US Patent 7175253 Maintenance apparatus used with an inkjet printer

An inkjet printer driving a maintenance apparatus using a power to a feed roller. In the inkjet printer, the maintenance of the maintenance apparatus is started by a carriage. The maintenance apparatus includes a maintenance member which cleans and covers the nozzle of a print head, a maintenance cam which controls the maintenance member through a rotating motion, a maintenance gear which is disposed at one end of the maintenance cam and has a cut off portion in which a part of gear teeth is partially cut off in a face width direction, and a connection gear disposed on a shaft of the feed roller to be able to move in a shaft direction by the carriage and transmit the power of the feed roller. During the printing operation of the carriage, the connection gear is placed on the cut off portion, and then engaged with the teeth of the maintenance gear disposed adjacent to the cut off portion by the pushing of the carriage. The connection gear is supported in the shaft direction of the feed roller by a return spring, and the return spring returns the connection gear to place the connection gear on the cut off portion of the maintenance gear when the connection gear is not forced by the carriage.