Cleaning mechanism for inkjet print head with fixed gutter

摘要

A self-cleaning printer system (400) with a cleaning liquid supply and a wiper blade assembly (32) includes a print head (16) defining a plurality of ink channels therein, each ink channel terminating in an ink ejection nozzle (25). The print head (16) also has a surface (15) thereon surrounding all the nozzles (25). The wiper blade assembly (32) is disposed relative to the surface (15) and/or nozzles (25) for directing a flow of cleaning liquid along the surface (15) and/or across the nozzles (25) and to direct sliding contact of a wiper blade (195) to clean a contaminant from the surface (15) and/or nozzles (15). The wiper blade assembly (32) is configured to introduce the cleaning liquid to the print head surface (15) to facilitate and augment cleaning by the wiper blade (190). In addition, the wiper blade (190) is combined with channels for delivery of the cleaning liquid and vacuum suction to remove cleaning liquid (250 and 260, respectively).