Ink jet printer having an eccentric head guide shaft for cleaning and sealing nozzle surface

Abstract

An ink jet printer is disclosed wherein an ink writing head is reprocably movably mounted on an eccentric guide shaft to scan a print line during print mode and moved to a cleaning position outside the print line during non-print mode. A nozzle cleaning device movably supports a liquid-absorbing cleaning tape along a path parallel to and adjacent to the nozzle surface. A drive system turns the guide shaft about the eccentric axis thereof and moves the cleaning tape during the non-print mode so that the nozzle surface moves in a substantially circular path to permit a section of the tape to provide a wiping action over the nozzle surface. A nozzle sealing device is arranged to make contact with the nozzle surface when the latter is moving in the circular path and held in pressure tight contact with the nozzle surface after the drive system is de-energized.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.