Patent ID: 8388103

Claim:
A flushing apparatus for an inkjet printer, comprising: a suction mechanism to suck ink mist generated at a time of a flushing processing in which ink is ejected from a nozzle provided in an inkjet head of the inkjet printer; and an ink mist collecting mechanism to collect the ink mist by a suction force of the suction mechanism, the ink mist collecting mechanism having a box-shaped housing, the ink mist collecting mechanism comprising: an upper face part on which the ink ejected from the nozzle is dropped, the upper face part including a plurality of suction holes through which the ink mist is sucked into an inside of the ink mist collecting mechanism by the suction force of the suction mechanism; and a droplet forming member provided in an interior of the box-shaped housing at a position beneath the plurality of the suction holes to form droplets from the ink mist sucked through the plurality of the suction holes, wherein the suction mechanism is connected to the interior via a connection hole provided on a first side face of the ink mist collecting mechanism, wherein the plurality of the suction holes is provided in the upper face part at a location adjacent to the first side face, wherein the droplet forming member is disposed between the suction holes and the connection hole, and wherein the droplet forming member defines a space in communication with the plurality of suction holes, the space being closed on an end adjacent the first side face and opened on an opposite end adjacent a second side face of the ink mist collecting mechanism, the second side face being opposite to the first side face.