Kontinuierliche Tintenstrahldruckvorrichtung mit integriertem Reiniger

An ink jet printing apparatus having a cleaning station that is structurally integrated with a droplet deflector is provided. The apparatus includes an ink droplet forming mechanism (10) formed from a printhead (20) having at least one nozzle for ejecting a stream of ink droplets of different volumes, a pneumatic droplet deflector (315) for producing a flow of gas that transversely impinges the droplet stream of the printhead in order to separate ink droplets of different volumes from one another. The droplet deflector includes a pressurized gas source, which may be an air blower (150), and a plenum (160, 345) for conducting the gas flow generated by the gas source. The cleaning station is formed at least in part from the plenum of the droplet deflector, and provides a flow of both a liquid cleaning fluid and a flow of gas to periodically clean the printhead of the ink droplet forming mechanism.