Patent ID: 8091980

Claim:
A method of performing maintenance on a printhead of an imaging device, the method comprising: applying a purge pressure to ink in an on-board reservoir of a printhead to cause ink to be burped through a plurality of apertures in an aperture plate of the printhead; dabbing a wiper blade on the aperture plate at a dabbing position at least once prior to wiping and after the application of the purge pressure; wiping the wiper blade at least across the plurality of apertures in the aperture plate after the dabbing of the wiper blade at the dabbing position; applying an assist pressure to the on-board reservoir during the wiping of the aperture plate to prevent ink from being pushed into the plurality of apertures by the wiper blade, the assist pressure being applied at a first level in response to the on-board reservoir being approximately full of ink and the assist pressure being applied at a second level in response to the on-board reservoir having a low level of ink, the second level being greater than the first level; and dabbing the wiper blade at the dabbing position at least once after the wiper blade wipes the aperture plate.