Recovering apparatus for recovering a status of an ink jet recording head

Abstract

To provide a small-sized recovering apparatus for recovering the ink ejecting ports forming plane of an ink jet head, an ink absorbing member disposed inward of a cap comes near to the ink ejecting ports forming plane of the ink jet head with a predetermined distance to face to it. Subsequently, large ink droplets or water droplets adhering to the ink ejecting ports forming plane of the ink jet head are absorbed in the absorbing member. Thereafter, the ink ejecting ports forming plane is cleanly wiped by a wiping member, whereby there does not arise a malfunction that ink droplets or water droplets are scattered away from the ink ejecting ports forming plane of the ink jet head. Since a trough serving as recovering means is located adjacent to each head, a distance of relative displacement between the recovering means and the ink jet head can be reduced, resulting in the whole recovering apparatus being designed and constructed with small dimensions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.