Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Nippon Metal Industry Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Nikkiso Company Limited

Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Dena Co., Ltd.

Ricoii Company, Limited

Masaaki Yoshikawa

Toshihiko Shimokawa

Hiroshi Yoshinaga

Takahiro Imada

Kenji Ishii

Naoki Iwaya

Takamasa Hase

Takuya Seshita

Hajime Gotoh

Yutaka Ikebuchi

Hiromasa Takagi

Yoshiki Yamaguchi

Arinobu Yoshiura

Ippei Fujimoto

Kensuke Yamaji

Akira Suzuki

Shuutaroh Yuasa

Tetsuo Tokuda

Tadashi Ogawa

Teppei Kawata

Kazuya Saito

Takeshi Uchitani

Masahiko Satoh

Yuji Arai

Akira Shinshi

Kenichi Hasegawa

Shuntaroh Tamaki

Takayuki Seki

Ryuuichi Mimbu

Shinichi Namekata

Shuntaro Tamaki

Takeshi Yamamoto

Yasunori Ishigaya

Ryota Yamashina

Motokazu Yasui

Haruo Aoyama

Hirotaka Tanaka

Yasuhisa Kato

Hidenobu Endo

Toru Nakada

Toshiharu Hachisuka

Genzi Oshino

Masashi Yoshida

Tetuso Tokuda

Katsuhisa Suzuki

Yoshio Hattori

Masanao Ehara

Noriaki Fukube

Ryota Tsukidate

Shigeki Kaneko

Yasuhisa Katoh

Norihiko Kobayashi

Takeshi Nagao

Yoshiyasu Takeuchi

Hideo Furukawa

Hiroyoshi Ishibashi

Toru Kawaguchi

Aki Nakagawa

Toshiharu Sugiyama

Takashi Matsumoto

Wenli Zhang

Toshiyuki Mae

Tsutomu Kumazaki

Kenji Sohma

Sachiko Ohta

Hiroyuki Shiozawa

Ryota Suehiro

Yutaka Ikebuchii

Osamu Takeuchi

Tsutomu Shigesawa

A fixing device includes an endless belt rotatable in a predetermined direction of rotation and a nip formation assembly disposed opposite an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt. An opposed rotary body is pressed against the nip formation assembly via the endless belt to form a fixing nip between the endless belt and the opposed rotary body through which a recording medium bearing a toner image is conveyed. A belt holder contacts and supports each lateral end of the endless belt in an axial direction thereof. The belt holder is isolated from the opposed rotary body with a first interval interposed therebetween in the axial direction of the endless belt.

Fixing device capable of enhancing durability of endless belt and image forming apparatus incorporating the same

A fixing device may include an endless fixing member; a heater inside the fixing member; and a nip forming unit configured to form a nip through which a recording sheet is conveyed, the nip forming unit including a supporting member and a contact member supported by the supporting member, the supporting member including at least one contact surface and the contact member including a plurality of protrusions protruding towards the supporting member such that two or more of the plurality of protrusions are configured to contact one of the at least one contact surface of the supporting member, each of the plurality of protrusions having a height associated there with such that the height of the plurality of protrusions increases in a direction from ends of the contact member towards a center of the contact member.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes a heat source; a fixing member looped into a generally cylindrical shape to rotate in a circumferential direction thereof and partially heated by the heat source and to heat a surface of a recording medium bearing an unfixed toner image to fix the unfixed toner image thereon in a fixing process; a rotary pressing member disposed facing the fixing member to form a nip therebetween, through which the recording medium is transported in a transport direction; and a rotation driver to rotate one of the fixing member and the pressing member. In a case in which the fixing member is halted for a reason other than the fixing process while power of the fixing device is on, electric power is not supplied to the heat source and the fixing member is rotated by a predetermined amount or more after the fixing member is halted.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus including same

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device. The fixing device includes a rotatable endless fixing member, a nip forming member arranged inside the fixing member, a pressing member in contact with the nip forming member via the fixing member, and a heating source configured to heat the fixing member. When an abnormality occurs in at least one of the fixing device and other devices included in the image forming apparatus, a rotation of the fixing member is stopped prior to stopping a rotation driving of a discharging unit and, after stopping, the fixing member is controlled to rotate.

Image forming apparatus

A fixing device includes: a rotatable endless fixing belt; a nip forming member arranged inside the fixing belt; a facing rotating body that abuts the nip forming member via the fixing belt to form a nip portion with the fixing belt; a heat source that directly heats up the fixing belt at a portion other than the nip portion; and a supporting member that supports the nip forming member. The fixing device conveys a recording medium carrying an unfixed image to the nip portion to fix the unfixed image to the recording medium, and the supporting member includes a rising portion extending in an abutting direction of the facing rotating body against the fixing belt and having a tip close to an inner circumferential surface of the fixing belt, and is set to have a section modulus of 200 mmor higher.

A fixing device for fixing an image on a recording medium includes an endless fixing rotary member which is formed into a loop and comes into contact with the image on the recording medium, an opposed rotary member which is in contact with the fixing rotary member, a nip forming member provided inside the loop of the fixing rotary member to be in contact with the opposed rotary member via the fixing rotary member to form a nip portion to which the recording medium is fed in a feeding direction, a support member which supports the nip forming member, and a heating source which heats the fixing rotary member. The nip forming member includes a downstream portion extending downstream in the feeding direction from a center of the nip portion and an upstream portion extending upstream in the feeding direction from the center and longer than the downstream portion.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus including the fixing device

An image forming apparatus includes a first heater disposed opposite and heating at least a center of a fixing belt in an axial direction thereof and a second heater disposed opposite and heating at least a lateral end of the fixing belt in the axial direction thereof. A power supply supplies power to the first heater and the second heater. A controller that controls the power supply includes a calculator to calculate an elapsed time elapsed after at least one of the first heater and the second heater starts heating the fixing belt. The controller controls the power supply to supply power to the first heater and the second heater such that a power density of the second heater is greater than a power density of the first heater when the elapsed time calculated by the calculator is smaller than a predetermined time.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

Image forming apparatus including a fixing device that includes a radiant heat heating source and a fixing member that rotates before an abnormality solved

A fixing device may include an endless fixing member; a heating unit that is provided inside an inner peripheral surface of the fixing member; and a nip forming unit that comes into press-contact with a rotationally driven pressing member with the fixing member interposed therebetween to form a nip. The nip forming unit has a shape in which a center of a contact surface protrudes toward the pressing member compared to both ends. The nip forming unit has a protruding amount at a center toward the pressing member compared to both ends of the nip forming unit in no-load state is set to be less than a bent amount of the nip forming unit when the nip forming unit comes into press-contact with the pressing member with the fixing member interposed therebetween.

A fixing device includes a fixing rotator, a first heat generator and a second heat generator that heat the fixing rotator, and a support disposed inside the fixing rotator. A reflector, interposed between the support and each of the first heat generator and the second heat generator, reflects light radiated from the first heat generator and the second heat generator toward the fixing rotator. The reflector includes a body mounted on the support and a shield portion projecting from the body toward the first heat generator and the second heat generator to shield the fixing rotator from the first heat generator and the second heat generator. An electric circuit is connected to the first heat generator and the second heat generator. A heat generation restrainer is provided in the electric circuit to restrict heat generation in the electric circuit.

A fixing device for fixing an unfixed image onto a recording medium includes a fixing belt, a nip forming member, an opposing rotary member, a heater, and a temperature detector. The fixing belt is formed into a loop to move endlessly and fix the unfixed image on the recording medium. The nip forming member is disposed inside the loop formed by the fixing belt. The opposing rotary member contacts the nip forming member via the fixing belt to form a nip portion therebetween while rotating. The heater heats the fixing belt at a place other than the nip portion. The temperature detector detects a temperature of the surface of the fixing belt. The temperature detector detects the temperature near a place of the fixing belt that easily deforms as the fixing belt is heated by the heater.

Fixing device with a temperature detector adjacent an easily deformable location and image forming apparatus including same

A fixing device including a fixing member, an opposing member, a plurality of heat sources, and a voltage detector. The opposing member is disposed opposite the fixing member to contact the fixing member to form a nip portion at which an unfixed image on a recording medium is fixed. The plurality of heat sources heats the fixing member. The voltage detector detects an applied voltage of at least one of the plurality of heat sources. Upon detection of the applied voltage of the heat sources by the voltage detector, a voltage is applied to at least one of the heat sources.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masaaki Yoshikawa