Patent ID: 6517187
Filing Date: 2003-02-11
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
A method of removing residual ink from an ink jet printhead nozzle face with a wiper blade, collecting residual ink removed, and cleaning residual ink from said wiper blade, comprising the steps of:attaching a printhead having a nozzle face to an ink tank support structure, said support structure having a bottom wall; providing a backstop receptacle integrally formed on the bottom wall of said support structure adjacent the printhead, said backstop receptacle having an open side spaced from and confronting the printhead, said backstop receptacle having a top wall substantially parallel to the bottom wall of the support structure; installing said support structure on a translatable carriage; translating said carriage along a path between a printing location and a non-printing location; providing a positionable wiper blade holder with a relatively stiff wiper blade therein at said non-printing location, the blade holder being positionable between a non-wiping position and a wiping position; translating said carriage having the support structure with the backstop receptacle and printhead thereon along said path in a first direction from the printing location to the non-printing location; elevating the blade holder with the wiper blade from the non-wiping position towards the carriage path to said wiping position in response to the movement of the carriage in said first direction; translating said carriage along said path in a second direction from the non-printing direction towards the printing location, so that the wiper blade contacts said nozzle face and is flexingly deformed thereby; removing the residual ink from said nozzle face and at least partially onto said flexingly deformed wiper blade as said wiper blade is moved past said nozzle face, thereby wiping said nozzle face clean; flicking at least some of the removed residual ink from said wiper blade as said wiper blade is moved out of contact with said nozzle face, whereby said wiper blade straightens out from being flexingly deformed; collecting said at least some of the residual ink flicked from said wiper blade into said backstop receptacle through the open side thereof; and continuing to move the nozzle face in said second direction until said wiper blade is placed into flexingly deformed contact with the top wall of said backstop receptacle, so that a portion of said wiper blade is wiped against the top wall of said backstop receptacle, thereby cleaning all remaining residual ink therefrom.