Abstract: A maintenance mechanism for an ink jet head is provided, which is free from a problem in that remaining ink adhered to a side surface lower end of an ink jet head is adhered to a paper surface during subsequent printing to stain a printed material. The maintenance mechanism for an ink jet head is provided with ink collecting means (22) that is disposed in a side surface of a wiping device (2) for an ink jet head (1) and in the sweeping area of the ink jet head. The main part of the ink collecting means (22) is composed of an ink collecting roller case (26), a shaft (24a) having ends which are respectively supported rotatably by left and right side walls (26a, 26b) of the ink collecting roller case (26), and a pair of ink collecting rollers (24, 24) that are axially supported on the shaft (24a) in the vicinity of the left and right ends thereof. The pair of the ink collecting rollers (24, 24) are arranged such that the insides thereof are partially pressed against the end portions of the ink jet head (1).

Abstract: A wiping device for an ink jet head is provided, which can simultaneously achieve two objects, i.e. extended service life of the ink jet head and effective removal of viscosity-increased and adhered ink with a single wiping device. A wiping device (2) has a predetermined level difference between an upper end level of a first side surface (6a) and an upper end level of a second side surface (6b) on a wiper blade holder (6) clamping a wiper blade (4). The upper end of the first side surface (6a) of the wiper blade holder (6) is set to such a predetermined level that can provide a normal, weak wiping effect. That is, a free length (La) of the first side surface (4a) of the wiper blade (4) is set to have such a predetermined length that can provide the normal, weak wiping effect. The upper end of the second side surface (6b) of the wiper blade holder (6) is set to such a predetermined level that can provide an abnormal, strong wiping effect.

Abstract: An ink jet head capping device provided in an ink jet printer has a cleaning mechanism which performs a brushing operation to remove or wipe ink which has leaked out from an ink nozzle of an ink jet head during a suction operation and which is present on the ink jet head face, and to scrape deposits on the ink jet nozzle and the ink jet head face, which would cause clogging of the ink jet head.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus composed of a housing having an ink cartridge receiving portion, an ink jet recording head in the housing having an ink jet nozzle for spraying ink drops, a head moving device for moving the recording head reciprocally, a paper feeder for feeding a paper sheet in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the head, an ink supplying cartridge inserted at the ink cartridge receiving portion for storing an ink, ink supplying tubes connected between the recording heads and the ink supplying cartridge when the ink supplying cartridge is inserted at the ink cartridge receiving portion, a capping device in the housing for capping the ink jet nozzle, a lock cartridge arranged to be inserted at the ink cartridge receiving portion instead of the ink supplying cartridge, a locking device for locking the head capping state of the capping device when the locking cartridge is inserted at the ink cartridge receiving portion.