US 6,616,265 B2Granted

Suction cap for ink-jet recording apparatus

AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsTatsuya Shindo, Motohito Hino

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Abstract

The invention includes a suction cap that does not retain ink therein. The suction cap includes a cap member having a recess and a suction opening formed therein and a capillary force generating member disposed in the recess. When a recovery operation is performed for ink ejection using the suction cap, ink sucked from a nozzle flows downwardly from a tilt surface of the recess due to gravity and a suction force applied through the suction opening. The ink impinges a side face of a projection of the capillary force generating member, flowing into defined narrow spaces, due to the action of capillary force of the ink, and flowing toward the suction opening. The ink in the defined narrow spaces is discharged by the suction force applied through the suction opening to outside the suction cap.

Claims31

Dependent claims

An ink-jet recording apparatus, comprising:

a recording head including an ejection surface and at least one nozzle formed thereon for recording onto a recording medium by ejecting ink from the nozzle;
a cap device for covering the ejection surface of the recording head, the cap device including:
a cap member including a contact portion able to be in contact with the ejection surface and a recess forming a room with the ejection surface of the recording head when the cap member contacts to the ejection surface of the recording head, and a suction opening communicating with the recess through which ink is sucked;
and
a capillary force generating member separately formed from the cap member, the capillary force generating member disposed in the cap member to form spaces with an inner surface of the recess of the cap member so that a capillary force is generated toward a part of the inner surface of the recess where the suction opening is formed;
and
a suction device connected to the suction opening of the cap member for sucking the ink of the recording head through the nozzle and discharging the sucked ink from the cap device through the suction opening.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.