Patent ID: 7775626

Claim:
A cleaning device for a printer comprising: a cleaning mechanism for cleaning a print head having ink nozzles for discharging ink; a drive control unit for operating the cleaning mechanism at a first level of cleaning using a vacuum discharge process for driving an ink suction pump to vacuum and discharge ink from the ink nozzles in an amount corresponding to the consumption of a given volume of ink or at a second level of cleaning representing a pseudo-cleaning mode that executes a flushing process instead of a vacuum discharge process for discharging a volume of ink from the ink nozzles equal to an amount less than at least 1.5 orders of magnitude smaller than the volume of ink discharged in the first level of cleaning; a counter for counting an elapsed time in which the print head is in a no-printing state; and a process selection unit responsive to a predetermined input thereto for making a selection of the first level of cleaning when the no-printing state has continued for less than or equal to a predetermined time or the second level of cleaning when the no-printing state has continued for greater than the predetermined time, based on the value of the counter when the predetermined input is received; wherein the drive control unit operates the cleaning mechanism at the level of cleaning selected by the process selection unit according to the predetermined input.