Provided is a liquid ejecting apparatus including: a head configured to reciprocate and having a nozzle surface provided with a nozzle for discharging a liquid; a lock configured to regulate reciprocation of the head; and a liquid saucer configured to receive the liquid, in which the nozzle surface of the head faces the liquid saucer and is separated from the liquid saucer in a state where reciprocation is regulated by the lock.

An ink-jet recording apparatus includes: an ink-jet head with a nozzle plate; a blade that wipes the nozzle plate; a supply member provided upstream of the nozzle plate in a direction of wiping and capable of supplying a cleaning liquid to the blade upon contact with the blade; a link member that supports the supply member and rocks about a shaft below the supply member; a biasing member that biases the link member upstream in the wiping direction; and a pressing portion provided in conjunction with the ink-jet head and facing the supply member. While the ink-jet head is moved up, the supply member is kept away from the nozzle plate upstream in the wiping direction. When the ink-jet head moves down, the pressing portion presses down the supply member against a biasing force of the biasing member and, thus, the supply member moves downstream in the wiping direction.

An ink-jet recording apparatus includes an ink-jet head, a head lift, a blade, and a supply member. The ink-jet head includes a nozzle plate. The head lift moves the ink-jet head up and down. The blade performs a wiping action along a nozzle surface of the nozzle plate. The supply member is provided upstream of the nozzle plate in a forward direction of the wiping action, has a dimension in a widthwise direction intersecting the forward direction smaller than the blade, and supplies a cleaning liquid to the blade upon contact with a top edge of the blade. A ridge of the supply member where a bottom surface of the supply member meets a side surface of the supply member is provided with a bevel tilted to the bottom surface and the side surface or a curve smoothly connecting the bottom surface and the side surface.

Provided are a head maintenance system, a printing system, and a head maintenance method with which preferable washing of a nozzle surface can be realized and a damage to the nozzle surface can be suppressed. The head maintenance system includes: a wiping device (3) including a wiping sheet (10) for wiping a nozzle surface (52) of an ink jet head (50); a relative movement device (2, 3) that relatively moves the ink jet head and the wiping sheet; and a pressing device (18, 56) that presses the wiping sheet against the nozzle surface, in which the wiping device includes the wiping sheet having a value of linearity of compression in a range of 0.3 or more and less than 0.6, the linearity of compression being measured using a compression tester.

An apparatus detects inoperative inkjets during printing of three-dimensional objects. The apparatus includes a reversible thermal substrate that changes optical density in areas where material drops are ejected onto the substrate. An optical sensor generates image data of the substrate after material drops are ejected onto the substrate and these image data are analyzed to identify inoperative inkjets.

An apparatus detects inoperative inkjets during printing of three-dimensional objects. The apparatus includes a reversible thermal substrate that changes optical density in areas where material drops are ejected onto the substrate. An optical sensor generates image data of the substrate after material drops are ejected onto the substrate and these image data are analyzed to identify inoperative inkjets.

A printing apparatus includes: a platen having a supporting surface configured to support a recording medium; a liquid droplet jetting head having a nozzle surface on which nozzles are open; a head moving unit configured to move the liquid droplet jetting head in a head movement area including a first area and a second area which is adjacent to the first area; a maintenance mechanism including a cap member configured to be movable in a cap movement area which includes a retracted position and a capping position and to cover the nozzles; a cap moving mechanism configured to move the cap member by utilizing movement of the liquid droplet jetting head form the first area to the second area; and a cap guiding mechanism configured to guide movement of the cap member in the cap movement area in an inclined direction.

Add-on module suitable to receive and hold a disposable printer cartridge that is provided with inkjet nozzles, which disposable printer cartridge is equipped for placement in a printer, and wherein the add-on module is a disposable and independent item without forming a constructional part of the printer, and wherein the add-on module comprises at least one of capping means and wiping means that are arranged for capping and wiping respectively of said inkjet nozzles of the printer cartridge.

A movement section is configured to move one of the liquid discharge section and the maintenance section toward another of the liquid discharge section and the maintenance section in a first direction. A maintenance section includes first and second positioning sections that perform positioning of the maintenance section and the liquid discharge section by coming into contact with the liquid discharge section. The first positioning section is provided at a position farther than the second positioning section in a second direction intersecting with a first direction with, as a reference, an action point at which the movement section acts on the one of the liquid discharge section and the maintenance section. The first positioning section comes into contact with the liquid discharge section before the second positioning section when the one of the liquid discharge section and the maintenance section moves toward the other.