Printhead maintenance facility with nozzle face wiper having single skew blade
View Patent ↗A printhead maintenance facility for an inkjet printer that has a printhead with a nozzle face defining an array of nozzles. The printhead maintenance facility has a wiper member for wiping the nozzle face and a maintenance drive for moving the wiper member across the array of nozzles in a wiping direction. The wiper member has a single blade extending in a line skew to the wiping direction.
1. A printhead maintenance facility for an inkjet printer, the inkjet printer having a printhead with a nozzle face defining an array of nozzles and a media feed assembly for transporting sheets of media substrate past the printhead in a media feed direction, the printhead maintenance facility comprising:
a wiper member for wiping the nozzle face; and,
a maintenance drive for moving the wiper member across the array of nozzles in a wiping direction at variable speeds; wherein,
the wiper member has a single blade extending in a line skew to the wiping direction and the maintenance drive moves the wiper member across the nozzle face in the direction parallel to a media feed direction.
2. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 1 wherein the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the single blade is longer than the length of the nozzle array.
3. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 1 wherein the maintenance drive is configured to move the wiper member in the media feed direction and opposite to the media feed direction.
4. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 3 wherein the maintenance drive is configured to rotate the wiper member about the axis extending transverse to the media feed direction.
5. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 1 further comprising a tubular chassis with a plurality of maintenance stations mounted to the chassis exterior, wherein the wiper member is one of the maintenance stations.
6. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 5 wherein the chassis exterior has sockets in which the maintenance stations are mounted.
7. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 6 wherein the wiper member is a co-moulded polymer element with a hard plastic base for mounting in the socket, and the single blade is a soft elastomeric material extending from the hard plastic base.
8. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 1 wherein the maintenance drive is configured to lift and lower the wiper member.
9. A printhead maintenance facility according to claim 8 wherein the maintenance drive has a rotating drive mechanism for rotating the wiper member, and a lift drive mechanism for lifting and lowering the wiper member, the rotating drive mechanism being independently operable from the lift drive mechanism.