Minolta Company, Ltd.

Toyama Machineries Co., Ltd.

Toshio Sakata

Yoshifumi Kosagi

Satoru Yoneda

Hideji Hayashi

Takashi Yamada

Yuusuke Morigami

Eiji Okabayashi

Tomonobu Tamura

Tetsuya Yamada

Masayoshi Kuroda

Taiichi Oominami

Taizou Oonishi

Masami Nakane

Kazuhiko Nakatsuka

Shigeo Honma

Hiroyasu Iwase

Toshio Toyama

Naoki Mizuno

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 heating device comprises an endless rotary member, a resistance heating member, a current receiver member provided at the endless rotary member and a current supply member being in contact with the current receiver member. In a form, the current supply member is made of a sintered material containing copper and carbon, and a content of the copper in the sintered material is in a range from 55% to 80% by weight. In another form, a contact surface of the current receiver member is formed of a material harder than the current supply member. The contact surface of the current receiver member and the contact surface of the current supply member have surface roughnesses satisfying a relationship of (surface roughness of the current receiver member).ltoreq.(surface roughness of the current supply member). The surface roughness Ra of the current receiver member is in a range from 0.3 .mu.m to 5.5 .mu.m. The surface roughness Ra of the current supply member is equal to or smaller than 5.5 .mu.m.

Heating device

A heating device comprises an endless rotary member having a peripheral surface to be moved rotatively, a resistance heating member arranged at the peripheral surface of the rotary member and generating a heat when supplied with an electric current, a current receiver member arranged in a space inside the rotary member and electrically connected to the resistance heating member, and a current supply member being in contact with the current receiver member and to be electrically connected to a power source. A heating rotary member for the heating device comprising the endless rotary member, the resistance heating member, and the current receiver member.

Heating device and heating rotary member

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 temperature detecting device in which a sensor is lightly pressed against a rotating member for temperature detection and kept precisely in a desired position. A swing frame having a free end at its one end facing the rotating member is rotatably mounted on a shaft parallel to a shaft of the rotating member. The sensor is supported by the free end of the swing frame and brought into contact with the rotating member by the resiliency of plate springs provided in the swing frame.

Temperature detecting device for rotating members

A copying machine which has a function to contain sheets, each of which has an image on a first side, in a refeeding unit and refeed the sheets for forming an image on a second side. The refeeding unit has an intermediate tray, a pick-up roller for refeeding the sheets one by one and a containing section for feeding the sheets to the intermediate tray. Each of the sheets is fed into the intermediate tray by a first or a second roller of the containing section. The containing section is movable along a transporting way and set at such a position that the first and the second roller are positioned corresponding to the size of sheets to be contained in the intermediate tray.

Image forming apparatus and method comprising refeeding unit with

A separating pawl is attached to a fixed portion around a rotatable member, and a separating end of the separating pawl extends from a fixed end of the separating pawl onto a circumferential surface of the rotatable member. A portion between the separating end and the fixed end of the separating pawl forms a convex arch in the same direction as that of the rotatable member. A pressing plate is attached to the fixed portion around the rotatable member, and is brought in contact with the convex side of the separating pawl so that the separating end of the separating pawl comes in contact with the rotatable member to press the separating pawl for performing a sheet separating operation.

Sheet separating device

A sheet reversing apparatus which has a take-in path, a reversing path which extends from the take-in path in a substantially same direction, a take-out path which extends from a junction of the take-in path and the reversing path in a substantially perpendicular direction to the extending direction of the reversing path. A sheet is fed from the take-in path to the reversing path, and when the trailing edge of the sheet comes out of the take-in path, the sheet is fed back from the reversing path to the take-out path. In an entrance portion of the reversing path, a first reversing roller which is driven to rotate in a feed-back direction toward the take-in path and a second reversing roller which is capable of coming into contact with and moving away from the first reversing roller are provided. The second reversing roller is away from the first reversing roller until the trailing edge of a sheet comes out of the take-in path, and comes into contact with the first reversing roller after the trailing edge comes out of the take-in path.

Growing community of inventors

Toyohashi, Japan

Toshio Sakata