Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Akihito Kanamori

Satoru Izawa

Shinji Hashiguchi

Eiji Uekawa

Yutaka Ban

Kazuyuki Miyano

Hiroshi Kataoka

Hiroto Hasegawa

Kazuhiko Omata

Koji Nihonyanagi

Fumiki Inui

Tatsuya Goto

Toshiya Kaino

Fumio Tazawa

Tomoo Akizuki

Isamu Takeda

Masahiko Suzumi

Toshihiko Ochiai

Atsutoshi Ando

Takaaki Akamatsu

Satoru Taniguchi

Shoichiro Ikegami

Tatsuya Kinukawa

Ei Yamamoto

Takashi Honke

Eiichiro Kimizuka

Yusuke Nakazono

Masami Takeda

Shinji Kubo

Ryo Morihara

Yusuke Jota

Takeharu Nakada

Yutaka Kubochi

Masataka Mochiduki

Hideki Goto

A fixing apparatus includes a tubular film, an elongate plate-like heater including a first surface in contact with an inner surface of the film and a second surface opposite to the first surface, the heater being in contact with the inner surface of the film with the second surface, a heat conducting member that is long along the length of the heater and is in contact with the second surface of the heater, and a support member capable of rotating the film while supporting the heater, with the heat conducting member therebetween. The heat conducting member includes an extending portion extending, outside an upstream end of the heater in a rotational direction of the film, in a direction from the second surface of the heater toward the first surface. The extending portion includes a contact portion protruding from the first surface of the heater toward the film into contact therewith.

Fixing apparatus including a heat conducting member with an extending portion extending upstream of the heater

The present invention is directed to suppressing cracks in the surface layer of the rotating member including fluororesin. According to the present invention, there is provided a heating apparatus comprising: a rotating member which has a surface layer comprising fluororesin, flexibility, and is open at both ends thereof; a heating member for heating the rotating member; a holding member for the rotating member, which is disposed inside the rotating member and has a sliding surface against an inner peripheral surface of the rotating member; and a pressurizing member for forming a nip portion together with the rotating member, the heating apparatus heating a recording material while conveying the recording material by nipping at the nip portion and rotating the rotating member and the pressurizing member, wherein a lubricant comprising a straight-chain and a side-chain type perfluoropolyethers is interposed between the rotating member and the sliding surface of the holding member.

Heating apparatus

An image heating apparatus includes a heating rotatable member; a pad-like pressing member contacted to the heating rotatable member and cooperating with the heating rotatable member to provide a nip for nipping and feeding a recording material, wherein the pressing member includes a base material having a roughened surface and a parting layer on the roughened surface, the parting layer being contacted to the heating rotatable member.

Image forming apparatus

An image heating device includes a rotatable image heating member including an elastic layer and a surface layer in which a filler is dispersed; and a fixed pressing member which is contacted to a surface of the rotatable image heating member and forms a nip, between itself and the rotatable image heating member, in which a recording material for carrying an image is to be nip-conveyed. The surface of the rotatable image heating member has a shape such that projections are distributed by the filler so that a coefficient of dynamic friction &#x3bc;(hot) relative to said fixed pressing member when a surface temperature of the rotatable image heating member is a temperature during image heating and a coefficient of dynamic friction &#x3bc;(cold) relative to the fixed pressing member when the surface temperature is a normal temperature satisfy,&#x3bc;(hot)&#x3c;1.2&#xd7;&#x3bc;(cold).

Rotatable image heating member and image heating device

The image heating apparatus for heating an image formed on a recording medium has an endless belt with a base layer made of a metal material; a heater that contacts with an inner surface of the endless belt; and a backup member that forms a nip portion together with the heater through the endless belt. The image formed on the recording medium is heated while being pinched and conveyed in the nip portion. An end surface of the base layer includes a plane region and a curved surface region. When the thickness of the base layer is t, the width of the plane region in a thickness direction of the base layer is h, and the flatness ratio H of the end surface of the base layer is defined as h/t, the flatness ratio H satisfies 50%&#x2266;H&#x2266;90%.

Image heating apparatus and endless belt used for image heating apparatus

An image heating apparatus for heating an image formed on a recording material, the apparatus including a conveying roller for conveying a recording material, the conveying roller including a metal core and an elastic layer provided outside the metal core, wherein the metal core has, in a central portion in the longitudinal direction thereof, a straight shape area having a substantially uniform diameter along the longitudinal direction and tapered shape areas, on both sides of the straight shape area, in which a diameter gradually decreases toward ends in the longitudinal direction, and wherein the elastic layer has, in a central portion in the longitudinal direction thereof, a straight shape area having a substantially uniform diameter along the longitudinal direction and inverted crown shape areas, on both sides of the straight shape area, in which a diameter gradually increases toward ends in the longitudinal direction. This configuration allows to prevent defects in image heating while suppressing creases in the recording material.

Image heating apparatus and conveying roller for use therein

According to the present invention, a temperature sensing part of temperature sensing means is arranged to come into contact with the surface opposite to the image surface of a recording material at the time of one-sided printing without providing such an opposed member that comes into contact with the image surface of the recording material at least in a position corresponding to the position of the temperature sensing part that is in contact with the recording material.

Image forming apparatus having temperature sensing element for sensing temperature of recording material

An image heating apparatus has a heating member, a flexible sleeve, a guide member, a flange member, and a pressure member forming a nip part to nip and convey the heating member and the recording material through the sleeve. In this structure, in a recording material movement direction, a sliding-rubbing part of the flange member on a downstream side of the nip part has a shape to project the sleeve toward the downstream side. Alternately, the guide member may have a plurality of ribs on both an upstream side and downstream side of the nip.

Image heating apparatus with flexible sleeve and flange members in contact with the sleeve

A heat fixing apparatus for fixing an unfixed image formed on a recording material is provided with a discharge roller coming into contact with a recording material and positioned at a downstream side of a fixing nip in a conveying direction of the recording material, and, for improving a fixed image tailing phenomenon, applies a bias voltage to at least either of a fixing film and the discharge roller. In case the recording materials are fed in continuous manner, a bias voltage while the recording material is passed through the fixing nip is elevated or lowered according to a number of heating of the recording materials. In this manner it is possible to reduce deposition of toner, paper powder, dust etc. to the surface of the fixing member, generated particularly in case of a continuous supply of the recording materials under a high bias voltage, thereby preventing generation of an image defect such as blobs resulting from a toner contamination.

Image forming apparatus and heat fixing apparatus

A heat fixing apparatus, in which a recording material, with an unfixed image passes through a fixing nip formed by a fixing member and a pressurizing member, has an electro-conductive member to be in contact with the recording material disposed downstream of the fixing nip with respect to the recording material conveying direction, wherein a bias voltage is applied to at least one of the fixing member and the electro-conductive member. As recording materials are consecutively fed, the bias voltage applied while the recording materials pass through the fixing nip portion is gradually decreased in accordance with the number of heated recording materials. Thus, smeared image trailing edge upon fixing is prevented from occurring, and the amount of toner adhering to the surface of the fixing member or the surface of the pressurizing member is reduced, so that image errors such as toner contamination are prevented from occurring.

Heat fixing apparatus

An image heating apparatus for an image forming apparatus comprises a heater and a rotary member having plasticity and rotated in contact with the heater. The rotary member in the image heating apparatus has an external shape becoming larger toward the end portions in the longitudinal direction, thereby preventing generation of wrinkles or unevenness in the conveyed recording medium.

Image heating apparatus having rotary metal member in contact with heater, such rotary member and producing method therefor

A heater has a top-surface layer made of an imide-based resin formed on an electrical insulation layer. The heater can generally used for an image heating apparatus incorporated in an image forming apparatus. Since the top-surface layer has preferable sliding and insulating characteristics, the heater provides good heat efficiency and durability.

Heater having imide-based slide layer and image heating apparatus using the heater

Image heating apparatus having metallic rotary member contacting with heater

A toner supply container, detachably mountable to a main assembly of an image forming apparatus, for supplying toner to the main assembly of the image forming apparatus. The toner supply container includes a main body for accommodating the toner; a discharging opening for permitting discharging of the toner accommodated in the main body of the container; a container shutter member for opening and closing the discharging opening, the container shutter member being provided with an engaging portion engageable with a main assembly shutter member provided in the main assembly of the apparatus, wherein the main assembly shutter member is openable and closable relative to a toner reception opening of the main assembly of the apparatus while the container shutter member and the main assembly shutter member are interrelated with each other, and wherein the engaging portion is capable of passing by a position corresponding to the discharging opening; cover seals covers the engaging portion relative to the discharging opening.

Toner supplying container and image forming apparatus

A toner supply container for supplying toner into a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a toner accommodating portion for accommodating toner to be supplied into a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus; a toner discharging opening for discharging the toner accommodated in the toner accommodating portion, the toner discharging opening being provided in the toner accommodating portion; a sealing member for openably sealing the toner discharging opening; an openable member for openably sealing the toner discharging opening; a rotatable member which is rotatable relative to the toner accommodating portion; a rotating force receiving portion for receiving rotating force produced by rotation of the rotatable member through a rotating force transmission member provided in the main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus to unseal the toner discharging opening by the rotation of the rotatable member when the toner supply container is mounted to the main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Akihito Kanamori