Patent ID: 8240808

Claim:
A maintenance device for an ink-jet head having a head substrate on a surface of which orifices for ejecting ink droplets are formed in an array having a direction, comprising: a removal unit comprising a suction assembly which is disposed in a position that faces the surface of the head substrate having said orifices formed thereon and does not come into contact with the head substrate, and which has formed therein, on a surface opposite said head substrate surface on which said orifices are formed, a first suction port and a second suction port, each being slit-like and elongated in a direction parallel to an orifice array direction and mutually parallel and spaced apart in a direction perpendicular to the orifice array direction; a suction pump which draws air from inside said suction assembly; and a soaking mechanism which, when said suction pump is at rest, discharges ink from said orifices in the ink-jet head so as to wet with the ink the surface of said head substrate on which said orifices are formed, wherein said first suction port is disposed at a position opposite to, in the direction perpendicular to the orifice array direction, one edge of each of said orifices, and said second suction port is disposed at a position opposite to, in the direction perpendicular to the orifice array direction, another edge of each of said orifices, and wherein said first suction port is disposed at a position straddling said one edge of each orifice and/or said second suction port is disposed at a position straddling said another edge of each orifice.