A method of maintaining a liquid ink printhead

摘要

A liquid ink printer (10) and a method of operation therefore having a maintenance device (30) in communication with a liquid ink printhead (20) to direct the liquid ink printhead to eject purge ink drops from the ink ejecting orifices as a function of image data. The maintenance device (30) includes a maintenance circuit having an image data input for receiving the image data and a maintenance circuit output transmitting a maintenance signal to the liquid ink printhead (20) to cause the ink ejecting orifices thereof to eject purge ink as a function of the received image data. A timer is used to determine the time period between the ejection of ink drops from an individual nozzle to thereby determine if a sufficient number of ink drops are fired to prevent viscous plugs from forming in the nozzles. If the ink nozzles are not ejecting a required number of drops to prevent viscous plugs from forming, a purge operation is performed to project purge ink or purge drops from the respective nozzles to thereby maintain proper operation thereof.