Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Satoru Yoneda

Hideji Hayashi

Takashi Yamada

Eiji Okabayashi

Takeshi Kato

Tetsuya Yamada

Hideaki Hayashi

Yutaka Otsuka

Naoki Yamamoto

Toshio Sakata

Yoshifumi Kosagi

Noboru Yonekawa

Mitsuru Isogai

Norikazu Okabe

Kazuo Mohri

Hiroaki Hinotani

Masashi Saito

Yuusuke Morigami

Tetsuro Ito

Taizou Oonishi

Kazunori Nishinoue

Takayuki Horie

Tatsumi Fujishima

Osamu Morita

Shigeo Nakamura

Tohru Fujiwara

Hideki Hadano

Peter Johnston

An image forming apparatus has an outline surrounded by a casing. The casing has an opening. The image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit configured to fix an image formed on a recording medium, and a control unit. The fixing unit includes a heating fixing member. The control unit is configured to control an opening degree of the opening based on temperature of a surface of or in the vicinity of the heating fixing member, so as to prevent emission of a substance by an air current to outside of the casing through the opening, during an image forming operation.

Image forming apparatus and method of controlling the same

A fixing device for fixing an unfixed image on a recording sheet passing through a fixing nip formed by pressing a pressing member against an inside surface of a pressure belt via a low friction sheet, so that an outside surface of the pressure belt presses against a fixing member, wherein the pressing member includes a first pressing part having an elastic front face, and (ii) a second pressing part whose front face presses against a rear face of the first pressing part, the low friction sheet extends from a portion thereof pressed by the front face against the pressure belt, to an upstream end thereof, along a lateral side of the first pressing part, the upstream end being upstream from the other end with respect to a rotation direction of the pressure belt and sandwiched between the rear face and the front face by pressure.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing device for fixing an unfixed image on a recording sheet passing through a fixing nip formed by pressing a pressing member against an inside surface of a pressure belt via a low friction sheet, so that an outside surface of the pressure belt presses against a fixing member, wherein the pressing member includes a first pressing part whose front-side portion is an elastic pressing part, and a second pressing part whose front face presses against a rear face of the first pressing part, the second pressing part has a side wall near an upstream portion of the first pressing part that is upstream from the front-side portion with respect to a rotation direction of the pressure belt, and an upstream end of the low friction sheet, upstream from the other end with respect to the rotation direction, is sandwiched between the side wall and the upstream portion.

A first pad has a first nip forming surface which extends in a direction X. An angle formed between an end portion of the first nip forming surface and an XZ plane is smaller than an angle formed between a central portion of the first nip forming surface and the XZ plane, where the XZ plane is formed on a downstream side of the first nip forming surface. Thereby, a fixing device is provided which suppresses generation of wrinkles on a recording material when the fixing device fixes toner on the recording material and conveys it.

Presser member, fixing device and image forming apparatus

A belt-type fixing device is provided that allows reduction in driving torque for a fixing belt without deteriorating performance of heat transfer from a heating roller to the fixing belt. The belt-type fixing device of the present invention has an endless-sheet-like fixing belt to be heated that is wound around a rotatable heating roller and around a nip forming member fixed so as to be incapable of rotating, and has a pressurizing roller that can be driven to rotate and that is in pressure contact with the nip forming member with the fixing belt interposed between. Contact part between the fixing belt and the pressurizing roller forms a fixing nip. For a tension load W [N] on the fixing belt that is driven and rotated by the pressurizing roller, and a width L [m] of the fixing belt, W/L is set in a range from 18.0 to 107.9 [N/m].

Belt-type fixing device

A belt-type fixing device is provided in which a wide fixing nip having a generally flat pressure distribution with respect to a paper feeding direction can be formed. The belt-type fixing device of the invention has a nip forming member that is fixed inside an endless-sheet-like fixing belt to be heated so as to be incapable of rotating, and a rotatable pressurizing roller that is in pressure contact with the nip forming member with the fixing belt interposed between. Contact part between the fixing belt and the pressurizing roller forms a fixing nip, and a surface of the nip forming member that is opposite to the pressurizing roller is configured as a curved surface extending along an outer circumferential surface of the pressurizing roller so that a pressure distribution in the fixing nip is made generally flat with respect to the paper feeding direction.

In a belt type fixing apparatus having a heat roller temperature sensor that detects the temperature of a heat roller that contains a heater for heating a fixing belt, and a fixing belt temperature sensor that is set to contact a pressure roller and indirectly detects the temperature of the fixing belt, the heater that heats the fixing belt is controlled in such a way that the temperature detected by the heat roller temperature sensor matches the target temperature of the heat roller that is set based on the temperature detected by the fixing belt temperature sensor.

Image forming apparatus and fixing apparatus

A fixing apparatus includes a fixing belt that pressure-thermally fixes unfixed toner images on sheets, and an oil coating roller that holds silicone oil for preventing the offset phenomenon to be coated on the fixing belt. The oil coating roller consists of an inner oil holding layer formed of paper and a surface oil holding layer formed of aramid fibers. The oil diffusing capacity and the oil holding capacity are reduced from the inner oil holding layer toward the surface oil holding layer. Thus, it is possible to suppress the oil coating amount in the initial period of the roller life to a level that does not cause problems such as oil stains, increase the oil coating amount in the final period of the roller life to a level that does not cause problems such as offsets, and prevent image noises.

Fixing apparatus and releasing agent supplying apparatus

The present invention provides a drive device having slip stoppers that can reliably prevent skewed movement of or damage to a belt. The drive device pertaining to the present invention has a roller, a drive roller, a belt that is suspended and moves over these rollers, and slip stoppers that are mounted to the roller and prevent the belt from moving in a skewed fashion. The slip stopper comprises a base into which the roller is inserted, a first wall that is located on the edge of the base that faces the belt and that is essentially perpendicular to the inner surface of the base and a second wall that extends outward continuously from the first wall and is tilted toward the other edge of the base.

Drive device, and fusing device and transfer device including said drive

A belt fixing device of a type gripping and transporting a recording member bearing an unfixed toner image between an endless belt and a back-up member to fuse the unfixed toner image on the surface of the recording member and comprising a fixing/drive roller, heating/driven roller heated by a heater, a heated endless belt wound around the drive roller and driven roller, and a back-up member pressed against the drive roller through the endless belt. The belt fixing member is capable of transporting a recording member so as to cause the least damage possible, e.g., wrinkling and the like, to the recording member, and precisely maintaining the belt transport speed and transport member transport speed at a predetermined speed so as to produce excellent fixed images. The drive roller has a surface layer of elastic material which is treated by a polishing process along the exterior and in a direction opposite the direction of powered rotation of the drive roller.

Belt transport device and belt fixing device

A belt fixing system includes a rotatably supported belt, a heating member for heating the belt, a pressure member which contacts with a circumference of the belt to form a nipping region therewith where a toner image supported on a sheet member is fixed onto the sheet member. The system further includes a first detector for detecting a portion of the belt where it has touched with the sheet member at the nipping region, and a controller for controlling the heating member so that an amount of heat supply to the belt is changed in response to an detecting result of the first detector.

Belt fixing system and method therefor

An induction heating device for printers, copiers and the like includes a magnetic coil assembly and a heated metal body that form a closed magnetic circuit. To compensate for the effects of heat radiation at the ends of the heated metal body, a greater amount of heat is generated at the ends of the body than at the center thereof. In one approach, the amount of heat is varied by changing physical parameters of the magnetic circuit, such as the spacing of the coil assemblies from the heated body, the relative sizes of the cores, and/or the relative magnetic permeability of the cores. In another approach, the electrical connection of the coils of multiple assemblies are arranged such that the coils in the center of the heated body are in parallel, and the coils at the ends of the body are in series with the parallel central coils.

Induction heat fusing device

A toner image formed on a recording member is fixed onto the recording member by a fixing device having a heatable member, a heater for heating the heatable member positioned on one side of the heatable member, the recording member being positioned on an opposite side of the heatable member and spaced from the heatable member to heat the recording member by radiation from the heatable member, and a fixing structure for fixing the toner image on the heated recording member. The heatable member can be a fixing belt arranged in a loop while the heater is an electromagnetic induction coil positioned substantially within the loop. The electromagnetic induction coil generates a magnetic flux perpendicular to the transport direction of the fixing belt to produce an eddy-like induction current in a conductive member of the fixing belt to heat the fixing belt. The fixing belt, in turn, heats the recording member on the exterior side of the belt to soften the toner image thereon. The fixing structure, e.g., a pressure roller, then fixes the toner image on the heated recording member. The heatable member may be a conductive guide member, or a belt arranged in a loop and having a tension roller with the electromagnetic induction coil being arranged on an interior side of the tension roller.

Electromagnetic induction heating type fixing device and method

The induction-heating apparatus of this invention contains a conductive member, a power source, and a first and a second induction coil connected to the power source and adapted for causing the conductive member to generate an induced current, the first and the second induction coil being parallelly connected. The induction coil is formed by winding a copper wire round a core in such a manner that the numbers of turns of the copper wire gradually decrease from the lowermost layer approximating most closely to the core to the upper layers. This heating apparatus has the thickness of the induction coil in the range of 0.2-0.8 mm. The gap between the induction coil and the conductive member is in the range of 0.5-4.0 mm. This heating apparatus has the induction coil thrust out of the conductive member. The induction coil is formed of a Litz wire.

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Toyohashi, Japan

Satoru Yoneda