Glossary → Capping station
Capping station.
the seal that keeps idle nozzles wet
The rubber-lipped cap that seals a printhead's nozzle plate when the machine sits idle, holding humidity around the nozzles so ink does not dry inside them. Caps wear, tear, and collect dried ink, and a cap that no longer seals is a common cause of dropout across a whole head after a weekend. It fails quietly: the first sign is a streaked print on Monday, not an alarm.