Patent Publication Number: US-2006001710-A1

Title: Ink cartridge having cleaning solution injecting unit and ink-jet printer having the same

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Korean Patent Application No. 2004-50870 filed on Jun. 30, 2004, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference and in its entirety.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present general inventive concept relates to an ink cartridge having an injecting unit to inject a cleaning solution and an ink-jet printer having the same, and more particularly, to an ink cartridge having an injecting unit to inject a cleaning solution used to wipe ink residuals or adhesions stuck to a surface of a head of the ink cartridge as well as a wiping unit to wipe the head, and an ink-jet printer having the ink cartridge.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      An ink-jet printer refers to an apparatus designed to perform printing by injecting ink in the process of reciprocating an ink cartridge capable of storing and injecting the ink along a width direction of a fed printing medium. The ink cartridge has a bottom surface mounted with a head for injecting the ink. The head has nozzles arranged to permit the ink to be injected, wherein each nozzle has a very small diameter and communicates with an interior of the ink cartridge.  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a main portion of a conventional ink-jet printer. A carriage  10  is shown in  FIG. 1 . An ink cartridge  12  is mounted on the carriage  10  and moves left and right along a guide bar  14 . The carriage  10  has an upper end fitted into a guide slot  16  to prevent deviation and a bottom surface coupled with a timing belt  18  to be supplied with a driving force from a driving unit.  
      Meanwhile, a service station is provided on one side of the guide bar  14 . Therefore, during or after a printing operation, the carriage  10  moves to the service station. While at the service station, a surface of a head located on a bottom surface of the ink cartridge  12  is wiped by a wiping unit  22 . In addition, until a next printing operation is initiated after the printing operation, the head is tightly closed by a capping unit  24 , so that the head is prevented from being contaminated. The wiping and capping units  22  and  24  are installed on a frame  20 , and are in contact with and separated from the head by moving up and down by a driving member such as a solenoid (not shown).  
       FIG. 2  illustrates the wiping of the head of the ink cartridge  12  of the ink-jet printer of  FIG. 1 . Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a wiper blade  22   b  contacts a surface of the head of the ink cartridge  12  to wipe the surface of the head. A wiper holder  22   a  supports the wiper blade  22   b  and raises the wiper blade  22   b  to the surface of the head to start the wiping of the surface.  
      The wiping unit  22  may be categorized into two driving types based on a relation between a reciprocating direction of the head and a wiping direction of the wiping unit  22 : a horizontal type and a vertical type. As shown in  FIG. 1 , when the reciprocating direction of the head and the wiping direction of the wiping unit  22  are parallel to each other, the wiping unit  22  is referred to as the horizontal type. When the wiping direction of the wiping unit  22  is perpendicular to the reciprocating direction of the head (i.e., in a direction in which the printing medium is fed) in a state in which the head stands still at the service station, the wiping unit  22  is referred to as the vertical type.  
      The term “wiping” refers to removing foreign materials, such as ink residuals, dusts, etc., attached to the surface of the head of the ink cartridge  12  by moving the wiping unit  22  made of a flexible material such as a rubber, in close contact with the surface of the head of the ink cartridge  12 . In this wiping process, the foreign materials are transferred to a surface of the wiping unit  22 , thus being stacked on and attached to the surface of the wiping unit  22  in proportion to its operation time. These attached foreign materials deteriorate wiping performance, and are partially inserted into nozzles provided to the head, thus plugging up the nozzles of the head. Particularly, for a color ink cartridge, there is a strong fear of the mixing of colors. Further, the attached foreign materials cause damage to the head surface, so that it is possible to cause a failure of the head.  
      Particularly, there is a current tendency to use pigment ink rather than dye ink in order to improve printing quality. The pigment ink is a kind of oil-based ink, being insoluble in water when being coagulated. Further, the pigment ink is characterized by better color sensitivity and longer color preservation compared with the dye ink, so that the pigment ink is widely used recently. In spite of these features, the pigment ink is difficult to be wiped compared with the dye ink. For this reason, the pigment ink may suffer from the foregoing problems.  
      To solve these problems, there has been disclosed an ink-jet printer which cleans a surface of a head by using a cleaning solution independently of ink. That is to say, there are proposals for a method of removing the foreign materials by storing the cleaning solution, sucking the clearing solution into a capping unit and retaining the head in the cleaning solution, or a method of cleaning the head surface by injecting the cleaning solution toward the head surface through an injecting unit to inject the cleaning solution around a service station. All of these methods are adapted to improve a wiping efficiency through the use of the cleaning solution. To this end, the cleaning solution primarily wets the head surface to dissolve the foreign materials, and then the foreign materials are wiped away by a wiping unit. As a result, a wiping performance is improved.  
      However, these methods spend too much cleaning solution. In particular, in the case of the injection type, the cleaning solution is scattered onto and around the head, thus causing a problem of contaminating its surrounding area. Moreover, these methods require separate components such as an injection pump to have an effect on cleaning the head surface. Therefore, these methods have complicated structures and are not efficient to remove the foreign materials attached to the wiping unit.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present general inventive concept provides an ink cartridge useable with an ink-jet printer, capable of efficiently removing foreign materials attached not only to a head of the ink cartridge, but also to a wiping unit to wipe the head, to thereby prevent damage of the head and increase a wiping efficiency.  
      The present general inventive concept also provides an ink-jet printer capable of efficiently removing foreign materials attached not only to a head of an ink cartridge therein, but also to wiping unit to wipe the head, so that it is possible to prevent damage of the head and increase a wiping efficiency.  
      Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and advantages of the general inventive concept may be achieved by providing an ink cartridge useable with an ink-jet printer, the ink cartridge including a case having spaces to store ink and a cleaning solution separately, an ink injecting unit to inject the ink, and a cleaning solution injecting unit to inject the cleaning solution, wherein the cleaning solution injecting unit is disposed on one side of the ink injecting unit based on a movement direction of a wiping unit of the ink-jet printer.  
      The cleaning solution injecting unit can be integrated into the ink cartridge and can directly inject the cleaning solution onto the wiping unit of the ink-jet printer, rather than onto a surface of a head of the ink injecting unit, to thereby clean a surface of the wiping unit.  
      The cleaning solution may be injected immediately before or after wiping is performed by the wiping unit. When the cleaning solution is injected immediately before the wiping is performed, the cleaning solution injected onto the wiping unit cleans the surface of the wiping means, and then the remaining cleaning solution is transferred to and cleans the surface of the head while the wiping is performed. In contrast, when the cleaning solution is injected immediately after the wiping is performed, foreign materials existing on the surface of the head are transferred to the wiping unit when the wiping is performed, and then the cleaning solution is injected onto the surface of the wiping unit to which the transferred foreign materials are attached. As a result, it is possible to prevent the foreign materials from remaining on the wiping unit.  
      When the cleaning solution is injected can be determined by a positional relation between the ink injecting unit and the cleaning solution injecting unit. That is, the cleaning solution can be injected immediately before the wiping is performed when the ink injecting unit, the cleaning solution injecting unit and the wiping unit are disposed in that order at a moment when the wiping is performed. The cleaning solution can be injected immediately after the wiping is performed when the cleaning solution injecting unit, the ink injecting unit and the wiping unit are disposed in that order at the moment when the wiping is performed. The cleaning solution injecting unit may be disposed not only on one side, but on both sides of the ink injecting unit so that the cleaning solution can be injected both immediately before and after the wiping is performed to obtain a better result.  
      The cleaning solution can be directly injected onto the wiping unit, so that the wiping unit may be kept clean. In addition, it is possible not only to increase a wiping efficiency of the head but also to minimize an amount of the cleaning solution scattered around the head, so that a service station of the ink-jet printer may be kept clean as a whole.  
      The ink and cleaning solution injecting units each may include a plurality of nozzles. An interval between an array of the nozzles of the ink injection unit and an array of the nozzles of the cleaning solution injection unit may be wider than an interval between the arrays of the nozzles of the ink injection unit. This is to scatter the cleaning solution injected before the wiping unit arrives at the ink injecting unit onto the surface of the wiping unit to a sufficient extent.  
      The present general inventive concept may also be applied to a color ink cartridge. In this case, the ink injecting unit may include a plurality of nozzles to respectively inject ink having a plurality of colors. The color ink cartridge may have inks corresponding to colors of cyan, magenta and yellow. The cleaning solution injecting unit may be disposed between the nozzles of the ink injecting unit corresponding to the brightest color ink, e.g., the yellow color ink, and the wiping unit, and to inject the cleaning solution onto the wiping unit, and to perform the wiping from the nozzles of the ink injecting unit corresponding to the brightest color of ink to the nozzles of the ink injecting unit corresponding to a dark color ink.  
      When the bright color is mixed with the dark color, an influence of the bright color on the dark color is relatively little compared with an influence of the dark color on the bright color. Particularly, for the vertical type wiping, there is no fear of mixing the colors. Thus, the cleaning solution injecting unit is positioned at the end of the column of the nozzles corresponding to each color.  
      The ink cartridge case may have an inner space partitioned into reservoirs to store the ink and the cleaning solution by a partition, and the reservoirs may be provided with the ink injecting unit and the cleaning solution injection unit on an inner bottom surface thereof, respectively.  
      The ink and cleaning solution injecting units each may include a stand pipe attached to each inner bottom surface of the ink cartridge case, a filter attached to an upper end of the stand pipe, and a head provided on each outer bottom surface of the ink cartridge case.  
      The cleaning solution may include deionized water, and may further include ethylene glycol to produce a more smooth cleaning effect. The ethylene glycol is a hydrophilic material which is well soluble in water and organic solvent. Hence, when the ethylene glycol is added and dissolved, it is conglomerated in a spherical form to form a micelle having a hydrophilic outside and a hydrophobic inside. The micelle is attached to a foreign material, particularly a pigment ink, etc., attached to the wiping unit to facilitate the wiping effectively.  
      The foregoing aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing an ink-jet printer including a main body having a driving unit to drive an ink cartridge, the ink cartridge mounted on the main body, a service station having a wiping unit to wipe the ink cartridge, and a controller to control operations of the driving unit, the ink cartridge and the wiping unit.  
      The wiping unit may include a wiper blade to contact a surface of the ink cartridge and a wiper holder to support the wiper blade and mounted on the service station. The wiper holder may be provided with at least one cleaning solution inlet on a surface opposite to the ink cartridge. The cleaning solution inlet may communicate with a reservoir provided on one side of the main body.  
      The controller may control the ink cartridge to inject a cleaning solution at least one of immediately before and immediately after wiping depending on the mounted ink cartridge. The cleaning solution injecting unit may be formed on one side or both sides of the ink injecting unit, and the ink cartridge may be adapted to be controlled by the controller. Here, the ink cartridge capable of being mounted according to the ink-jet printer may be determined in advance, so that the controller may control the cleaning solution injecting unit to be suitable for a kind designated in advance. In addition, when information on the kind of the ink cartridge is adapted to be stored in a chip mounted on the ink cartridge, the controller may recognize this information to then control a point of time to inject the cleaning solution according to the kind of the discriminated ink cartridge. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a main portion of a conventional ink-jet printer;  
       FIG. 2  is a front view illustrating where a wiper blade wipes a head of an ink cartridge in the ink-jet printer of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  is a perspective view illustrating an ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view taken along a line A-A of  FIG. 3 ;  
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view illustrating a main portion of an ink-jet printer having the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3 ;  
       FIG. 6  is a perspective view illustrating an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional view taken along a line B-B of  FIG. 6 ;  
       FIG. 8  is a front view illustrating an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 9  is a front view illustrating an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the general inventive concept; and  
       FIG. 10  is a front view illustrating an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the general inventive concept. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept while referring to the figures.  
      Referring to  FIG. 3 , an ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the general inventive concept is shown. The ink cartridge is usable with an ink-jet printer having a wiping unit of a horizontal type, and may be applied to a case of performing a wiping operation while the wiping unit (not shown) moves from right to left relative to the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3 .  
      The ink cartridge can include a case  100  provided with an internal space to contain ink and a cleaning solution therein. The case  100  can have a bottom surface provided with an ink injection head  110  to inject the ink, and a cleaning solution injection head  120  to inject the cleaning solution. The ink injecting head  110  has a plurality of ink injecting nozzles  112 , and the cleaning solution injecting head  120  has a plurality of cleaning solution injecting nozzles  122 . Specifically, the ink injecting nozzles  112  can be arranged in two columns, and the cleaning solution injecting nozzles  122  can be disposed on a right side of the ink injecting nozzles  112 , and can also be arranged in a column. An interval between the two columns of the ink injecting nozzles  112  can be formed to be narrower than an interval between the column of the cleaning solution injecting nozzles  122  and the neighboring column of the ink injecting nozzles  112 .  
      The cleaning solution may include deionized water or ethylene glycol to produce a more smooth cleaning effect. The ethylene glycol is a hydrophilic material which is well soluble in water and organic solvent. Hence, when the ethylene glycol is added and dissolved, it Is conglomerated in a spherical form to form a micelle having a hydrophilic outside and a hydrophobic inside. The micelle is attached to a foreign material, particularly a pigment ink etc., attached to the wiping unit to facilitate the wiping.  
       FIG. 4  illustrates an internal structure of the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3 . Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the case  100  is provided with a partition  104 . The partition  104  divides the internal space of the case  100  into a first space to store the ink and a second space to store the cleaning solution. Here, a consumption of the cleaning solution can be relatively less than that of the ink. In consideration of this relation, the second space to store the cleaning solution can be set to be relatively small as compared to the first space to store the ink.  
      The case  100  can have stand pipes  106  and  126  mounted on an internal bottom surface of the first and second spaces. The stand pipes  106  and  126  can have filters  108  and  128 , respectively, each of which is attached to an upper portion of each stand pipe  106  or  126 . The stand pipes  106  and  126  and filters  108  and  128  are simply one example of, but not limited to, ink injecting units. Therefore, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the various ink injecting units may be appropriately modified and applied.  
       FIG. 5  illustrates a main portion of an ink-jet printer having the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3 , wherein a rectangular frame  130  can protrude upward from a bottom surface  132  of a main body (not shown) of the ink-jet printer under a service station of the main body. The frame  130  can have a step  134  protruding along an edge on a top surface thereof. A plurality of first cleaning solution inlets  136  into which the cleaning solution flows can be formed around a wiper holder  140  to be described below.  
      The first cleaning solution inlets  136  collect the cleaning solution injected, and communicate with a reservoir (not shown) to collect the cleaning solution into the reservoir. The reservoir may be disposed either inside the frame or at an arbitrary place in the main body.  
      The wiper holder  140  can be mounted on the top surface of the frame  130  to be movable up and down. A flexible wiper blade  142  can be fixed to an upper portion of the wiper holder  140 . As an elevation mechanism of the wiper holder  140 , a known elevation mechanism such as a solenoid may be employed, thus its detailed description will be omitted. Similarly to the first cleaning solution inlets  136  formed in the frame, a plurality of second cleaning solution inlets  144  can be formed around the wiper blade  142  on a top surface of the wiper holder  140 . The second cleaning solution inlets  144  can also communicate with the reservoir like the first cleaning solution inlets  136 . Thus, the cleaning solution flowing down a surface of the wiper blade  142  can be collected into the reservoir through the second cleaning solution inlets  144  formed in the wiper holder  140  and the first cleaning solution inlets  136  formed in the frame  130 . Although  FIG. 5  includes both the first and second cleaning solution inlets  136  and  144 , the ink-jet printer may have only one of the first and second cleaning solution inlets  136  and  144 , as well.  
      Now, an operation of the ink-jet printer of  FIG. 5  will be described. When the ink cartridge is shifted toward the service station by a controller (not shown), the wiper holder  140  is raised to wipe the ink injecting head  110  of the ink cartridge. Just before the wiping, the ink injecting nozzles  112  of the cartridge case  100 , the cleaning solution injecting nozzles  122  of the cartridge case  100 , and the wiper blade  142  can be positioned in that order from left to right. The controller controls the cleaning solution to be injected toward the surface of the wiper blade  142  through the cleaning solution injecting nozzles  122 .  
      The injected cleaning solution wets the surface of the wiper blade  142 , and then the wiper blade is brought into contact with a surface of the ink injecting nozzles  112 , i.e., the surface of the ink injecting head  110 . In this contact state, the wiper blade  142  goes over the surface of the ink injecting head  110 . In this manner, the wiping is performed. Here, the cleaning solution on the surface of the wiper blade  142  allows foreign materials attached to the surface of the ink injecting head  110  to be easily transferred to the surface of the wiper blade  142 . Therefore, the foreign materials are dropped down by gravitation and then collected into the reservoir through the first and second cleaning solution inlets  136  and  144  to collect the cleaning solution.  
      In other words, the foreign materials attached to the surface of the ink injecting head  110  can be transferred to the wiper blade  142  when dissolved or floated by the cleaning solution applied to the wiper blade  142  so that a wiping efficiency may be improved. In addition, because the foreign materials are collected into the separate reservoir without remaining on the surface of the wiper blade  142 , the wiper blade  142  is kept clean.  
      Meanwhile, the cleaning solution injecting head  120  may be disposed on a left side of the ink injecting head  110  rather than the right side thereof. In this case, the wiper blade  142  wipes the surface of the ink injection head  110  first, and thus the foreign materials attached to the ink injecting head  110  are transferred to the wiper blade  142 . Then, the cleaning solution is injected toward the surface of the wiper blade  142  to which the foreign materials are attached to thereby separate the foreign materials from the wiper blade  142 , and introduce the foreign materials into the reservoir. To be brief, when the wiping of the surface of the ink injecting head  110  is performed after the wiper blade  142  is wetted with the cleaning solution, the wiping efficiency is increased, while an efficiency of cleaning the surface of the wiper blade  142  is relatively decreased. In contrast, when the wiping of the surface of the ink injecting head  110  is performed before the wiper blade  142  is wetted with the cleaning solution, the wiping efficiency is relatively decreased, while the efficiency of the cleaning the surface of the wiper blade is increased.  
       FIGS. 6 and 7  illustrate an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the general inventive concept. The ink cartridge of  FIGS. 6 and 7  is basically similar to the ink cartridge of  FIGS. 3 and 4 , but different in that wiping is performed in a direction perpendicular to a movement direction of the ink cartridge of  FIGS. 6 and 7 . That is, the ink cartridge of  FIGS. 6 and 7  is directed to an ink cartridge usable with an ink-jet printer having a wiping unit of a vertical type. A wiping blade  242  of the wiping unit is shown in  FIG. 6  to illustrate the direction of the wiping.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 6 and 7 , a cartridge case  200  having an internal space to store ink and cleaning solution is mounted with an ink injection head  210  to inject the ink and a cleaning solution injection head  220  to inject the cleaning solution on an outer bottom surface thereof. The ink injecting head  210  is provided with a plurality of ink injecting nozzles  212 , and the cleaning solution injecting head  220  is provided with a plurality of cleaning solution injection nozzles  222 .  FIG. 6  illustrates, but the ink cartridge is not limited to, eight ink injecting nozzles  212  and two cleaning solution injecting nozzles  222 .  
      Referring to  FIG. 7 , the case  200  can be provided with a partition  204 . The partition  204  divides the internal space of the case  200  into a first space to store the ink and a second space to store the cleaning solution. The case  200  can have stand pipes  206  and  226  and filters  208  and  228  mounted on a lower portion of the first and second spaces.  
      An operation of the ink cartridge of  FIG. 6  is basically similar to the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3 , but different in that wiping is performed along the line B-B of  FIG. 6  as opposed to the line A-A of  FIG. 3 . Hence, the operation of the ink cartridge of  FIG. 6  is sufficiently similar to the operation of the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3  so that a detailed description will be omitted. In this embodiment, it may be considered that the cleaning solution is injected immediately after the wiping is performed, specifically after the wiping is first performed to the ink injection head  210 , as described above.  
       FIG. 8  illustrates an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the present general inventive concept. The ink cartridge of  FIG. 8  is basically similar to the ink cartridge of  FIG. 6 , but different in that it is directed to an ink cartridge usable with a color printing apparatus. Specifically, the ink cartridge of  FIG. 8  includes ink injecting nozzles  312   a ,  312   b  and  312   c  corresponding to a cyan color, a magenta color and a yellow color, respectively, and has cleaning solution injecting nozzles  322  disposed under the ink injecting nozzles. Like the ink cartridge of  FIG. 6 , the ink cartridge of  FIG. 8  is useable with an inkjet printer having a wiping unit of the vertical type. The ink cartridge may include three partitions to divide an internal space into separate sections to accommodate the cleaning solution and the ink corresponding to the cyan color, the magenta color, and the yellow color. Further, the operation of the ink cartridge of  FIG. 8  is similar to the operation of the ink cartridge of  FIG. 6 , and so a detailed description will be omitted.  
       FIG. 9  illustrates an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the present general inventive concept. The ink cartridge of  FIG. 9  is basically similar to the ink cartridge of  FIG. 3  but directed, to a color ink cartridge. The ink cartridge of  FIG. 9  includes ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  corresponding to a cyan color, a magenta color and a yellow color, respectively, and the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  can be arranged in that order from left to right. Cleaning solution injecting nozzles  422  can be arranged on the right side of the yellow ink injecting nozzles  412   c.    
      In other words, when wiping of the horizontal type is performed, a wiper blade goes over the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  while pressing surfaces of the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c . In this case, there is a possibility that the ink of one color will go into the ink injecting nozzle  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  corresponding to a different color, so that there is a fear of the mixing of the different colors. When a bright color ink goes into the ink injecting nozzle  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  corresponding to a dark color ink, the influence exerted on a color sense of the dark color ink is relatively little (the color is not greatly changed). In contrast, when the dark color ink goes into the ink injecting nozzle  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  corresponding to the bright color ink, the influence exerted on the color sense of the bright color ink is relatively great. Thus, when wiping the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c , it is possible to minimize the influence of mixed colors by wiping the brightest color ink first. In particular, the influence from the mixed color may be reduced when the wiping is performed in a state in which the cleaning solution is first injected onto a wiper blade.  
      The ink cartridge of  FIG. 9  can be designed to wipe the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  after the cleaning solution is injected onto the wiper blade. Alternatively, the ink cartridge of  FIG. 9  may be implemented in reverse. Namely, the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  may be wiped first, and then the cleaning solution may be injected onto the wiper blade. In this case, it is possible to move the wiper blade over the ink injecting nozzles  412   a ,  412   b  and  412   c  in the order of the yellow, magenta, cyan, and then to the cleaning solution nozzles  422 , in order to make allowance for the fear of the mixing of the colors as set forth above.  
       FIG. 10  illustrates an ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the present general inventive concept. The ink cartridge of  FIG. 10  is basically similar to the ink cartridge of  FIG. 1 , and is adapted to improve both a capability to clean a surface of an ink injecting head and a capability to clean a surface of a wiper blade by disposing a plurality of cleaning solution injecting nozzles  122 ′ on the either side of a plurality ink injecting nozzles  112 ′. In other words, when wiping the ink injecting nozzles  112 ′, the cleaning solution is first injected onto the wiper blade surface, and then the ink injecting nozzles  112 ′ are wiped, and finally the cleaning solution is injected onto the wiper blade surface again. Thus, the wiping efficiency of the surface of the ink injecting head is increased by the cleaning solution remaining on the wiper blade, and the cleaning solution is again injected onto the surface of the wiper blade to which foreign materials are transferred by the wiping, so that the foreign materials attached to the wiper blade may be cleaned away.  
      The ink cartridge of  FIG. 10  is illustrated as being usable with an ink-jet printer having a wiping unit of the horizontal type, but alternatively it may be considered to be usable with an ink-jet printer having a wiping unit of the vertical type. In other words, in the ink cartridge of  FIG. 6 , the cleaning solution injecting nozzles  222  can be separately disposed on the upper portion of the ink injecting nozzles  212 , and thus the cleaning solution may be injected immediately before and after the wiping.  
      As can be seen from the foregoing embodiments of the present general inventive concept, a cleaning solution is injected onto a wiping unit by a cleaning solution injecting unit integrated into the ink cartridge, so that it is possible to simplify the mechanism of the ink-jet printer, to keep the surface of the wiping unit clean, and to increase an efficiency of wiping a surface of a head.  
      In particular, a small quantity of cleaning solution is locally injected only onto the wiping unit compared to the prior art, so that it is possible to reduce a consumption of the cleaning solution. Further, the cleaning solution does not scatter, so that it is possible to keep the main body of the printer clean.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.