| US 7,494,205 B2 | ||
| Maintenance/recovery device for liquid discharge device and image forming device | ||
| Masanori Kusunoki, Kanagawa (Japan); Toshitaka Osanai, Kanagawa (Japan); Noboru Hiramatsu, Aichi (Japan); and Michio Yamamoto, Aichi (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Ricoh Company, Ltd, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Appl. No. 10/566,864 PCT Filed Jun. 28, 2005, PCT No. PCT/JP2005/012273 § 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jan. 31, 2006, PCT Pub. No. WO2006/001535, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 05, 2006. |
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| Claims priority of application No. 2004-190618 (JP), filed on Jun. 29, 2004. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0290738 A1, Dec. 28, 2006 | ||
| This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer. | ||
| Int. Cl. B41J 2/165 (2006.01); B41J 2/135 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 347—29 [347/30; 347/32; 347/45] | 10 Claims |
| 1. A maintenance/recovery device for a liquid discharge device, comprising:
a cap member covering a surface of a nozzle of a liquid discharging head, the liquid discharging head discharging a droplet
of a recording liquid from the nozzle;
a resilient contact member provided in the cap member to come in contact with the surface of the nozzle;
a recess-forming member provided in the cap member to form a recess for receiving the recording liquid attracted from the
nozzle,
wherein the contact member and the recess-forming member are integrally formed by molding, the recess-forming member is made
of a water-repellant resin material containing a water repellent agent, and the recess-forming member comprises a plurality
of slopes providing respective inclined surfaces extending to an outlet at a bottom of the recess from an entire circumference
of an opening part of the cap member, each of the inclined surfaces forming an inclination angle equal to or larger than 20
degrees with respect to a horizontal plane.
|