摘要 |
A maintenance station of an ink jet printer includes a blade cleaning station wherein a wiper blade assembly provides independent cleaning of different portions of the front nozzle face of a multi-segment ink jet printhead. In one embodiment, a printer includes a color printhead which contains recording groups of nozzles, each group associated with printing of a different colored ink. Each color group is separated by a non-recording boundary sector. To prevent color mixing during a printhead face wiping operation, a blade assembly is formed with separate blade segments which provide separate wiping actions to each recording segment without mixing adjacent wiped colors. In one embodiment, two blades are staggered in a wipe direction. Each blade has furrows formed along its length to coincide with the non-recording segments of a printhead face. Each blade cleans two non-adjacent recording segments, while the total wiping action is accomplished without mixing of ink into the nozzles of adjacent groups. In another embodiment, a single wiper blade is used with notches formed along its length corresponding to the non-recording printhead segments. A single wiping action is accomplished without excess ink being wiped into the non-recording sections.
|