Device for keeping an inkjet print head clean

US8104869B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Francotyp-Postalia GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Wolfgang Muhl · Hohen Neuendorf, DE
• Axel Ortmann · Berlin, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 4, 2008
• Grant date: Jan 31, 2012
• Expiry date: Oct 27, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B41J2/16585
• WIPO field: Textile and paper machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

In a device for cleaning an inkjet print head (in particular the surface with nozzle exit openings) for a franking and/or addressing machine in which the print substrates are directed along a stationary but pivotably arranged inkjet print head, the entire nozzle exit surface is cleaned in a short time and a contamination of the transport region is avoided, with a small apparatus expenditure, by a wiping device formed by a driven wiping roller that is transversally, non-positively directed along the nozzle exit surface in a cleaning operation, and that continuously, non-positively rests on an associated cleaning element. The nozzle surface is repeatedly wiped off and the wiping roller is simultaneously cleaned in a single pass. An actuator of the wiping roller can be selectively coupled with an actuator for a cleaning and sealing device that operates the cleaning element, or can be autonomous. The cleaning element can be a stripper for the wiping roller that rests parallel to and positively on the wiping roller.