Patent ID: 6866363

Claim:
A waste ink collecting device that collects unnecessary ink discharged from a printhead of an ink-jet printer, comprising: an ink tank; an ink absorber accommodated in said ink tank, said ink absorber absorbing the unnecessary ink discharged from the printhead of the ink-jet printer, an inlet of the dropped ink being formed on a top plate of said ink tank, the discharged ink being dropped into said ink tank, the dropped ink entering said ink tank through said inlet; and a partition wall provided in said ink tank, said partition wall defining a passage through which the dropped ink flows to an inner bottom surface of said ink tank, said partition wall preventing the dropped ink from directly striking the ink absorber and substantially separating an area of the ink tank within which the ink absorber is accommodated from the passage, wherein the ink dropped on the inner bottom surface of said ink tank is absorbed by said ink absorber through a bottom surface thereof.