Patent ID: 7490921

Claim:
A maintenance apparatus of a recording head, which is applied to an inkjet recording head including a nozzle plate on which a plurality of nozzles for discharging ink are linearly arranged, the maintenance apparatus comprising: a sucking portion which faces the nozzle plate and which exerts a suction force with respect to at least one of the nozzles and the nozzle plate, wherein the sucking portion includes: a suction groove on a surface of the sucking portion facing the nozzle plate, a suction opening at a first end portion of the suction groove, and an air intake opening at a second end portion of the suction groove such that the linearly arranged nozzles are sandwiched by the suction opening and the air intake opening; and wherein an air current flows in a direction substantially orthogonal to a discharge direction of the ink discharged from the nozzles.