Maintenance cap forming a sealed condition around nozzle rows of an ink jet print head

A cap member for use with an ink jet printer, for providing an intimate seal around at least one nozzle row formed in a nozzle plate of an ink jet head of the ink jet printer, the cap member comprising:

• a resin body including an integral base portion and protruding portion, the protruding portion protruding away from the base portion in a protrusion direction;
• and
• a resilient rubber lip member adapted for intimate sealing contact with the ink jet head, and that covers only the protruding portion of the resin body, wherein the lip member includes a surrounding lip and a partitioning lip elongated in a lengthwise direction in parallel with each other, to form elongated and parallel aligned partitioned spaces for separating nozzle rows that are parallel aligned and separated from each other in a widthwise direction perpendicular to the lengthwise direction and suction holes are formed in the body for each partitioned space and are positioned shifted from each other by a distance in the lengthwise direction.

A cap member for use with an ink jet printer, for providing an intimate seal around at least one nozzle row formed in a nozzle plate of an ink jet head of the ink jet printer, the cap member comprising:

• a resin body including an integral base portion and protruding portion, the protruding portion protruding away from the base portion in a protrusion direction;
• and
• a resilient rubber lip member adapted for intimate sealing contact with the ink jet head, and that covers at least the protruding portion of the resin body, wherein the lip member is formed to a thickness in the protrusion direction from a tip end of the protruding portion to a tip end of the lip member of 1.0 mm or less.