APPARATUS FOR CAPPING PRINTING HAVING OFFSET WICK
A maintenance apparatus for a media width printhead is provided. The printhead has rows of fluid ejection nozzles extending along the media width for ejecting fluid onto media as the media travels past the printhead along a media travel direction. The apparatus has a seal for sealing against the printhead surface having the nozzle rows and forming a sealed space about the nozzle rows, a wick element positioned within the seal for wicking fluid ejected by the nozzles from the sealed space, and an alignment mechanism for aligning the seal with the printhead so that a portion of an outer surface of the wick element sloped in the media travel direction closest to the printhead is positioned upstream with respect to a centerline along the length the nozzle rows and a portion of the sloped outer surface of the wick element furthest from the printhead is positioned downstream.
1 . A maintenance apparatus for a media width printhead, the printhead having a plurality of rows of fluid ejection nozzles extending along the media width for ejecting fluid onto media as the media travels past the printhead along a media travel direction, the apparatus comprising:
a seal for sealing against a surface of the printhead having the nozzle rows, the seal being configured to form a sealed space about the nozzle rows; and
a wick element positioned within the seal for wicking fluid ejected by the nozzles from the sealed space, the wick element having an outer surface sloped in the media travel direction; and
an alignment mechanism for aligning the seal with the printhead so that a portion of the sloped outer surface of the wick element closest to the printhead is positioned upstream of the media travel direction with respect to a centerline along the length the nozzle rows and a portion of the sloped outer surface of the wick element furthest from the printhead is positioned downstream of the media travel direction.
2 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the seal is formed of a resilient material.
3 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a capper module having a body on which the seal is mounted and in which the porous material is disposed.
4 . An apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein sidewalls of the seal have a wave profile with a lower section of the sidewalls defining a groove configured to be held over a ridge of the body of the capper module and an upper section of the sidewalls defining a cantilevered beam terminating at a free outer surface such that pressing contact of the outer surface against the surface of the printhead causes bending of the cantilevered beam
5 . An apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein a base of the body has ribs on which a lower surface of the porous material is supported.
6 . An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the porous material is a hydrophilic polyethylene.