Recording-head recovery system, ink-jet recording apparatus including the same, and recording-head recovery method

A recording-head recovery system comprising:

• a wiper that is pushed against a wiping star position outside a nozzle region of a recording head, the nozzle region being provided with an ejecting nozzle that ejects ink onto a recording medium;
• a drive mechanism that reciprocates the wiper along an ink ejecting surface including the nozzle region;
• and
• a control portion that controls pushing-out and ejecting of the ink from the ejecting nozzle and operation of the drive mechanism;
• wherein
• the control portion successively performs:
• a purged ink placing operation in which the ink is forcibly pushed out of the ejecting nozzle and the purged ink is placed onto the nozzle region;
• a purging wipe operation in which the wiper is moved from the wiping start position along the ink ejecting surface to wipe away the purged ink, and the ink is continuously or intermittently pushed out of the ejecting nozzle in at least a downstream side in a moving direction of the wiper in the nozzle region when the wiper is passing the nozzle region, whereby the ink is applied and spread over the ink ejecting surface;
• and an ink wiping operation in which the wiper is moved along the ink ejecting surface to wipe away the purged ink applied and spread over the ink ejecting surface.

A recording-head recovery method comprising:

• a purged ink placing step for forcibly pushing out ink from an ejecting nozzle of a recording head and placing the purged ink onto a nozzle region, the recording head being provided with the nozzle region to which the ejecting nozzle for ejecting the ink onto a recording medium is opened;
• an ejecting wipe step for after performing the purged ink placing step, wiping away the purged ink by moving a wiper along a ink ejecting surface including the nozzle region with the wiper being kept in contact with a wiping start position outside the nozzle region, applying and spreading the ink over the ink ejecting surface by successively performing the ink ejecting from the ejecting nozzle in synchronization with timing when the wiper passes;
• and
• an ink wiping step for after performing the ejecting wipe step, for wiping away the ejected ink applied and spread over the ink ejecting surface by moving the wiper along the ink ejecting surface.