Patent ID: 8757767

Claim:
A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising: a liquid ejection head which has a liquid ejection face formed with nozzles configured to eject droplets of liquid; a long wiping member which is configured to come in contact with the liquid ejection face to wipe the liquid ejection face; a wiping member conveyance device which is configured to drive the wiping member to be conveyed in a lengthwise direction of the wiping member; a control device which is configured to control a drive speed of the wiping member conveyance device to drive the wiping member; a pressing member which is configured to cause the wiping member to come in contact and pressed against the liquid ejection face; an elastic member which is configured to elastically deform and apply a force to cause the wiping member to be pressed against the liquid ejection face through the pressing member when the wiping member comes in contact and pressed against the liquid ejection face; a relative movement device which is configured to cause relative movement of the liquid ejection head with respect to the wiping member that is in contact with the liquid ejection head and travels by being driven to be conveyed by the wiping member conveyance device; and a slack eliminating member which is arranged in a front side of the liquid ejection head in a direction of travel of the liquid ejection head with respect to the wiping member caused by the relative movement, the slack eliminating member being configured to eliminate slack in the wiping member caused by elastic deformation of the elastic member when the wiping member comes in contact with the slack eliminating member, wherein: the wiping member conveyance device is configured to drive the wiping member to be conveyed to eliminate the slack when the wiping member is in contact with the slack eliminating member; and the control device is configured to cause the wiping member conveyance device to drive at a first drive speed when the liquid ejection face is wiped by the relative movement while the wiping member is in contact with the liquid ejection face, and is configured to cause the wiping member conveyance device to drive at a second drive speed faster than the first drive speed when the wiping member is in contact with the slack eliminating member.