A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head which ejects liquid from a nozzle that is disposed on a nozzle surface, a first wiping portion which is able to wipe away the liquid that is adhered to the nozzle surface, and a second wiping portion which is able to hold the liquid that is adhered to the nozzle surface by contacting the nozzle surface, wherein it is possible to perform a first maintenance operation in which the nozzle surface is wiped using the first wiping portion and a second maintenance operation in which the second wiping portion is caused to contact the nozzle surface due to the second wiping portion being biased by the first wiping portion.

An inkjet recording apparatus configured to perform recording operation by ejecting ink at least from a first recording head, includes an ink tank configured to contain the ink to be supplied to the first recording head, a tube configured to connect the first recording head and the ink tank, and a carriage including a first mounting portion on which the first recording head is mounted, a second mounting portion on which a second recording head is detachably mounted, and a contact portion electrically connected to the second recording head, and configured to reciprocate. A protection member protecting the contact portion can be detachably mounted on the second mounting portion.

A printhead maintenance system includes: an elongate inkjet printhead having a nozzle face containing a plurality of inkjet nozzles; a carriage movable longitudinally along the printhead in a cleaning direction, the carriage including a maintenance member having: a fluid bath having a mouth opposing the nozzle face of the printhead, a primary fluid inlet at an upstream end of the fluid bath relative to the cleaning direction and a fluid outlet at a downstream end of the fluid bath relative to the cleaning direction; and a traversing mechanism for traversing the carriage longitudinally along the printhead in the cleaning direction. The maintenance member does not contact inkjet nozzles of the printhead, and the fluid bath is configured to provide a greater fluid velocity at the downstream end relative to the upstream end.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a carriage (1), a liquid discharge head (300, 300C, 300K, 300M, 300Y, 300S, 300W) having a discharge port (P1, P2), a first driver (92), and a second driver (93). The carriage is movable along at least one of a first axis (X) and a second axis (Y) intersecting the first axis. The liquid discharge head is held by the carriage and discharges a liquid from the discharge port toward an object (100) in a direction along a third axis (Z) intersecting the first axis and the second axis. The first driver moves the carriage along the third axis. The second driver moves the liquid discharge head along the third axis relative to the carriage.

A single-pass inkjet printer contains a track for guiding a printing medium in the Y direction, a plurality of printing head modules which are arranged one behind the other in the Y direction and a respective plurality of printing heads which extends in the X direction transversely over the track, and a printing region in which the printing head modules can be mounted in a respective printing position in an upright manner in the Z direction and in a reversibly insertable and removable manner along the Z direction. The single-pass inkjet printer further contains a storage region in which a number of printing head modules are mounted in a storage position in an upright manner substantially in the Z direction and in a reversibly insertable and removable manner along the Z direction. The printing heads of printing head modules set in the storage position are received in a protective cover.

An inkjet printing apparatus includes: a print bar unit having a print bar, a maintainer, and a movement driver; and a controller. Upon maintenance of an inkjet head of the print bar, the controller is configured to drive the movement driver to move the maintainer from a deployment position to a retreat position with the print bar arranged at a maintenance position above a height position for printing while wiping a nozzle surface of the inkjet head with the wiper of the maintainer being moved. The deployment position is a position under the inkjet head in maintenance of the inkjet head and the retreat position is a position where the maintainer is retreated from the deployment position.

A method of operating an ink jet printer with an included printer controller, where the ink jet printer prints using a replaceable print head that includes a nozzle plate and an ink reservoir. The printer controller tracks a usage of ink from the ink reservoir and a number of completed nozzle plate wiping operations. The print controller determines, prior to initiating each nozzle plate wiping operation, whether to initiate an inter-layer spitting operation instead of the nozzle plate wiping operation. The printer controller initiates the determined one of the wiping operation and the spitting operation.

A maintenance device includes a plurality of heads that discharges liquid for printing. A cleaner selectively cleans the heads. A cleaning controller controls the cleaner. A determiner determines a cleaning time when the cleaner cleans one of the heads. An interruption-resumption controller controls the heads to interrupt printing at the cleaning time and resume printing when the cleaner finishes cleaning the one of the heads. The cleaning controller controls the cleaner to clean the one of the heads whenever the interruption-resumption controller controls the heads to interrupt printing at the cleaning time.

Provided is a cleaning solution including: water; a compound represented by general formula (1) below; a glycol ether solves in an amount of greater than 5 g in 100 g of water having a temperature of 25 degrees C., and a proportion of the glycol ether compound is 1 percent by mass or greater but 30 percent by mass or less, and wherein in general formula (1) below, R.sup.1 represents an alkyl group containing 1 or more but 4 or less carbon atoms. ##STR00001##

A supporting section is disposed to confront an ejection surface and supports a recording medium. A first tank is mounted on a first-tank mount section. A liquid conveying section conveys liquid to a liquid ejecting head. A receiving section receives liquid ejected from the liquid ejecting head. A waste-liquid conveying section conveys liquid to the waste-liquid tank. A first casing holds the liquid ejecting head, the first-tank mount section, and the liquid conveying section. A second casing holds the supporting section, the receiving section, the waste-liquid tank, and the waste-liquid conveying section. The first casing is connected with the second casing such that the first casing is movable relative to the second casing. The first casing takes a first position at which the ejection surface confronts the supporting section and a second position at which the ejection surface is farther away from the supporting section than at the first position.