Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masaya Shitami

Kenji Ishii

Kenichi Hasegawa

Satoshi Ueno

Yasutada Tsukioka

Akiyasu Amita

Yasuhiro Kohira

Keizo Yasuda

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming mechanism to form a toner image on a recording medium according to image data and a fixing mechanism to fix the toner image on the recording medium. The fixing mechanism includes a fixing member and an external heater. The fixing member applies heat to the recording medium having the toner image. The external heater heats the fixing member and is formed in a shape corresponding to a surface of the fixing member. The external heater is disposed as if to engage and yet be spaced apart from the fixing member by a distance which is variable according to movement of the external heater.

Image forming apparatus, fixing unit, and image forming method with improved heating mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Masaya Shitami