Minolta Company, Ltd.

Shoukou Gon

Eiichi Sano

Makoto Fujii

Yasuhiro Ohno

Ken Tanino

Masami Miyazaki

Kazuo Mohri

A heat fixing device for heat fixing a toner image to a receiving medium having a pair of fixing belts in an endless form; a pair of rotary members individually disposed on a respective inside circumference of the fixing belts and pressed against each other via the fixing belts; a pair of fixing members individually disposed on the respective inside circumference of the fixing belts and pressed against each other via the fixing belts; and a heating element for heating at least one of the fixing belts, wherein the fixing belts contact the rotary members and the fixing members only at a respective portion thereof via which the respective pair of rotary members and fixing members are pressed against each other.

Heat fixing device and image forming apparatus

In image forming apparatus pertaining to the present invention, after a malfunction is detected, the control of the image forming apparatus is carried out while isolating the malfunctioning device from said control, so that the image forming operation can be performed. It is determined whether a condition governing continued image forming exists during said isolating control. If said certain condition does not exist, the image forming operation is allowed to continue. Where said certain condition does exist, the image forming operation is suspended and subsequent image forming operations are prohibited, or a maintenance call request is displayed.

Image forming apparatus that can operate during malfunction

Growing community of inventors

Takarazuka, Japan

Shoukou Gon