Patent ID: 7695122

Claim:
An ink feeding apparatus comprising: an ink tank in which ink is stored; an image recording unit including an ink jet recording head for jetting the ink supplied from said ink tank as ink droplets; an ink path enabling the ink to flow between said ink tank and said image recording unit; and an ink feeding mechanism including a bellows pump connected midway of said ink path to make the ink flow; wherein said ink flows in said bellows pump, and said bellows pump comprises: a bellows body whose internal volume changes by expanding and contracting in an upward and downward direction; and a connection portion provided above said bellows body to connect said bellows body and said ink path; and wherein a ridge portion comprising a first inclined plane and a second inclined plane, wherein the first inclined plane is closer to the connection portion than the second inclined plane, and the first inclined plane has an internal angle α between an imaginary line extending in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which said bellows body expands and contracts, and the second inclined plane has an internal angle β between the imaginary line and the second inclined plane of the connection portion, wherein angle α and angle β are related such that 0°≦angle β<angle α<90°; and wherein said values of the angle α and the angle β, and the relation between them are maintained in both cases where said bellows body maximally contracts and where said bellows body maximally expands, or realized at least one time during an expansion and a contraction of said bellows body.