Liquid ejection apparatus and maintenance method of liquid ejection head
AssigneeKonica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
InventorFujio Miyamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A liquid ejection apparatus includes a plurality of liquid ejection heads, a plurality of elastic wiper blades for rubbing the nozzle formed surfaces of the liquid ejection heads, a blade cleaner for removing liquid adhered to the wiper blade, a cleaning unit for removing liquid adhered to the wiper blades, a wiper blade moving unit for respectively and independently moving the plurality of wiper blades between a rubbing position and a retreating position, and a control unit that controls the wiper blade moving unit so that the cleaning unit can make the blade cleaner and the moved wiper blades rub with each other. Herein, it is possible to maintain cleaning performance, preventing contamination of a wiper blade caused by liquid splashed from a neighboring wiper blade.
Claims14
A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of liquid ejection heads each of which ejects a liquid droplet from a nozzle;
- a plurality of elastic wiper blades each of which contacts a nozzle formed surface of the corresponding liquid ejection head and moves in substantially parallel and relatively to the nozzle formed surface of the liquid ejection head so as to rub the nozzle formed surface;
- a blade cleaner for removing liquid adhered to the wiper blades;
- a cleaning unit for removing liquid adhered to the wiper blades by relatively moving the wiper blades and blade cleaner to be rubbed with each other;
- a wiper blade moving unit for respectively and independently moving the plurality of wiper blades between a rubbing position where the wiper blades can rub the nozzle formed surfaces of the respective liquid ejection heads and a retreating position where the wiper blades do not contact the respective liquid ejection heads;
- and
- a control unit that controls the wiper blade moving unit such that, after the control unit has moved a wiper blade selecting from the plurality of wiper blades to the rubbing position and rubbed the nozzle formed surface of the corresponding liquid ejection head with the wiper blade, the control unit moves at least one other wiper blade in addition to the selected wiper blade, to the rubbing position so that the cleaning unit can make the blade cleaner and the moved wiper blades rub with each other.
A maintenance method of liquid ejection heads of a liquid ejection apparatus having a plurality of liquid ejection heads, a plurality of corresponding elastic wiper blades, and a wiper cleaner for cleaning the wiper blades, comprising the steps of:
- moving a first wiper blade of which a corresponding liquid ejection head having ejected a liquid droplet from a nozzle with a selection from the plurality of wiper blades, from a retreating position where the wiper blades do not contact nozzle formed surfaces of the corresponding liquid ejection heads to a rubbing position where the wiper blades can rub the nozzle formed surfaces, thereby making the first wiper blade contact the nozzle formed surface, and moving the first wiper blade in substantially parallel and relatively to the nozzle formed surface so as to rub the nozzle formed surface with the first wiper blade;
- independently moving at least one wiper blade other than the first selected wiper blade of the plurality of wiper blades from the retreating position to the rubbing position, after the rubbing of the nozzle formed surface of the liquid ejection head with the first selected wiper blade;
- and
- removing liquid adhered to the wiper blades having been moved to the rubbing position, by relatively moving the wiper blades and the blade cleaner to be rubbed with each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.