Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Kimihide Tsukamoto

Takashi Yamanaka

Hirokazu Nakamura

Tatsuya Shinkawa

Masaki Amemiya

Kan Mukai

Atsushi Ide

Hiroshi Nakatani

Yasuhiro Takai

Masaru Tsuji

Kousuke Namisaki

Susumu Murakami

Yoshinobu Tateishi

Tomohiko Okada

Junya Masuda

Yoshiaki Ibuchi

Mitsuru Ogura

Hideshi Izumi

Minoru Tomiyori

Takateru Yamamoto

Motoaki Okitsu

Yoshinori Shiraishi

Tomohiro Oikawa

Takasumi Wada

Yasushi Matsutomo

Yasunori Minakuchi

Shinichi Azumi

Keizo Fukunaga

Masaru Nishijima

Takashi Makiura

Tadaaki Kawano

Haruyoshi Migita

Kenichi Isomi

Shinichiro Hiraoka

Akira Kohno

Shiyougo Iwai

Kunihiko Sakaguchi

Atsushi Saito

Kouji Aoki

A pair of pressure members are disposed at both ends of a pressure roller and rotatably support the pressure roller to press the pressure roller against a fixing roller including an elastic layer via a fixing belt. One of the pressure members that includes a fulcrum engaging section engaged with a rotation fulcrum at one end and is locked to a biasing member at a side opposite to the fulcrum engaging section is moved by a moving member in a direction intersecting a pressing direction of the pressure roller in a state where deformation of the elastic layer is regulated. Thus, a force acting on a fixing nip formed by the deformation of the elastic layer of the fixing roller is stabilized. As a result, the traveling performance of the fixing belt is stabilized, whereby the offset control can be performed with high accuracy.

Belt offset correction device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including: a printing paper transport path in which printing paper is transported; a secondary transfer unit and a fixing section both disposed on the printing paper transport path; an open/close cover that, when opened, exposes the printing paper transport path in a main body of the apparatus; a pressure roller, disposed in the fixing section, that presses the printing paper on a side thereof facing the open/close cover against the printing paper transport path; and cooling fans that cool down the pressure roller, wherein the secondary transfer unit and the cooling fans are attached to the open/close cover and disposed at such positions that the secondary transfer unit and the cooling fans move following overlapping paths when the open/close cover is opened/closed.

Image forming device including fan with ducted airflow

A belt deviation correction device for correcting a deviation of an endless belt wound around a plurality of rollers includes a pressing roller that is pressed from outside the endless belt wound around the plurality of rollers. The pressing roller is configured to swing in such a way as to be inclined with respect to the plurality of rollers. A deviation of the endless belt in a direction of an axis of rotation of the plurality of rollers is corrected by swinging the pressing roller.

Belt deviation correction device fixing device, image forming apparatus, and belt deviation correction method

Image forming apparatus including secondary transfer unit and fixing section disposed on printing paper transport path

Image forming device including secondary transfer unit and fixing section disposed on printing paper transport path

A fixing apparatusin one embodiment of the present invention includes a fixing roller, a pressure roller, a pressing apparatusfor pressing the pressure rollertoward the fixing roller, a pressure cancellation apparatusthat cancels pressure applied by the pressing apparatusto the pressure rolleragainst the fixing roller, an external heating apparatusthat presses the fixing rollerfrom the outside on an opposite side to the pressure roller, and a regulation memberthat regulates the amount of pressure the external heating apparatusapplies to the fixing roller

Image forming apparatus including a fixing apparatus with regulation member

A cleaning apparatus using a web sheet includes: a send-out roller that is wound with the web sheet; a take-up roller that is connected to an end of the web sheet; and a rotation-regulating and canceling portion that regulates rotation of the send-out roller and cancels the regulation according to tension of the web sheet between the send-out roller and the take-up roller; wherein the web sheet is sent out from the send-out roller and taken up by the take-up roller, the web sheet is brought into contact with another roller during the sending out and taking up operation, and extraneous matters that have adhered to the other roller are removed.

Cleaning apparatus using web sheet

In a fixing apparatus provided with a plurality of fixing heaters having heat distribution characteristics that are different from each other inside a fixing roller, and an image forming apparatus provided with the fixing apparatus, an auxiliary heater is provided, the auxiliary heater being provided inside the fixing roller and to which power is distributed only during the warm-up period until the fixing roller in a lower temperature state reaches a predetermined fixing temperature. The plurality of fixing heaters includes a first fixing heater having first heat distribution characteristics that mainly heats a center portion of the fixing roller, and a second fixing heater having second heat distribution characteristics that mainly heats both end portion regions of the fixing roller.

Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus

In one embodiment of the present invention, a fixing apparatus that causes a recording material to pass through a nip portion formed by a rotating heat roller and a rotating pressure roller being in contact so as to perform a fixing operation is configured including a pressing mechanism that can switch between a pressure applied state in which the pressure roller presses against the heat roller using a bias and a pressure cancelled state in which the pressure is cancelled, a pressure state detection unit, and a control unit that performs a pressure cancelation operation and a pressure application operation. If the pressure state detection unit does not detect the pressure cancelled state even when the control unit has performed pressure cancellation control for a certain time period with respect to the pressing mechanism in the pressure applied state, the control unit permits a fixing operation in only the pressure applied state after performing pressure application control for a certain time period with respect to the pressing mechanism.

Fixing device having control unit for detecting pressure cancellation failure of pressure roller against heating roller

In one embodiment, when a hot roller is driven to rotate, a driving gear rotates so that a swing gear and a swing cam rotate. Then, a sliding contact edge on the right side of a swing lever that abuts against the circumferential face of the swing cam repeatedly moves up and down, and the swing lever repeatedly rotates clockwise and counterclockwise with a shaft of a pressure release cam as the center. At this time, since only the clockwise rotation of the swing lever is transmitted via a one-way clutch to the shaft of the pressure release cam, the clockwise rotation is intermittently transmitted to the shaft of the pressure release cam. As a result of this, the pressure release cam intermittently rotates clockwise, and the pressure release cam pushes away a roller of a displacement frame, so that the pressure roller separates from the hot roller.

Fixing apparatus

In one embodiment, a fixing apparatus is configured of a pressing portion for causing the pressure roller to enter a pressure applied state by applying bias, a switching portion for causing the pressing portion in the pressure applied state to enter a pressure released state by causing a cam to rotate forward, a pressure state detection portion for detecting the pressure released state, and a control portion for, when shifting from the pressure applied state to the pressure released state, turning forward the cam of the switching portion in the pressure applied state and stopping the cam after the pressure state detection portion detects the pressure released state. If the cam is turned forward with respect to the switching portion for a certain time period, but the pressure state detection portion does not detect the pressure released state, the control portion performs forward rotational direction retry control.

Fixing apparatus with pressure state detection and control

A paper separation claw is separated from a surface of a pressure roller by a drive source being turned ON at a time tbefore commencement of rotation of the pressure roller, and the paper separation claw is made to contact the surface of the pressure roller by the drive source being turned OFF after commencement of rotation (a time t) of the pressure roller. Furthermore, the paper separation claw is separated from the surface of the pressure roller by the drive source being turned ON again before stopping of rotation (a time t) of the pressure roller after an image forming operation of a single job is finished, and the paper separation claw is made to contact the surface of the pressure roller by the drive source being turned OFF again after stopping of rotation (a time t) of the pressure roller.

A fuser unit for an image forming apparatus including: a tape-like cleaning member that abuts on a fuser roller and cleans its peripheral surface; a press roller that presses the fuser roller via the cleaning member; a feed roller that feeds said cleaning member; a wind roller that winds the cleaning member therearound; and a controller that actuates a fixing function before an image formation, stops it after said image formation, and rotates and stops the wind roller and/or the feed roller to control a winding quantity of the cleaning member, wherein said controller calculates a toner image amount based on the prescribed number of pages by tracking from a page on which an image is formed just before the image formation is completed, and determines whether or not said cleaning member is wound around the wind roller during a non-fixing period based on the calculated toner image amount.

Fuser unit and image forming apparatus equipped with the same

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Osaka, Japan

Kimihide Tsukamoto