Patent ID: 7300135

Claim:
A maintenance mechanism for an ink jet recording apparatus having an ink jet head, the maintenance mechanism comprising: a carriage that performs reciprocating movement along a line parallel to an ink discharging surface of the ink jet head; and a purge sheet attached to the carriage and arranged to be in either of an ink acceptance position and a recording permission position depending on a position of the carriage, the ink acceptance position in which at least a part of the purge sheet is disposed under the ink jet head and opposes the ink discharging surface, and the recording permission position in which an entirety of the purge sheet is removed from the ink discharging surface, wherein being in the ink acceptance position, the purge sheet is formed of a shape that allows ink discharged from the ink jet head and adhered to the purge sheet to move, owing to gravity, toward a center of the purge sheet with respect to a purge sheet width direction perpendicular to a traveling direction of the carriage, the traveling direction in which the carriage performs the reciprocating movement.