MAINTENANCE APPARATUS HAVING CLEANER FOR ROTATABLE WIPER
An apparatus for maintaining a printhead is provided having a rotatable porous roller, a rotatable non-porous roller in rotatable contact with the porous roller, a scraper in contact with the non-porous roller, and a mechanism for rotating the porous and non-porous rollers so that the porous roller rotates against the printhead and the non-porous roller is rotated against the porous roller and the scraper. The porous roller is configured to absorb fluid and particulates from the printhead during rotation. The non-porous roller is configured to transfer the absorbed fluid and particulates from the porous roller. The scraper is configured to clean the transferred fluid and particulates from the non-porous roller during rotation.
1 . An apparatus for maintaining a printhead, the apparatus comprising:
a rotatable porous roller;
a rotatable non-porous roller in rotatable contact with the porous roller;
a scraper in contact with the non-porous roller; and
a mechanism for rotating the porous and non-porous rollers so that the porous roller rotates against the printhead and the non-porous roller is rotated against the porous roller and the scraper, the porous roller being configured to absorb fluid and particulates from the printhead during said rotation, the non-porous roller being configured to transfer the absorbed fluid and particulates from the porous roller, and the scraper being configured to clean the transferred fluid and particulates from the non-porous roller during said rotation.
2 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the printhead is a media width printhead, and the porous and non-porous rollers and scraper are elongate with a longitudinal length of at least the media width.
3 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the porous and non-porous rollers are rotatably mounted to a wiper module supported by a sled.
4 . An apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the non-porous roller is mounted to the wiper module so that the non-porous roller contacts the porous roller on a vertical circumferential region of the porous roller below the upper circumferential region of the porous roller which contacts the printhead.
5 . An apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the porous roller comprises porous material over a compressible core.
6 . An apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the porous material is formed of non-woven microfiber.
7 . An apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the non-porous roller comprises a smooth hard cylinder.
8 . An apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the smooth hard cylinder is mounted to the wiper module so that contact pressure is exerted on the compressible core of the porous roller.
9 . An apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the scraper is mounted to the wiper module so that the scraper contacts the non-porous roller on a vertical circumferential region of the non-porous roller below the upper circumferential region of the non-porous roller which contacts the porous roller.
10 . An apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the scraper is resiliently flexible.