Recycling ink solvent system for inkjet printheads

A method of cleaning an inkjet printhead in an injet printing mechanism, comprising the steps of:

• applying an ink solvent to a wiper;
• wiping ink residue from the printhead and dissolving a portion of said ink residue in the applied ink solvent;
• scraping said ink residue and remaining ink solvent with ink residue dissolved therein from the wiper onto a scraper portion of a recycling member of a porous material, wherein the scraper portion comprises a rigid apparatus having a scraper blade, which receives ink residue from the wiper, and a drain surface;
• directing ink solvent from the scraper blade to the recycling member with the drain surface;
• and
• recycling the ink solvent by moving the ink solvent through the porous material of the recycling member from the scraper portion of the recycling member to an applicator portion of the recycling member, and during said moving of the ink solvent, filtering said dissolved ink residue from the ink solvent with the porous material.

An inkjet printing mechanism, comprising:

• an inkjet printhead;
• a carriage that reciprocates the printhead through a printzone for printing and to a servicing region for printhead servicing;
• a wiper;
• a platform that supports the wiper for movement through an application stroke, a wiping stroke for cleaning ink residue from the printhead when in the servicing region, and a scraping stroke;
• and
• an ink solvent recycling apparatus having a body of a porous material impregnated with an ink solvent, with the body defining an applicator portion which applies the ink solvent to the wiper during the application stroke to dissolve therein ink residue gathered during the wiping stroke, with the recycling apparatus also having a scraper portion which scrapes the solvent with the ink residue dissolved therein from the wiper during the scraping stroke, wherein solvent with the ink the residue dissolved therein is transferred from the scraper portion to the applicator portion by the porous material of the body while recycling the solvent by removing dissolved ink residue therefrom, and wherein the scraper portion comprises a rigid apparatus having a scraper blade that receives ink residue from the wiper and a drain surface that directs ink solvent from the scraper blade to the recycling apparatus body.

An ink solvent recycling apparatus for recycling ink solvent used by a wiper to dissolve therein ink residue wiped from an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, comprising:

• a body of a porous material impregnated with said ink solvent, with the body defining an applicator portion located to apply the ink solvent to the wiper to dissolve therein ink residue gathered when wiping the printhead;
• and
• a scraper portion located to scrape the solvent with the ink residue dissolved therein from the wiper after wiping the printhead;
• wherein the porous material of the body transfers the solvent with the ink the residue dissolved therein from the scraper portion to the applicator portion while recycling the solvent by removing dissolved ink residue therefrom, wherein the scraper portion comprises a rigid apparatus having a scraper blade that receives ink residue from the wiper and a drain surface that directs ink solvent from the scraper blade to the body.