Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Hirotaka Imaeda

Tomonori Watanabe

Tokifumi Tanaka

Shuhei Fukue

Kenji Takeuchi

Hiroshi Handa

Yusuke Mizuno

Mingguang Zhang

Sadaharu Kato

Fumitake Tajiri

Kazuna Taguchi

Tatsuo Ogasawara

Shunsuke Ueki

In an image forming device, a first fixing member has a roller. A second fixing member has a belt to form a nip together with the first fixing member. A pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at the nip to selected one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. A controller drives the first motor to drive the roller and fixes the developer image on a sheet in a state that the nip pressure is the first nip pressure. The controller modifies the nip pressure from the first nip pressure to the second nip pressure while driving the first motor in a case where a final sheet among one or more sheets fixed according to a print job has passed the nip, and halts the first motor after the nip pressure is modified to the second nip pressure.

Image forming device modifying nip pressure of nip formed in fixing device before motor is halted

In an image forming apparatus, a controller causes a first fixing member to heat up to a standby temperature Tr lower than a fixing temperature, through a control process executed from a state in which rotation of the first fixing member is stopped and a nip pressure is set at a second pressure smaller than a first pressure. The control process includes: a first process of activating and controlling a heater to cause the first fixing member to heat up toward a target temperature; a second process of starting the rotation of the first fixing member; a third process of changing the nip pressure from the second pressure to the first pressure; a fourth process of changing the nip pressure from the first pressure to the second pressure; and a fifth process of stopping the rotation of the first fixing member, executed in this sequence.

Image forming apparatus

A device includes a rotator having a rotation axis, a belt, a nip forming member surrounded by the belt and configured to, with the rotator, pinch the belt to form a nip, an urging member configured to urge one of the rotator and the nip forming member towards the other in a particular direction perpendicular to the rotation axis, an upstream guide and a downstream guide. The upstream guide includes an upstream guide surface configured to guide an inner peripheral surface of the belt. The nip forming member includes a facing surface which faces the rotator. An upstream edge of the facing surface in the moving direction is located at a position farther from the rotation axis, in the particular direction, than a downstream edge of the upstream guide surface.

Device including rotator and belt, such as a fixing device for an image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a first fixing member, a second fixing member, and a controller. The second fixing member includes a first nip forming member and a second nip forming member each configured to nip an endless belt in combination with the first fixing member to form a nip region. A first end face on a first-fixing-member side of the first nip forming member is located closer, than a second end face on a first-fixing-member side of the second nip forming member, to the first fixing member. The controller is capable of executing a first printing process performed in a nip region formed between each of the first nip forming member and the second nip forming member and the first fixing member, and a second printing process performed in a nip region formed between only the first fixing member and the first fixing member.

Image forming apparatus including a fixing device comprising a first nip pad and second nip pad and method for controlling image forming apparatus

In an image forming device, a first fixing member has a roller. A second fixing member has a belt to form a nip together with the first fixing member. A first motor drives the roller. A pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at the nip to selected one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. A controller starts driving the first motor to drive the roller in a case where a print command is received in a state that the nip pressure is the second nip pressure. The controller modifies the nip pressure from the second nip pressure to the first nip pressure after the driving is performed and fixes the developer image on the sheet in a state that the nip pressure is the first nip pressure.

Image forming device including pressure modifying mechanism modifying nip pressure of nip formed between first fixing member and second fixing member

A device includes a rotator, a belt facing the rotator and having an outer peripheral surface which contacts the rotator to form a nip therebetween, a first pad configured to press the belt toward the rotator to form one part of the nip, a second pad configured to press the belt toward the rotator, to form another part of the nip, a holder holding the first pad and the second pad, a stay supporting the holder, and an urging member urging the stay toward the rotator in an urging direction. The second pad is located upstream of the first pad in a conveyance direction in the nip orthogonal to the urging direction. At least a portion of a contact area between the stay and the holder is located downstream of a center of the nip and upstream of a front edge of the first pad in the conveyance direction.

Fixing device including plural nip pads

A fixing device includes a roller having a rotation axis, and a belt unit that conveys a sheet in combination with the roller. The belt unit includes an endless belt, a nip forming member that forms a nip in combination with the roller, and an upstream belt guide. The fixing device further includes a chute having a guide surface configured to guide the sheet toward the nip. In a section orthogonal to the rotation axis, a line segment connecting a downstream end of the guide surface and an upstream end of the nip does not intersect the upstream belt guide, and an extended line extended from the downstream end of the guide surface along the guide surface toward the roller intersects a surface of the roller at a position upstream of an upstream end of the nip.

Growing community of inventors

Komaki, Japan

Hirotaka Imaeda