Patent ID: 8469682

Claim:
A peristaltic pump for dispensing liquid, comprising: a front housing; a rear housing snap-fitted together with the front housing to form an interior chamber having a circular outer sidewall extending from a chamber inlet to a chamber outlet; a rotor positioned within the chamber and rotatable around an axis, the rotor having aligned front and rear triangular-shaped faces and three rollers mounted and equidistantly-spaced between the aligned front and rear faces; a flexible tube entering the chamber through the inlet and exiting through the outlet and being compressed by the three rollers against the outer sidewall separating the inlet and outlet, wherein the circular outer sidewall extending from the inlet to the outlet has an arc length sufficient to allow all three rollers to compress the tube simultaneously; and a torque relief zone defined by a tapered recessed area in the outer sidewall adjacent the chamber inlet, wherein the recessed area has a length in the range of about 5 to about 20 mm.