Patent ID: 7334865

Claim:
A head cartridge comprising: a liquid ejection head for ejecting predetermined liquid from a plurality of liquid ejection nozzles formed on a nozzle surface; cleaning means for cleaning the nozzle surface of the liquid ejection head by relatively moving a porous wiping member so as to bring the wiping member into contact with the nozzle surface with elastic deformation of the wiping member; and deforming means for temporarily increasing the elastic deformation of the wiping member at a position in the foreground of the liquid ejection nozzles in the cleaning direction, wherein an elastic displacement h of the wiping member produced by the deforming means is established to satisfy the following condition: h> ( Vu/Vr )( L+n/ 2−φ/2), where the restoring speed of the elastic deformation of the wiping member is denoted as Vu; the moving speed of the wiping member is denoted as Vr; the movement distance of the wiping member from a restoring initiation point of the elastic deformation to the center of the liquid ejection nozzles is L; the contact width between the wiping member and the nozzle surface is n; and the diameter of the liquid ejection nozzle is φ.