Xerox Corporation

Marcello Fiscella

Werner N Fassler

John Paul Meyers

David Alan Bartman

A cleaning station for a vertical nozzle plate of an ink jet printer includes a cylindrical cleaning roller that has an outer surface, and has a substantially vertical central axis and a substantially vertical rotational axis. The roller is spaced from the nozzle plate to form a cleaning cavity between the roller and the nozzle plate. The roller has a top end above the nozzle plate and a bottom end below the nozzle plate. A drive element is connected to the roller to rotate the roller about its rotation axis. A fluid outlet near the top of the roller directs cleaning fluid onto the outer surface of the roller, and into the cleaning cavity between the roller and the nozzle plate. A fluid reservoir stores cleaning fluid, and a fluid conduit conducts cleaning fluid from the fluid reservoir to the fluid outlet.

Contactless cleaning of vertical ink jet printheads

Cleaning apparatus for cleaning debris from orifices in an ink jet printhead nozzle plate includes a structure defining a cleaning cavity between two horizontally contacting rollers where cleaning liquid is loaded, agitated, and dynamically sealed in the cavity trough the rotation of the rollers. A relative movement is also provided between the nozzle plate and the cleaning structure so that the nozzle plate can be positioned above the cleaning cavity with the rotating rollers. The nozzle plate is spaced a small distance from the flow of the cleaning liquid that the cleaning fluid fills this small distance. The flow causes the cleaning fluid to engage the nozzle plate and remove debris from the nozzle plate and orifice nozzles. After the cleaning cycle has ended the cleaning fluid is discarded.

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Fairport, NY, United States of America

Marcello Fiscella