摘要 |
A wiper blade cleaning system has two polyurethane wiping blades of unequal lengths, but which are otherwise identical. The blades are releasably mounted in slots on a planar surface of a fixed structural member. The mounted blades are parallel and spaced apart a predetermined distance. The positioning of the blades is dependent on the order in which they must act on the nozzle face of the printhead as it leaves the priming station, so that the shorter blade cleans first. The shorter blade is stiffer because of its shorter length and serves to remove ink efficiently off of the printhead nozzle face. However, when cleaning a non-coplanar nozzle face, small amounts of ink collected on the shorter blade cleaning edge may be deposited in crevices or other discontinuities on the non-coplanar nozzle face. The longer blade is more compliant because of its added length and follows in the wake of the shorter blade to remove the last vestige of ink left by the stiffer, shorter blade.
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