An ink jet printing apparatus includes a maintenance device configured to minimize the occupied space. The maintenance device includes a movable cap carriage supporting a cap and including two guide pins. The cap is engageable with an ink jet head of the ink jet printing apparatus. A cover surrounds the cap carriage and includes two guide slots receiving the two guide pins of the cap carriage, respectively. When a printing carriage engages a printing carriage engaging member of the maintenance device, the guide pins are caused to ride in the guide slots, enabling the movable cap carriage to be shifted from a recessed position to an engaged position where the cap engages the ink jet head. The two guide slots are inclined at different angles to minimize the frictional resistance during the shift from the recessed position to the engaged position. In other aspects of the invention, a spring is disposed between the movable cap carriage and a maintenance device frame and is oriented at an angle substantially corresponding to one of the guide slots to facilitate the return of the movable cap carriage from the engaged position to the recessed position. In addition, a wiper is disposed to wipe residual ink from the ink jet head, and a retaining wall is disposed adjacent the wiper to prevent the wiper from deflecting beyond a predetermined position.
The invention relates to a service station for an inkjet printer. The service station includes at least one cap for capping a printhead which is mounted on an inkjet carriage of the inkjet printer. The service station also includes at least one wiper arranged to wipe said printhead carried by the inkjet carriage. The wiper is arranged to move towards and away from the printhead in response to movement of the inkjet carriage so as to enable the printhead to be wiped of any residual ink.
An ink-jet recording apparatus includes: an ink-jet recording head; a carriage on which the ink-jet recording head is mounted, the carriage being capable of traveling between a printing and a non-printing area, the carriage having an operating lever on non-printing area thereof; and a wiper for wiping the ink-jet recording head in the non-printing area, the wiper having a projected piece including two tilted sides, the tilted sides being projecting toward the passage in which the carriage moves when the wiper is set in position where the wiper is capable of wiping, wherein, while the carriage is moved in the directions of printing and non-printing area of the carriage, the operating lever comes in contact with the projected piece of the wiping lever so as to move the wiping means out of the traveling passage of the carriage.
An improved ink jetting nozzle maintenance apparatus not only for preventing a blockage in a nozzle with a minimum number of parts for a service station device for service function for reducing ink vaporization at the nozzle during a standby mode, but also for performing an ink suctioning without causing a delay in the printing operation. In the ink jetting nozzle maintenance apparatus including a cap for preventing any blockage in an ink nozzle during the standby mode, a wiper for wiping an ink nozzle surface, a capping device and a wiping device for raising and lowering the capping cap and the wiper, and a service station device having a carriage which carries an ink cartridge for a printing operation, for driving the capping and wiping devices by the reciprocal movement of the carriage, the cap including a suction diaphragm for expanding the volume of a cap space formed during the sealing of the nozzle, the suction diaphragm is extended by the suction diaphragm lowering unit which lowers the suction diaphragm in the opposite direction from the nozzle for expanding the volume of the cap space when the capping cap seals the nozzle and additionally moves a certain distance, the cap space being subjected to a negative pressure by the extending of the suction diaphragm to permit a certain amount of ink to be sucked out of the nozzle for preventing the drying of an inlet of the nozzle, and the ink sucked out by the negative pressure into droplets to prevent the nozzle drying is wiped out by the wiper during the wiping operation for the printing operation.
An ink jet recording apparatus mounts an ink jet recording head for discharging ink from an ink discharging port and has a carriage moved to a recording position opposed to a recording medium and a capping position opposed to a cap for covering the ink discharging port. The ink jet recording apparatus comprises a cap holder for holding the cap for covering the ink discharging port, a cap slider which holds the cap holder and a resilient member for resiliently biasing the cap to a side of the ink jet recording head in the capping position, and is moved in the same direction as a moving direction of the carriage together with the movement of the carriage in accordance with the movement of the carriage to the capping position, and a slider holding mechanism which movably supports the cap slider in the moving direction and has a mechanism for displacing the cap holder to the ink jet recording head side in the capping position in accordance with the movement of the cap slider.
An ink jet printer includes a printer frame and a maintenance station coupled to the printer frame. The maintenance station includes a maintenance frame having a first side. The first side has formed therein at least a first guide slot and a first flexible end-stop member associated with the first guide slot. A maintenance sled is provided which is movable within the maintenance frame in a first direction. The maintenance sled has a first guide member positioned to slideably ride in the first guide slot. A travel limit of the first guide member in the first direction is defined by the first flexible end-stop member.
