CLEANING FLUID APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTINUOUS PRINTING INK-JET NOZZLE

A fluid (liquid or water) wash (46) is used to clean the front surface of an ink jet printer cartridge (17). In addition, a nozzle plate (24) that overli es the nozzle shields the nozzle array (23) from the splatter of ink (32). In i nk jet printers, ink droplets are propelled from an array of orifices in a nozz le plate in the printer head. During the ink droplet ejection, ink is sprayed o r deposited around the orifices. The ink droplets are deposited on a paper web (14) adjacent the nozzle and mist from the droplets drifts back to coat the face of the nozzle plate. Some ink seeps behind the nozzle plate (24) onto t he array of nozzle orifices (23). The ink coating attracts particles that tend to clog the nozzle orifices. The ink coating is washed away by fluid streams (4 6) that flow over the nozzle surface and in some embodiments flow over the nozz le orifices themselves. The fluid (46) may be water, ink or other liquid that i s channelled across the nozzle surface, or the fluid may be an air stream that blows across the nozzle surface.