Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Hiroshi Funabiki

Koji Yamamoto

Masanori Murakami

Jinju Okuno

Yukio Okamoto

Hisayoshi Nagase

Junichi Hamada

Masahiro Onodera

Masami Maruko

Hidetoshi Katayanagi

Toshiki Hayami

Mikihiko Takada

The image forming apparatus includes a fixing-side member that comes into contact with an image-formation side of a sheet having a toner image formed thereon by an image forming section; a reverse-side supporting member that comes into contact with a reverse side of the sheet by being pressed toward the fixing-side member; a heat source that supplies heat to the sheet via the fixing-side member; an air separation section that discharges compressed air supplied by an air supply source, to a surface of the fixing-side member to separate the sheet from the fixing-side member; and a control section that controls a pressure accumulation operation in the air supply source. Moreover, the control section disables the pressure accumulation operation in the air supply source in a time period when an image forming process is not performed in the image forming section.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

A fixing device fixing a toner image on a recording material includes a first blowing section that blows air against a leading edge of the recording material that has passed through a nip portion formed by a heated fixing member and a pressing member kept in pressure contact with the fixing member, and a second blowing section that blows air against the recording material that has passed through the nip portion, wherein an air speed of air blown out from a first blowing outlet is higher than that of air blown out from a second blowing outlet, wherein an air flow amount from the first blowing outlet is less than that from the second blowing outlet, and wherein the first and second blowing outlets are arranged at a same positional height next to one another along a rotational axis of the fixing roller.

Fixing device that fixes a toner image on a recording material

A fixing device including: a fixing member that heats toner image and fixes it onto a recording material; a pressure member that forms a nip that presses the recording material against the fixing member; a first air separating section that blows air against the fixing member and separates the recording sheet from the fixing member; and a separation claw that separates the recording material from the pressure member, wherein a tip of the separation claw contacts the pressure member at a position which is downstream, in a direction of movement of a surface of the pressure member, of a peak of an air blast pressure distribution on a surface of the pressure member, and wherein the air blast pressure distribution is formed by air blown against the pressure member which is caused by the air blown by the first air separating section against the fixing member.

Fixing device including an air separation section

A fixing device includes: a heating section which heats a recording material; a pressing section which presses the recording material toward the heating section; a separation claw which separates the recording material from the heating section or the pressing section; a fixing unit moving section which reciprocates the heating section, the pressing section and the separation claw in a direction perpendicular to a conveyance direction of the recording material; and a separation claw moving section which reciprocates the separation claw in the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, wherein the separation claw moving section moves the separation claw toward a direction opposite to a moving direction toward which the heating section, the pressing section and the separation claw move in the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus provided therewith

A fixing device includes: a fixing belt which is supported by one or more rollers; and a fixing roller which is in pressed contact with at least one of the rollers across the fixing belt, wherein the fixing roller includes a core portion which is rotatably provided, an elastic portion which covers the core portion so as to form a cylindrical shape with a rotation axis of the core portion being defined as a center, and a release portion which covers a cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the elastic portion, and an end of the elastic portion in a direction along the rotation axis and an end of the release portion in the direction along the rotation axis project from an end of the core portion, in the direction along the rotation axis, at a part where the core portion and the elastic portion are in contact with each other.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device including: a fixing member that is heated; a pressure member to form a nip portion between the pressure member and the fixing member; first blowing unit and second blowing unit both located close to an outlet of the nip portion and separate the recording medium from the fixing member by blowing air to the recording medium, a velocity of the air discharged from the first unit is higher than that of the air discharged from the second unit, whereas a volume of the air discharged from the first unit is smaller than that of the air discharged from the second unit; and the first unit starts discharging air before a leading edge of the recording medium reaches the outlet of the nip portion, whereas the second unit starts discharging air after the leading edge of the recording medium has passed through the outlet of the nip portion.

Fixing device, image forming apparatus and fixing method

A fixing device including: a fixing member; a pressing member to form a nip portion between the pressing member and the fixing member, wherein the fixing member and the pressing member sandwich a recording medium, fix a toner image on the recording medium and convey the recording medium; a detection unit for detecting that a leading edge of the recording medium is located at the nip portion; a first air jetting unit for separating the recording medium from the fixing member by jetting air only to a position close to the leading edge of the recording medium having passed the nip portion based on the detection result by the detection unit; and a second jetting unit for jetting air to the recording medium whose leading edge has passed through the nip portion.

A fixing device including: a heated fixing member to fix a toner image on a recording medium; a pressing member to form a nip portion between the pressing member and the fixing member; a first blowing unit that blows air to a position close to a leading edge of the recording medium; and a second blowing unit that blows air to the recording medium, wherein a discharge pressure of the air discharged by the first blowing unit is larger than that of the air ejected by the second blowing unit; a discharged air volume discharged by the first blowing unit is less than that discharged by the second blowing unit; and a first discharge port from which air is blown by the first blowing unit is arranged upstream of a second discharge port from which air is blown by the second blowing unit.

An image forming apparatus includes: a first rotary body; a second rotary body provided to face the first rotary body, wherein the first rotary body and the second rotary body form a nip portion by coming in contact with each other to rotate, at which a sheet bearing a toner image is conveyed while being heated and pressed, thereby fixing the toner image onto the sheet; a first nozzle which blows air to a first air blowing position established on a circumferential surface of the first rotary body and on a side of an outlet of the nip portion; and a second nozzle which blows air to a second air blowing position established on a circumferential surface of the second rotary body and established downstream of the first air blowing position in a traveling direction of the sheet.

Image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet at a nip portion formed by rotary bodies

An image forming apparatus, comprises an image forming section; a pair of fixing members coming in pressure contact with each other so as to form a nip portion and to fix a toner image on a sheet conveyed from the image forming section with the nip portion; an oscillating section to oscillate the fixing members in a width direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction; an inclining section to incline the fixing members to the width direction in parallel to a conveyance surface; and a control section to control the oscillating section and the inclining section such that when a sheet is passing through the nip portion, a direction of a one-sided oscillation shift of the sheet due to the oscillation of the fixing members is made opposite to that of a one-sided inclination shift of the sheet due to the inclination of the fixing members.

Image forming apparatus

An image fixing device, having a belt-driving method to drive an endless belt which is entrained about at least two supporting members, including: a first supporting member on which a light transmitting area is provided; a heater which is housed within the first supporting member; a sensor which is mounted at a position to detect light rays, emitted from the heater and passed through the light transmitting area; and a control section which is configured to detect a lateral displacement of the endless belt in a width direction, based on a detected result of the light rays, detected by the sensor.

Image fixing device using a belt-driving method, and image forming apparatus using the same image fixing device

A belt-type fixing device having therein an endless fixing belt, a pressure roller arranged inside the aforesaid fixing belt and a pressure member that presses the fixing belt against the pressure roller, wherein a toner image on a recording material is fixed in a nip portion formed between the fixing belt and the pressure member, and wherein the pressure roller has an elastic layer made of solid rubber, and the elastic layer is covered by a resin layer, and further plural undulations are formed in the circumferential direction of the outer circumferential surface of the pressure roller.

Belt-type fixing device having a pressure roller with surface undulations

A belt-type fixing device having therein a pressure roller that has an elastic layer which is made of solid rubber, wherein, the elastic layer is covered by a resin layer on which a plurality of cracks are formed to be substantially deep enough to arrive at the elastic layer, and cracks harmful for the elastic layer are not caused by pressurization at a nip portion.

Belt-type fixing device and image forming apparatus

An image printing apparatus may include a fixing device, a first image printing mode where the recording medium comes into contact with the fixing member at substantially the same position during continuous fixing operation, and a second image printing mode where the recording medium comes into contact with the fixing member with a shorter time interval than in the first image printing mode.

Image printing apparatus with fixing device

There is described a fixing device equipped in an image forming apparatus, which employs an electro-photographic method for forming an image on a transfer material, and having a lifetime longer than conventional one. The fixing device includes a first roller having a first elastic layer formed in a cylindrical shape on an outer surface of the first roller; and a second roller having a second elastic layer formed in a cylindrical shape on an outer surface of the second roller. A hardness of the second elastic layer is higher than that of the first elastic layer, and a nip section is formed between the first elastic layer and the second elastic layer. A longitudinal length of the first elastic layer in an axial direction of the first roller is greater than that of the second elastic layer in an axial direction of the second roller.

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Uenohara, Japan

Hiroshi Funabiki