Patent ID: 7562959

Claim:
An ink-jet printing device comprising: an ink-jet printing head for printing an image by discharging ink droplets from a number of nozzles onto a recording medium; and a purging unit for sucking ink from the nozzles; the purging unit comprising: a cap having (1) a flat, plate shaped base, and (2) a cylindrical lip that extends upright from the base; a suction pump for lowering a pressure in a space defined between the ink-jet printing head and the cap when the lip of the cap is in abutment with the ink-jet printing head; and a supporting member disposed in the cap and capable of supporting the lip from the inside of the cap; wherein the lip hermetically encloses the nozzles when a distal end portion of the lip abuts the ink-jet printing head; wherein at least a portion of the base corresponding to an inner side of the lip is flexible enough to be deformed so as to project inwardly of the lip when the pressure in the space is lowered, and wherein the supporting member comprises an abutment portion, the abutment portion abutting the inner side of the distal end portion of the lip when the base deforms.