MAINTENANCE APPARATUS HAVING ROTATABLE WIPER AND TRANSFER ROLLERS FOR PRINTHEAD
An apparatus for maintaining a printhead is provided having a rotatable wiper roller having a shaft and a porous material about the shaft, a rotatable transfer roller in rotatable contact with the wiper roller, and a mechanism for rotating the wiper roller so that the porous material rotates against the printhead such that the porous material absorbs fluid from the printhead during the rotation, and for rotating the transfer roller against the wiper roller so that the fluid absorbed by the porous material is transferred to the transfer roller.
1 . An apparatus for maintaining a printhead, the apparatus comprising:
a rotatable wiper roller comprising a shaft and a porous material about the shaft;
a rotatable transfer roller in rotatable contact with the wiper roller; and
a mechanism for rotating the wiper roller so that the porous material rotates against the printhead, the porous material being configured to absorb fluid from the printhead during said rotation, and for rotating the transfer roller against the wiper roller so that the fluid absorbed by the porous material is transferred to the transfer roller.
2 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the printhead is a media width printhead, and the wiper and transfer rollers are elongate with a longitudinal length of at least the media width.
3 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the wiper and transfer rollers are rotatably mounted to a wiper module supported by a sled.
4 . An apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the transfer roller is mounted to the wiper module so that the transfer roller contacts the wiper roller on a vertical circumferential region of the wiper roller below the upper circumferential region of the wiper roller which contacts the printhead.
5 . An apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the wiper roller comprises a compressible core mounted to the shaft, the porous material being provided over the core.
6 . An apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the porous material is formed of non-woven microfiber.
7 . An apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the non-woven microfiber is wrapped about the core by a spiralling technique so that at least two layers of the microfiber are present about the core with an adhesive between the layers.
8 . An apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the transfer roller comprises a smooth hard cylinder.
9 . An apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the smooth hard cylinder is mounted to the wiper module so that contact pressure is exerted on the compressible core of the wiper roller.