Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Masayuki Tamaki

Toshinori Nakayama

Shigeaki Takada

Koichi Kakubari

Naoki Akiyama

Ryo Yashiro

Akeshi Asaka

Yasuharu Chiyoda

Shinsuke Takahashi

Kazuhisa Kemmochi

Daigo Matsuura

Taichi Takemura

Hikaru Osada

Keisuke Abe

Tsutomu Miki

Masahiro Tsujibayashi

Ryo Suzuki

Yutaka Arai

Shigeru Hirano

Jun Miura

Rikiya Takemasa

Mitsuru Hasegawa

Jiro Ishizuka

Ikuo Nakamoto

Dai Kanai

Kota Arimoto

Hiroto Ito

Suguru Takeuchi

Hidekazu Maruta

Yusuke Yamaguchi

Takeshi Suzuki

Katsuhisa Matsunaka

Yasuhiro Miyahara

Akiyoshi Shinagawa

Hiroki Kawai

Yuji Kitano

Matsutaka Maeda

Hiroto Sugimoto

Yuji Bessho

Toru Katsumi

Hiroki Muramatsu

Oki Kitagawa

Yoshihito Oshima

Takuma Tadomi

Satoru Nitobe

Jiro Ishiduka

Kengo Koyama

A fixing device includes an endless and rotatable belt of which an inner peripheral surface is applied with lubricant, a heater, a rotatable member to rotatably contact the belt and a nip forming member in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the belt. The nip forming member includes a holding portion, an upstream sliding portion and a downstream sliding portion. The downstream and upstream sliding portions have first and second sliding surfaces sliding with the inner peripheral surface of the belt, respectively. The second sliding surface has a curved shape, and when a force applied to the belt with respect to a length of the second sliding surface is defined as w (N/mm) and a curvature radius of the second sliding surface is defined as R (mm), R/w of the second sliding surface is equal to 5 (mm/N) or larger and equal to 80 (mm/N) or less.

Fixing device

A fixing device includes a rotatable endless belt, a pressing roller and a fixing pad. The pressing roller contacts an outer peripheral surface of the belt and forms a nip portion in cooperation with the belt. A toner image is formed in the nip portion and fixed onto the recording material by application of heat and pressure. The fixing pad contacts an inner peripheral surface of the belt. The fixing pad includes a contact area in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the belt. The contact area includes a downstream end portion with respect to a conveyance direction of the recording material. The downstream end portion includes a central portion and both end portions with respect to a widthwise direction of the belt. The central portion locates downstream of the both end portions with respect to the conveyance direction.

A fixing apparatus includes a fixing belt, a heating roller, a nip portion forming member, a pressing rotary member, a suspending roller, and an urging unit. The heating roller is in contact with an inner surface of the fixing belt and heats the fixing belt. The suspending roller has a center and both ends in an area where the fixing belt and the suspending roller are in contact with each other in a width direction of the suspending roller. Outside diameters at both ends are greater than an outside diameter at the suspending roller center by a value between 50 micrometer and 300 micrometer, inclusive. The urging unit urges the suspending roller from the inner surface of the fixing belt toward an outer circumference surface of the fixing belt. A force that the urging unit applies to the suspending roller ranges between 50 newtons and 100 newtons, inclusive.

Fixing apparatus

An image heating apparatus including first and second rotatable members, first and second cooling fans, an air blowing port, a shutter member, a shutter controller, and a fan controller. The first cooling fan is provided at a position opposing a first region which is a part of an end portion region of the first rotatable member on one end side. The second cooling fan is provided at a position opposing a second region which is part of the end portion region. The second region is adjacent to the first region with respect to the longitudinal direction. The shutter controller is configured to control a position of the shutter member depending on a width size of a recording material. The fan controller is configured to independently control an operation of the first cooling fan and an operation of the second cooling fan depending on the width size of the recording material.

Image heating apparatus having first and second cooling fans cooling an end portion of a first rotatable member

An image forming apparatus includes a control portion configured to output, in a test mode, a recording member which has passed through a fixing nip portion in a case of a first temperature difference in which a center part temperature of a first rotary member is higher than an end part temperature of the first rotary member and a recording member which has passed through the fixing nip portion in a case of a second temperature difference in which the center part temperature is lower than the end part temperature by one operation of starting test mode to the input portion.

Image forming apparatus having a testing mode in which a temperature difference between a center part and an end part of a fixing unit rotary member is changed

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion, an image heating apparatus including an image heating unit, a rotatable pressing roller, and an information storing portion; a reading portion; a counter portion; a display portion; and a controller. The controller controls the counter portion so that a) when the image heating apparatus mounted is exchanged with an image heating apparatus including a new image heating unit, on the basis of information of the information storing portion, the count value of the image heating apparatus, the count value of the image heating unit and the count value of the rotatable pressing member are reset, and b) when only the image heating unit mounted is exchanged with a new one, the count value of the image heating unit is reset and the count value of the rotatable pressing member is not reset.

Image forming apparatus

A pair of rotary members nips and conveys a recording material and a heating element heats a toner image on the recording material via the pair of rotary members. A separating mechanism separates the pair of rotary members. A heating time recording portion records a cumulative length of a period during which the pair of rotary members in an abutted state is heated as a first heating time and a cumulative length of the period during which the pair of rotary members in a separated state is heated as a second heating time. A determining portion determines a remaining lifetime of the pair of rotary members using the first and second heating times and data indicating a relationship between length of the period during which the pair of rotary members is heated and decrease in lifetime of the pair of rotary members.

An image forming apparatus includes a rotary member, a web, a moving unit, a detecting unit configured to detect a predetermined position, and a control portion. The control portion informs, in a case where an actual moving amount per one winding operation is a first moving amount, the replacement of the web, if a number of sheets of recording materials on which images have been formed after the predetermined position is detected reaches a first number of sheets. The control portion informs, in a case where the actual moving amount per one winding operation is a second moving amount which is greater than the first moving amount, the replacement of the web, if a number of sheets of recording materials on which images have been formed after the predetermined position is detected reaches a second number of sheets which is less than the first number of sheets.

An image heating apparatus includes a controller configured to control a temperature at which energization to a heater is turned off, depending on a detection temperature of a detecting portion, wherein, when a temperature rise rate per unit time of the detection temperature of the detecting portion is a first rise rate, the controller turns off the energization to the heater in response to the detection temperature reaching a first temperature, and, when the temperature rise rate per unit time is a second rise rate that is less than the first rise rate, the controller turns off the energization to the heater in response to the detection temperature reaching a second temperature that is greater than the first temperature.

Image heating apparatus and image forming apparatus that control a temperature at which energization to a heater is turned off based on a temperature rise rate per unit time of a detection temperature

Provided is an endless belt-shaped electrophotographic member having a superior durability. The member comprises an endless belt-shaped substrate and a surface layer,

Electrophotographic member, fixing member, fixing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and method of producing electrophotographic belt

An image forming apparatus has an image forming portion, and a fixing portion including a first rotatable member and a second rotatable member that form a nip, and a detecting portion configured to detect a temperature of the first rotatable member. An acquiring portion acquires a rotation time of the first rotatable member, and a notifying portion provides a notification prompting exchange of the first rotatable member on the basis of an accumulated value of the rotation time of the first rotatable member acquired by the acquiring portion, the rotation time being subjected to weighting on the basis of the temperature of the first rotatable member detected by the detecting portion.

Image forming apparatus that prompts exchange of a first rotatable member of a fixing portion based on a rotation time of the first rotatable member or a recording material length

A fixing apparatus including a flexible belt having a heat generating layer, an outer ring provided on one edge side of the belt and along an outer peripheral surface of the belt, the outer ring being electrically connected to the heat generating layer, an inner ring provided on the one edge side of the belt and along an inner peripheral surface of the belt to face the outer ring through the belt, and a power supply unit that is electrically connected to the outer ring and that feeds power. A difference obtained by subtracting a diameter of the inner ring at a normal temperature from a diameter of the inner ring at a fixing temperature is equivalent to or larger than a difference obtained by subtracting a diameter of the outer ring at the normal temperature from a diameter of the outer ring at the fixing temperature.

Image heating apparatus

A heater includes a substrate, a first electrical contact, second electrical contacts, first electrode portions and second electrode portions, heat generating portions, a first electroconductive line portion, and a second electroconductive line portion. The heat generating portions are disposed so as to be offset from a center line of the substrate with respect to a widthwise direction of the substrate.

Heater and image heating apparatus, the heater having heat generating portions disposed offset from a center line of a substrate

A heater includes a substrate, a first electrical contact, a plurality of second electrical contacts, a plurality of electrode portions including first electrode portions electrically connected with the first electrical contact and second electrode portions electrically connected with the second electrical contacts, the first electrode portions and the second electrode portions being arranged alternately with predetermined gaps in a longitudinal direction of the substrate, and a plurality of heat generating portions provided between adjacent ones of the electrode portions so as to electrically connect between adjacent electrode portion. The heat generating portions are capable of generating heat by the electric power supply between adjacent electrode portions. A part of the second electrical contacts is selectably electrically connectable with the second terminal. The electrode portions are covered with the heat generating portions so as to be positioned between the substrate and the heat generating portions.

Heater, image heating apparatus including the heater and manufacturing method of the heater

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Abiko, Japan

Masayuki Tamaki