Patent ID: 8029201

Claim:
A rewinding reel for use in a label printer to rewind a continuous medium of the label printer, comprising: a shaft having a circumference forming a plurality of recesses; a gear mounted to the shaft and adapted to provide a driving coupling between the shaft and a transmission of the label printer through a one-way bearing and a torsional spring in order induce rotation of the shaft to rewind the continuous medium with a tension set by friction between the torsional spring and the gear; sliding bases having inner sides forming fitting portions fit into the recesses of the shaft so that the sliding bases are rotatable by the rotation of the shaft, the each sliding base having a movable portion that forms a first projection; outer casing members arranged outside the sliding bases to receive the continuous medium surrounding thereon, each outer casing member having an inner side forming a second projection corresponding to the first projection and having a highest point and a lowest point to allow the first projection to move between the highest and lowest points; a resilient element arranged at an end of the shaft opposite to the transmission of the label printer, and providing a biasing force to set the first projection at the highest point of the second projection; and a knob coupled to the movable portions of the sliding bases to selectively move the movable portions between first and second positions where the first projection is set at the highest and lowest points of the second projection to thereby allow for selective expansion and contraction of the outer casing members with respect to the sliding bases, respectively, to selectively release the continuous medium from the outer casing members wherein the movable portion of the sliding base comprises a movable panel movably received in a channel to be movable, together with the knob, between the first and second positions formed within the channel.