Patent ID: 6164767
Filing Date: 2000-12-26
Classification: B41J,F04B

Abstract:
A tube pump for an ink jet recording apparatus comprising:a driving wheel coupled with a rotation drive source and selectively driven, in accordance with a rotation direction of the drive source, in a first direction or in a second direction,wherein said driving wheel comprises at least two slots, each of said slots extending symmetrically to one another with respect to a radial center of said driving wheel from a radially innermost end of the slot to a radially outermost end of the slot;at least two rollers shiftably fixed to said drive wheel by means of roller shafts extending from a radial center of each said roller into a respective one of the slots; anda roller pressing piece arranged to contact with the rollers,wherein said pressing piece forces said rollers into the radially outermost end of the slots, to thereby press a tube of said tube pump, when said drive wheel rotates in the first direction, andwherein said pressing piece forces said rollers into the radially innermost end of the slots, to thereby exert substantially no pressing force on the tube, when said drive wheel rotates in the second direction.