Patent ID: 7845758

Claim:
A suction device having a plurality of head caps capable of closely contacting with and moving away from corresponding nozzle surfaces of a plurality of inkjet functional liquid droplet ejection heads, the suction device comprising: a plurality of cap units on which one or more of the head caps are mounted; a contacting/separating mechanism that makes the respective head caps contact with and move away in units of the cap units; a plurality of suction units each of which is connected to the plurality of cap units and sucks functional liquid from the head caps in units of the cap units with different levels of suction pressure from each other; a plurality of sets of suction channels each of which includes a main channel connecting an upstream side thereof to the associated cap units and a plurality of individual channels branched from the main channel through a branch and connecting downstream sides thereof to the associated suction units; and a plurality of channel switching units that is disposed at the respective branches of the suction channels and selectively switches the suction channels to any one of the suction units.