Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Takaho Watanabe

Kazuhiko Kikuchi

Satoshi Kinouchi

Ryota Saeki

Shinji Maruyama

Tokihiko Ise

Hiroshi Ishii

Sasuke Endo

Tadashi Sugiyama

A toner cartridge includes a container for storing toner to be supplied to an image forming apparatus. The container extends in a longitudinal direction and includes two walls at ends thereof in the longitudinal direction. One of the walls has a first outlet. The toner cartridge includes a paddle rotatable between the walls of the container to stir the toner and removable from the container through the first outlet. The toner cartridge includes a first lid for covering the first outlet. The first lid has a first bearing hole through which an end of the paddle is rotatably held.

Toner cartridge with a wall having outlets through which a paddle and an auger are removable

A fixing device fixes a toner image to a medium conveyed in a conveying direction, the toner image formed on the medium, the fixing device including a heating rotating body, a heater, a pressing member, a pressing rotating body, and a lubricant holding member. The heater heats the heating rotating body, which is supported to be rotatable. The pressing member is disposed inside the heating rotating body. The pressing rotating body is pressed against the pressing member through the heating rotating body to form a nip through which the medium passes. The lubricant holding member has an abutting surface that abuts against an inner circumferential surface of the heating rotating body, and the abutting surface includes a first region filled with a first lubricant and a second region filled with a second lubricant.

Fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a first roller; a second roller that forms a nip between the second roller and the first roller and presses a sheet passing through the nip against the first roller; a heater that heats at least one of the first roller and the second roller, a heating range of the heater being greater than a maximum printing width of a predetermined maximum sheet width, and a heat-uniformizing member that distributes heat of the heater along a longitudinal direction thereof, an effective length of the heat-uniformizing member in the longitudinal direction being the same as, or greater than, the predetermined maximum sheet width.

Fixing apparatus for fixing toner onto a sheet

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a fixing member, a pressurizing member, a movable member, and a controller. The fixing member heats a sheet. The pressurizing member has first heat capacity and faces the fixing member. The movable member is provided to be movable between a contact position to contact with the pressurizing member and a separation position to be separated from the pressurizing member, and has second heat capacity smaller than the first heat capacity. The controller is configured to move the movable member to one of the contact position and the separation position based on a change of a control temperature of the fixing member or the pressurizing member.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus comprises a transfer section, a fixing section, and a controller. The transfer section includes a transfer rotating body for conveying a sheet at a first linear velocity, and transfers a toner image onto the sheet. The fixing section forms a nip sandwiching the sheet with a first rotating body and a second rotating body, and a heating section for heating the sheet onto which the toner image is transferred. The controller executes a sheet acceleration and deceleration control for setting a linear velocity of the first rotating body to a second linear velocity from the first linear velocity before the tip of the sheet reaches the nip, and decelerating the linear velocity of the first rotating body from the second linear velocity to the first linear velocity at the time the tip of the sheet reaches a predetermined range in a sheet conveyance path.

Image forming apparatus

In accordance with one embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a transfer device configured to transfer an image onto a conveyed recording medium (sheet); a fixer configured to heat, press and convey the sheet to fix the transferred image on the sheet; a sensor configured to detect the bending amount of the sheet between the transfer device and the fixer; and a control section configured to control at least one of the transfer device and the fixer so that the recording medium between the transfer device and the fixer is conveyed in a bent state and the bending amount of the sheet is reduced if the bending amount of the sheet exceeds a preset one according to the detection result of the sensor.

Image forming apparatus and conveyance speed control method of recording medium in image forming apparatus

In accordance with one embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a fixing section, a pressing section, a plurality of nips, a plurality of conveyance paths, a switch section and a control section. The fixing section is heated through a heat source. The pressing section is pressed against the fixing section to form a nip. The plurality of nips are formed by at least one fixing section and at least one pressing section. The plurality of conveyance paths pass through at least one of the plurality of nips. The switch section switches the plurality of conveyance paths. The control section controls the switch section.

In accordance with one embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises an image forming section configured to form a toner image on a printing recording medium, a fixing section configured to heat the printing recording medium printed with the toner image at a fixing temperature, a temperature control section configured to control the fixing section to a temperature above a color erasing temperature, a conveyance section configured to convey the printing recording medium or a color erasing recording medium to the fixing section, and a speed control section configured to control, according to a setting temperature of the fixing section, a speed ratio of a traveling speed of the fixing section to a conveyance speed of the conveyance section.

A fixing apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a first roller; a second roller that forms a nip between the second roller and the first roller and pressurizes a sheet passing through the nip against the first roller; a third roller that is disposed in parallel with the first and second rollers; a fixing belt that is stretched over the first and third rollers; a heater that uniformly heats the fixing belt in a direction of a width of the fixing belt; and a heat-uniformizing member that is a shaft-shaped heat-uniformizing member embedded in the third roller. An effective length in a longitudinal axial direction of the heat-uniformizing member is set to be the same or greater than a width of a predetermined maximum sheet so as to uniformly distribute heat of the fixing belt which is in contact with the third roller in the longitudinal axial direction.

In a cooling mechanism for a fixing device according to an embodiment of the invention, a duct that flows outer air taken in by a fan is attached firmly to a slit formed between a bent coil part at an end part of a coil and a magnetic core in an induction heating device. The bent coil part is directly cooled without exerting influence of outer air on a heat roller, and temperature rise in the bent coil part is securely prevented.

Growing community of inventors

Mishima Shizuoka, Japan

Takaho Watanabe