.