Minolta Company, Ltd.

Takashi Yamada

Satoru Yoneda

Mitsuru Isogai

Tetsuya Yamada

Hideji Hayashi

Toshio Sakata

Yoshifumi Kosagi

Noboru Yonekawa

Yuusuke Morigami

Eiji Okabayashi

Tetsuro Ito

Taizou Oonishi

Ryo Kawamura

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 for controlling an oil transfer apparatus to maintain a releasing agent holding layer such that it is not always saturated with the releasing agent. This makes it a compact, cost-effective unit with a long service life and provides a uniform, stable oil coating that eliminates image noise problems. In order to use a constant and minimum necessary amount of releasing agent, a releasing agent supply nozzle is incorporated with multiple protrusive or retrusive droplet growth assisting members at or near multiple releasing agent discharge ports. The supply nozzle used for supplying the oil has multiple discharge holes having approximately equal opening cross-sectional areas and an equalizing member which equalizes the amount of oil discharged from each discharge hole. The outer diameter D1 of the oil supply roller, the outer diameter D2 of the metal core and the distance P of adjacent through-holes formed on the periphery of the metal core satisfy a relation, 0.6&lt;D1.multidot.(D1-D2)/(D2.multidot.P)&lt;6. A quantifying apparatus is provided to equalize the amount of oil transferred by the oil pump when it is intermittently transferred. The quantifying apparatus contributes in achieving a constant amount of releasing agent coating. A releasing agent leakage prevention member is provided to prevent unnecessary oil leakage from the releasing agent supply nozzle and rollers. A specific correlation is established between the centerline average roughness of the oil supply roller surface and the amount of the releasing agent supply to the fixing roller by the oil supply roller. This makes it possible to achieve a uniform coating with excellent releasing capability and prevents adhesion of add particles.

Fixing apparatus including apparatus for controlling the supply of

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 fixing device for an image forming apparatus having low heat losses. The fixing device consists of a fixing roller and a compression roller for abutting upon it under pressure. The fixing roller and compression roller have a release layer each formed on the surface of a core metal formed of an aluminum hollow cylinder. The release layer on the surface of the fixing roller is formed of a composite material of metallic powder of good thermal conductive material such as nickel, and fluorine resin such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyphenylene alkoxyether (PFA), and has spectral emissivity at a wavelength of 5 to 10 .mu.m being within a range of 0.1 to 0.65. The compression roller is provided with a release layer formed of fluorine resin like the conventional one, or the same material as the release layer on the surface of the aforesaid fixing roller, having lower spectral emissivity.

Fixing device for image forming apparatus

A fusing device has a pair of fusing rollers of which at least one is covered by an elastically deformable layer of heat resistant material with the fusing rollers being brought into contact with each other; a recording material guide member and a pre-heating member having a plane-shaped heating surface opposite to the recording material guide member on an upstream side recording material which maintains a toner image away of a nip portion where the fusing roller make contact. While the recording material which maintains the toner image is guided on said recording material guide member, the toner image is heated by means of the pre-heating member and passed through the nip portion. The fusing device is set to satisfy the relationship of 0&lt;F&lt;0.5.theta..sup.2 +0.05.theta. for an angle .theta.(.degree.) formed by a straight line connecting the nip portion with the edge of the recording material insertion side of the pre-heating member in the vertical plane on the rotating axis of the pair of fusing rollers and a straight line connecting the nip portion with the edge of the recording material insertion side of the recording material guide member as well as for a combined force F (kg).

Fusing device, a heating device, and a method for fusing a toner image

A fusing belt type heat fusing device has a rotating fusing roller, a driven heating roller, an endless fusing belt wrapped and stretched around the two rollers, a pressure roller that applies pressure to the fusing roller through the fusing belt, and a separation agent application and tension transmission element that applies an offset suppression separation agent to the fusing belt in addition to transmitting tension to the fusing belt. The separation agent application and tension transmission element is installed so as to make contact with the fusing belt at an upstream side of the heating roller in the rotation direction of the fusing belt between the fusing roller and the heating roller and at a position closer to the heating roller than a center position between the fusing roller and the heating roller.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi-Ken, Japan

Takashi Yamada