Printhead maintenance system

Abstract

A printhead maintenance system includes: an elongate inkjet printhead having a nozzle face containing a plurality of inkjet nozzles; a carriage movable longitudinally along the printhead in a cleaning direction, the carriage including a maintenance member having: a fluid bath having a mouth opposing the nozzle face of the printhead, a primary fluid inlet at an upstream end of the fluid bath relative to the cleaning direction and a fluid outlet at a downstream end of the fluid bath relative to the cleaning direction; and a traversing mechanism for traversing the carriage longitudinally along the printhead in the cleaning direction. The maintenance member does not contact inkjet nozzles of the printhead, and the fluid bath is configured to provide a greater fluid velocity at the downstream end relative to the upstream end.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.