Ribbon reeling mechanism and tape printing apparatus

A tape printing apparatus, comprising:

• an unreeling rotor engaged with an unreeling core around which an ink ribbon is wound;
• a reeling rotor engaged with a reeling core onto which the ink ribbon reeled out from the unreeling core is reeled;
• a feed motor that is rotatable in a first rotation direction and a second rotation direction, the second rotation direction being opposite of the first rotation direction;
• a reeling-side gear train that includes a first reeling-side gear and a clutch gear, the clutch gear being configured to move between a position at which the clutch gear is in mesh with the first reeling-side gear and a position at which the clutch gear is not in mesh with the first reeling-side gear, the reeling-side gear train being configured to transmit rotation of the feed motor to the reeling rotor so as to reel the ink ribbon onto the reeling core by meshing engagement of the clutch gear with the first reeling-side gear when the feed motor rotates in the first rotation direction, the reeling-side gear train being configured not to transmit the rotation of the feed motor to the reeling rotor by disengagement of the clutch gear from the first reeling-side gear when the feed motor rotates in the second rotation direction;
• an unreeling-side gear train that does not transmit the rotation of the feed motor to the unreeling rotor when the feed motor rotates in the first rotation direction and transmits the rotation of the feed motor to the unreeling rotor so as to rewind the ink ribbon onto the unreeling core when the feed motor rotates in the second rotation direction;
• a gear supporting member that supports the clutch gear rotatably and is configured to move between a mesh position at which the clutch gear supported by the gear supporting member is in mesh with the first reeling-side gear and a non-mesh position at which the clutch gear supported by the gear supporting member is not in mesh with the first reeling-side gear;
• a clutch impeding spring that causes a clutch impeding force of impeding movement from the mesh position to the non-mesh position to act on the gear supporting member when the feed motor starts rotating in the second rotation direction;
• a drive member engaged with the gear supporting member;
• a clutch drive mechanism that causes the gear supporting member to move to the non-mesh position against the clutch impeding force when the feed motor rotates in the second rotation direction;
• and
• a thermal head that performs printing on a tape using the ink ribbon.