Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Atsushi Takai

Sumio Kamoi

Norihiko Aze

Satoshi Tohkai

Hiroshi Katabami

Toshikazu Hirakawa

Kazuo Ishida

Atsushi Ishibe

A fixing belt for a fixing device of an image forming apparatus includes a base layer including a heat-resistant resin and a mesh member embedded in the heat-resistant resin and including a metal member, in which the mesh member includes an opening. The heat-resistant resin fills in the opening. A thickness of the thinnest portion of the mesh member is 40% or more of the thickness of the base layer. A fixing device includes a heating member; a pressure member; and the fixing belt as described above. Further, an image forming apparatus includes an image forming section and the fixing device including the above described fixing belt.

Fixing belt, fixing device, and image forming apparatus

A heat-resistant endless resin belt including a heat-resistant resin sheet, which can be employed in a thermal fixing apparatus, wherein the sheet includes two cutting work parts in an inclined shape. The two parts are overlapped with each other and bonded with an adhesive to form a bonding part. An external shape displacement f(x), measured via a flatness measuring apparatus, which scans the belt in a width direction thereof, satisfies a following formula wherein 'X' (mm) is a length of the belt in a width direction thereof; 'L' (mm) is a perimeter of the belt and &#x201c;g(x)&#x201d; represents a displacement of an ideal shape of the heat-resistant resin belt, when g(x)=C (a constant), a left side of the formula is set to be a minimum; whilst when g(x) is a variable, the displacement of the ideal shape of the belt is set.

Heat-resistant resin belt, manufacturing method thereof and image forming apparatus

A method for producing a heat-resistant resin endless belt includes preparing a heat-resistant resin sheet including a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other; forming a first inclined thinned portion at an end of the first surface and a second inclined thinned portion at an end of the second surface as the inclined thinned portion is formed to be gradually thinned toward the end, the end of the first surface being opposite to the end of the second surface; applying an adhesive composition by a screen printing method on at least one of the first and second inclined thinned portions; joining the first and second inclined thinned portions of the sheet to each other; and hardening the adhesive composition, in which the adhesive composition is an additive polymerized silicon adhesive composition containing ferric (III) oxide at between 6.5 and 9.9 weight % of a solid content of the adhesive composition; a viscosity of the additive polymerized silicon adhesive composition before being hardened at 23&#xb0; C. is between 50 and 100 Pa s; and an expanding rate at shearing of the adhesive composition after being hardened is 250% or more on a tensile shear test.

Heat-resistant resin endless belt producing method

Growing community of inventors

Atsugi, Japan

Atsushi Takai