Bristled scraper cleaning system for inkjet printheads
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorJohn A. Barinaga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bristled scraper cleaning system for cleaning a scraper, which has removed ink residue from wipers following an inkjet printhead wiping routine where the residue was first removed from the printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, has a reservoir filled with an ink solvent. A pair of bristle brushes are soaked in the ink solvent bath, then rotated to scrub ink residue from the scraper. Following this scrubbing routine, the scrapers are now ready for a fresh scraping routine, and the brushes are returned to the solvent bath to dissolve ink residue from the bristles. A method of cleaning an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a bristled scraper cleaning system, are also provided.
Claims20
A wiper scraper cleaning system for cleaning ink residue from a scraper which has removed the ink residue from a wiper following an inkjet printhead wiping routine where the wiper wiped the ink residue from the printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, comprising:
- a frame;
- a moveable platform supported by the frame to move the wiper through a scraping stroke and a wiping stroke for cleaning ink residue from the printhead;
- a scraper supported by the frame to scrape ink residue from the wiper during the scraping stroke;
- and
- a scraper cleaner supported by the frame for movement from a rest position through a scraper cleaning stroke to remove ink residue from the scraper.
An inkjet printing mechanism, comprising:
- a frame;
- an inkjet printhead supported by the frame for printing in a printzone and for servicing in a servicing region;
- a wiper;
- a moveable platform supported by the frame to move the wiper through a scraping stroke and a wiping stroke for cleaning ink residue from the printhead when in the servicing region;
- a scraper supported by the frame to scrape ink residue from the wiper during the scraping stroke;
- and
- a scraper cleaner supported by the frame for movement from a rest position through a scraper cleaning stroke to remove ink residue from the scraper.
A method of cleaning ink residue from an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, comprising the steps of:
- providing a wiper, a scraper, and a scraper cleaner;
- wiping ink residue from the printhead using the wiper;
- scraping ink residue from the wiper;
- and
- following the scraping step, cleaning the scraper with the scraper cleaner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.