Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Koji Nihonyanagi

Yasuhiro Shimura

Shinji Hashiguchi

Satoru Izawa

Toshio Miyamoto

Masahiko Suzumi

Eiji Uekawa

Fumiki Inui

Jun Asami

Toshiya Kaino

Ryota Ogura

Hiroto Hasegawa

Taisuke Minagawa

Kuniaki Kasuga

Yutaka Kubochi

Toshihiko Ochiai

Hiroyuki Sakakibara

Hisashi Nakahara

Satoru Taniguchi

Masato Sako

Hideaki Yonekubo

Nozomu Nakajima

Yuji Fujiwara

Akihito Kanamori

Yusaku Iwasawa

Eiichiro Kimizuka

Hayato Negishi

Masataka Mochiduki

Masahiro Goto

Yutaka Sato

Noriaki Sato

Hideo Nanataki

Toshiaki Miyashiro

Hiroshi Kataoka

Takashi Narahara

Jun Agata

Wataru Uchida

Tomoyuki Araki

Masahito Omata

Masami Takeda

Takayuki Ujifusa

Takahiro Hosokawa

Shizuma Nishimura

Taro Ishifune

Mitsuhiro Ito

Ryo Iwasawa

Keigo Akiya

Takao Kawadu

An image forming system that includes an apparatus main body, equipped with an image forming portion, and a control portion that controls a fixing operation of fixing the image on a recording material is disclosed. A first fixing unit and a second fixing unit can be selectively mounted on the apparatus main body. The first fixing unit has a heater and a plurality of temperature detection elements that detect the temperature of the first heater. The second fixing unit has a second heater and a second plurality of temperature detection elements that detect the temperature of the second heater. The control portion controls the fixing operation based on first temperature information detected by the first temperature detection elements when the first fixing unit is mounted, and controls the fixing operation based on second temperature information detected by the second temperature detection elements when the second fixing unit is mounted.

Image forming system and image forming apparatus having exchangeable fixing devices

The present invention relates to an image heating apparatus that includes a heater including a plurality of independently controllable heating blocks in a longitudinal direction thereof, each including a first conductor, a second conductor, and a heating element. At least one of electrodes corresponding to the respective heating blocks is disposed in an area where the heating element is located in the longitudinal direction on a second surface of the heater that is opposite to a first surface that comes into contact with an endless belt. An electrical contact is arranged so as to face the second surface of the heater. An overheating occurring in a no-media passage portion when an image formed on a recording material having a small size is heated is suppressed or reduced.

Image heating apparatus and heater for use therein

In an image forming apparatus, in continuous image formation in which images are continuously formed and fixed on a plurality of recording materials in a fixing portion, with a period from start of the continuous image formation on a first recording material to arrival thereof at the fixing unit being regarded as a first period, and with a period from the arrival of the first recording material at the fixing portion to the end of the continuous image formation being regarded as a second period, a second maximum energizing duty that is set when the control portion supplies power to a plurality of heating elements in the second period is higher than a first maximum energizing duty that is set when the control portion supplies power to the plurality of heating elements in the first period.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit configured to form an image on a sheet based on original image data; a selection unit configured to determine a non-image region of the sheet to which toner does not attach in a formation of the image by the image forming unit based on the original image data, and select, from the non-image region, a determination region depending on an image defect to be detected; a reading unit configured to read a surface of the sheet; and a control unit configured to obtain read image data by causing the reading unit to read the determination region after the image forming unit has formed the image, and perform detection processing for detecting whether the image defect has occurred based on the read image data.

Image forming apparatus that detects occurrence of image defect

An image forming apparatus, including: a control portion that controls a conveying speed of recording materials when the recording materials pass through a nip portion; wherein the control portion, in a case of continuous sheet passing of the recording materials each having a smaller width than the recording materials each having a maximum width: executes, in a case where a representative value of the number of the recording materials having the smaller width for one operation of the continuous sheet passing is smaller than a predetermined threshold, a first operating mode in which the conveying speed is controlled to a first speed; and executes, in a case where the representative value is the threshold or more, a second operating mode in which the conveying speed is controlled to a second speed lower than the first speed.

Image forming apparatus and image forming system that set conveying speed based on a number of small sheets to be used or a print operation history

A heater used for a fixing device includes a substrate, first and second conductor patterns formed at either end of the substrate in the short direction of the substrate, a third conductor pattern formed between the first and second conductor patterns and separated from the two conductor patterns, a first heating member disposed between the first and third conductor patterns and electrically connected to the two conductor patterns, and a second heating member disposed between the second and third conductor patterns and electrically connected to the conductor patterns. The heater has both end regions in which the widths of the third conductor pattern in the short direction is smaller than that of a middle portion of the third conductor pattern. The widths of the first and second heating members in the end regions are smaller than the widths of the first and second heating members in the other region, respectively.

Fixing device and heater used in fixing device

The heater is capable of improving heat generation uniformity in a sheet feeding area while suppressing the temperature rise of a non-sheet feeding portion. Each of heat generation lines includes a plurality of heat blocks in which a plurality of heat generating resistors are electrically connected in parallel between two conductive members. The heat generation lines are arranged in a lateral direction of the substrate, and the heat blocks are arranged so that the end of the heat block in the heat generation line of a first row does not overlap with the end of the heat block in the heat generation line of a second row in a longitudinal direction of a heater.

Heater, image heating device with the heater and image forming apparatus therein

A sheet interval, serving as the distance between conveyed recording materials, is properly controlled based on a kind of a recording material and any one of a printing ratio, an adhesion amount of toner, and the presence or absence of graphic data, thus allowing printing at throughput suitable for, for example, the kind of the recording material and the printing ratio without changing an image forming condition such that image quality does not vary.

The image heating apparatus includes an unit for spacing each of a buck-up member and a pressure roller apart from a flexible belt member which is electrified to generate heat, or heated by a source of heat at start-up, i.e. in a previous stage to heating an image, or an unit for controlling a pressure to decrease a contact area in the direction of the axis of rotation compared with the contact area for a period to heat an image. This can control, as much as possible, heat conduction from the flexible belt which is electrified to generate heat, or heated by the source of heat to the back-up member and the pressure roller at the start-up, i.e. the previous stage to heating an image.

Image heating apparatus

A heat fixing device includes a rotatable member for heating, a pressing roller configured to form a fixing nip portion that nips and conveys a recording material bearing a toner image, and a cooling fan configured to cool a recording material non-passing region in the rotatable member for heating in a direction orthogonal to a recording material conveying direction, wherein the pressing roller includes a rubber layer, between a cored bar and a release layer, containing a needle-shaped heat conductive filler oriented in a roller axis direction.

Heat fixing device having cooling fan and pressing roller with heat conductive filler

A fixing apparatus includes a film, a heater that contacts the inner face of the film and is capable of changing heat distribution, and a pressure member that forms the nip portion with the heater via the film, the pressure member including a region on which a diameter is increased from a center portion toward an end portion, wherein the fixing apparatus performs heater control so that a ratio of an amount of heat generation at the end portion of the heater to an amount of heat generation at the center portion of the heater is changed based on a temperature of the end portion of the pressure member, during a period at least from when the warm-up of the fixing apparatus is started until the recording material reaches the nip portion.

Fixing apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a fixing device, a first fan configured to supply air to a first area of the fixing device, a second fan configured to supply air to a second area of the fixing device, a first temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the first area, a second temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the second area, and a control unit configured to start to operate the first fan and the second fan, wherein, when a displacement amount of a recording material with respect to a conveyance reference is a predetermined amount or larger and when the recording material is displaced toward the first area, the control unit sets a temperature for starting to drive the second fan to be lower than a temperature that is set when the positional displacement amount is less than the predetermined amount.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Koji Nihonyanagi