Maintenance unit and ink-jet recording apparatus therewith

A maintenance unit which cleans a recording head having an ink ejection face in which ink ejection openings for ejecting ink onto a recording medium are open, comprising:

• a wiper for wiping off ink on the ink ejection face;
• a wiper carriage which, while holding the wiper, moves along a wiping direction;
• and
• a collection tray which has a tray face arranged under the wiper and which collects the ink wiped off by the wiper,
• wherein
• the wiper carriage has a holding plate for holding the wiper and an ink guide member,
• in a part of the holding plate fading the ink ejection face, a communication portion which connects together an upper space and a lower space is formed,
• the ink guide member has an upper opening and a lower opening connected to the upper opening,
• the upper opening receives the ink fallen from the ink ejection face and is arranged above the holding plate,
• the lower opening is arranged in or under the communication portion and above the tray face,
• a length of the upper opening in an orthogonal direction perpendicular to the wiping direction is larger than a length of the ink ejection face in the orthogonal direction,
• a length of the communication portion in the orthogonal direction is smaller than the length of the ink ejection face in the orthogonal direction, and
• a length of the lower opening in the orthogonal direction is smaller than the length of the communication portion in the orthogonal direction.