Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yasuhiro Kohira

Setsuo Soga

Jun Okamoto

Masami Tomita

Naoki Iwaya

Akira Shinshi

Masahiko Satoh

Takahiro Yoshikawa

Toshiharu Hachisuka

Hideo Yu

Ken Omura

Toshiya Yabei

Kenji Ishii

Kenichi Hasegawa

Satoshi Ueno

Yasutada Tsukioka

Akiyasu Amita

Keizo Yasuda

Masaya Shitami

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming mechanism to form a toner image on a recording medium according to image data and a fixing mechanism to fix the toner image on the recording medium. The fixing mechanism includes a fixing member and an external heater. The fixing member applies heat to the recording medium having the toner image. The external heater heats the fixing member and is formed in a shape corresponding to a surface of the fixing member. The external heater is disposed as if to engage and yet be spaced apart from the fixing member by a distance which is variable according to movement of the external heater.

Image forming apparatus, fixing unit, and image forming method with improved heating mechanism

A belt fixing unit, an image forming apparatus, and a toner material are disclosed capable of obviating undesirable fixing belt deformation and low image quality. The belt fixing unit includes a fixing roller, a heating roller, a fixing belt, and a pressing roller in contact with the fixing roller to form a fixing nip having the fixing belt intervening there between, the fixing belt including at least a base member formed of a heat-resisting resin having a thickness of 90 &#x3bc;m or smaller and acted upon by a tensile force of 0.49 N/mm or less. The toner is a low-melting point toner formed by subjecting a toner preparatory solution containing at least a prepolymer having a functional group containing a nitrogen atom, a polyester, a colorant and a releasing agent dispersed in an organic solvent to extension and/or crosslinking reactions in an aqueous medium.

Fixing unit with heat-resisting resin base member and image forming toner for use in the fixing unit

Belt fixing unit with heat-resisting resin base member and image forming toner for use in the fixing unit

An image forming apparatus of the type transferring a toner image from a photoconductive element to a recording medium by way of an intermediate transfer belt is disclosed. Toner images of different colors are sequentially transferred from the photoconductive element to the intermediate transfer belt one above the other, forming a full-color image. When the full-color image is to be transferred from the intermediate transfer belt to a paper or similar recording medium, a secondary transfer belt is brought into contact with the portion of the intermediate transfer belt contacting a secondary transfer roller. As a result, the secondary transfer belt deforms complementarily to the shape of the secondary transfer roller, forming a nip between it and the intermediate transfer belt. In this condition, the secondary transfer belt contacts the intermediate transfer belt evenly and prevents an excessive pressure from acting locally on the toner image existing on the intermediate transfer belt.

Image forming apparatus

A fixing apparatus for fixing image on a recording sheet or film comprises a fixing roller having a surface comprising a fluororesin and contacting with a toner, a heating means for heating said fixing roller, a rotating pressing roller urged against said fixing roller, and means for applying a releasing agent to the surface of said fixing roller, characterized in that said releasing agent comprises a fluorosilicone represented by the following formula (I): ##STR1## wherein a, b, c, d, e and f independently denote an integer of 0 to 3, l and m are an integer of 0 to 3 with a proviso that 1.ltoreq.1+m.ltoreq.6, and n is an integer of 1 or more.

Fixing apparatus

A fixing apparatus includes a fixing roller for fixing a toner on a transferring material and a pressing roller for coming into contact with and pressing against a fixing roller. The apparatus further includes a cleaning roller which comes into contact with and cleans the fixing roller as well as a blade which scratches off toner and foreign particles transferred to the cleaning roller from the fixing roller. In the apparatus of the present invention, a coated layer including polyimide and polytetrafluorethylene is disposed on the surface of the cleaning roller.

Fixing apparatus comprising a cleaning roller having a coated layer of

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Tokyo, Japan

Yasuhiro Kohira