Patent ID: 8360549

Claim:
A spitting method for a printhead comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged across a transfer path of a printing medium, the method comprising: moving a maintenance unit, including a cleaning tank and a spitting groove, and applying a cleaning solution to nozzles facing an open top surface of the cleaning tank from among the plurality of nozzles; moving the maintenance unit and wiping the cleaned nozzles according to the movement of the maintenance unit; moving the maintenance unit by rotating a part of a driving motor such that the spitting groove is positioned to receive ink spit from the wiped nozzles among the plurality of nozzles; generating an interrupt signal by the motor driving the maintenance unit, thereby only the wiped nozzles from among the plurality of nozzles are facing the spitting groove; determining a position of the spitting groove based on a rotational position of the rotating part of the motor in response to the generated interrupt signal; determining a group of the wiped nozzles facing the spitting groove from among the plurality of nozzles based on the determined position of the spitting groove; and spitting by only the group of the wiped nozzles determined to be facing the spitting groove from among the plurality of nozzles; determining whether all of the cleaned nozzles have been wiped and spit; and moving the maintenance unit such that the spitting groove is positioned to receive ink spit from another of the group determined from among the plurality of nozzles, upon determining that all of the cleaned nozzles have not been wiped and spit, wherein the plurality of nozzles performs the spitting in sequence of the wiping has been performed.