Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

Taizou Oonishi

Kazunori Nishinoue

Hiroshi Matsumoto

Makoto Fujii

Miho Yamano

Hiroshi Ikeda

Naoki Yamamoto

Norikazu Okabe

Masashi Saito

Toru Hayase

Satoru Yoneda

Tsutomu Sakamaki

Toru Komatsu

Yu Harashima

An image forming apparatus including: an image former that forms an image on a recording material; includes a fixer that has a first fixing member having an elastic layer, a second fixing member that forms a fixing nip with the first fixing member, and an external heater that heats the first fixing member from outside, and fixes the image on the recording material by heating and pressing the conveyed recording material at the fixing nip; and a hardware processor that executes a thermal expansion mode, in which in the thermal expansion mode, the hardware processor causes the external heater to heat the first fixing member to a temperature higher than a temperature during normal printing.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes an image fixing unit to pass a sheet carrying an unfixed toner image on a first side. The image fixing unit includes: a first fixing section adjacent to the first side of the sheet; a first heating section to heat the first fixing section; a second fixing section adjacent to a second side opposite to the first side of the sheet; and a second heating section to heat the second fixing section. The image forming apparatus further includes: sheet feeding trays holding sheets; a storage unit storing fixing temperatures of the fixing sections preset for each type of the sheets in the sheet feeding trays; and a controller to select standby temperatures from the fixing temperatures, based on temperature profiles of the fixing sections, and to instruct the heating sections to respectively maintain the fixing sections at the selected standby temperatures during a standby mode.

Image forming apparatus for starting image formation with a reduced waiting time

An image forming apparatus includes: a first conveyance section disposed on an upstream side of the image formation position in a sheet conveyance direction of the long sheet, and configured to convey the long sheet to the image formation position; a second conveyance section disposed on a downstream side of the image formation position in the sheet conveyance direction, and configured to convey the long sheet on which the toner image is formed; a displacement detection section configured to detect displacement of the long sheet in a sheet width direction; and a control section configured to move the first conveyance section in the sheet width direction to orient the long sheet in the sheet width direction, and move the second conveyance section in a direction identical to a direction along which the first conveyance section is moved based on a detection result of the displacement detection section.

Image forming apparatus with a conveyance section movable in a width direction

An image forming apparatus has an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet, a fixing unit that performs fixing of the sheet on which the image is formed, a first conveyance route that has a reverse conveyance route and a second conveyance route that does not pass the reverse conveyance route, and a control unit that performs first control for conveying a previously printed sheet which is printed previously via the first conveyance route and second control for conveying a subsequently printed sheet which is printed subsequently via the second conveyance route, and exerts control to feed the previously printed sheet and the subsequently printed sheet in an overlapped manner after the first conveyance route and the second conveyance route merge together.

Image forming apparatus, image forming system and image forming method

an image forming apparatus including; a non-inversion conveyance unit that conveys a sheet to a downstream without inverting through the image forming unit; an inversion conveyance unit that inverts the sheet with printing on one side and that conveys the sheet to an upstream; a first sheet inversion unit that is arranged on the inversion conveyance unit and inverts the front and back of the sheet conveyed by the inversion conveyance unit; a control unit that controls the image forming unit and the conveyance unit, wherein the control unit includes a single-sided print mode and a double-sided print mode, and at a breakpoint of jobs, the control unit discharges the sheet so as to provide charge polarity that does not electrostatically attract a sheet discharged just before the breakpoint and a sheet discharged just after the breakpoint at least in the double-sided print mode.

Image forming apparatus, image forming system, and image forming method

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing side member disposed at a position on a fixing surface side of a sheet on which a toner image is formed; a back side supporting member that forms a fixing nip for conveying the sheet in a tightly sandwiching manner when the back side supporting member is in pressure contact with the fixing side member; and a voltage applying section that applies to both sides of the sheet passed through the fixing nip voltages opposite in polarity to surface potentials of the both sides.

Image forming apparatus and fixing device

An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing unit that heats and presses a recording sheet having a toner image formed thereon, by means of a fixing nip portion to thereby fix the toner image to the recording sheet; a translation section that translates the fixing unit in a direction that is orthogonal to a conveying direction of the recording sheet; and a controlling section that controls the translation section so that the fixing unit is translated by a translation amount that is one-half of a value obtained by subtracting an image width of the toner image from a sheet width of the recording sheet.

Image forming apparatus and translation control method

An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing member; a moving section that moves the fixing member in a sheet width direction; a temperature detection section disposed at a position corresponding to an end portion of the fixing member, the temperature detection section moving together with the fixing member to detect a temperature of the end portion; and a control section that performs a first movement control and a second movement control on the basis of a result of a detection by the temperature detection section, the first movement control being intended to move the fixing member in the sheet width direction in a reciprocating manner with a predetermined cycle, the second movement control being intended to move the fixing member in the sheet width direction so that the temperature of the fixing member falls within a predetermined temperature range.

Image forming apparatus and method of forming an image

Fixing belt is brought into pressure-contact with the surface of fixing roller such that fixing belt rotates according to rotation of fixing roller, thereby forming, between fixing belt and fixing roller, fixing nip portion through which recording sheets pass. A pressing area of an opposing surface of pressing member contacting the surface of fixing roller via fixing belt is smaller in each end portion of the opposing surface in the axis direction of fixing roller than in a central portion of the opposing surface in the axis direction of fixing roller. This makes speed of conveying recording sheets faster in each edge portion in the width direction perpendicular to a recording sheet conveyance direction than in a central portion in the width direction. Thus, creases of recording sheets can be prevented while a recording sheet passes through fixing nip portion between fixing roller and fixing belt mutually brought into pressure-contact.

Fixing device and image formation apparatus

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 fixing device has a presser member, a slide member and a pressure belt. Both ends of the presser member are positioned outside both ends of the slide member. Both ends of the slide member are positioned outside both ends of the pressure belt. Thereby, the slide member and the pressure belt are improved in service life, so that the fixing device as a whole is improved in service life.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A belt-type fixing device is provided that achieves reduction in time required between start of rotation of a fixing belt upon reception of print starting signal in printing-standby status and recovery of a specified fixation temperature in a fixing nip. The belt-type fixing device of the invention has an endless-sheet-like fixing belt to be heated, a nip forming member positioned inside the fixing belt, a rotatable pressurizing roller which is in pressure contact with the nip forming member with the fixing belt interposed between and in which part in contact with the fixing belt forms a fixing nip, and a heater lamp for heating the fixing belt which lamp is provided in a position inside the fixing belt and away from the fixing nip, and the fixing nip is in a position higher than the heater lamp.

Belt-type fixing device

A belt-type fixing device is provided by which driving torque for a fixing belt can be reduced. The belt-type fixing device has the fixing belt wound around a heating roller and around a nip forming member, and has a pressurizing roller that is in pressure contact with the nip forming member with the fixing belt interposed between. 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 a fixing nip is made generally flat with respect to a paper feeding direction. By rotational drive of the pressurizing roller, the fixing belt is rotated while being slid on the nip forming member. Contact area between the fixing belt and the nip forming member outside the fixing nip is smaller on nip entrance side than on nip exit side.

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Tokyo, Japan

Taizou Oonishi