Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Yasunari Kobaru

Tomoyuki Makihira

Takayasu Yuminamochi

Takashi Narahara

Hiroaki Sakai

Yasuo Yoda

Akira Kato

Takahiro Uchiyama

Masao Ando

Atsushi Iwasaki

Hiroshi Mano

Akira Kuroda

Hiroshi Kataoka

Takaaki Tsuruya

Minoru Hayasaki

Masaharu Ohkubo

Aoji Isono

Michio Uchida

Atsuyoshi Abe

Yuki Nishizawa

Tomohiro Nakamori

Eiji Uekawa

Tetsuya Sano

Hiroto Hasegawa

Tatsuaki Orihara

Kazuaki Ono

Takeshi Kawamura

Masaru Tsukada

Hiroshi Takami

Hidetoshi Hanamoto

Norio Hashimoto

Naoto Tsuchihashi

Minoru Matsuguma

Yoshiki Kudo

Takahiro Azeta

Hiroki Eguchi

Masatake Usui

Mitsuhiro Ito

A fixing device to fix an image formed on a recording material to the recording material includes a cylindrical belt, a nip portion forming member contacting the belt, a backup member forming a nip portion with the nip portion forming member, a halogen heater including a bulb filled with gas and having a sealing portion sealing the bulb, and a reflection member that is long in a longitudinal direction of the halogen heater, wherein an image formed on the recording material is fixed to the recording material at the nip portion, and wherein the reflection member has a length greater than a length of a light emission area of the halogen heater, and the nip portion forming member has a length greater than the length of the reflection member.

Fixing device for image forming on a medium and affixing thereon

A cylindrical fixing member for use with a fixing device includes a heat generating layer and an electrode layer contacting the heat generating layer. The electrode layer is smaller in volume resistance value than the heat generating layer. The electrode layer is formed in a helical shape so that a helical axis thereof extends in a direction along a generatrix direction of the fixing member. One end and the other end of the electrode layer are electrically open.

Cylindrical fixing member, fixing device and image forming apparatus

A fixing apparatus that fixes an image onto a recording material includes: a belt, a nip plate contacting an inner surface of the belt, a roller configured to form a nip portion with the nip plate, a supporting member supporting the nip plate, the supporting member having a cross section in a shape of U, and supporting, with two legs, a surface of the nip plate opposite to a surface contacting the belt, and a guide member disposed on an upstream side of the nip plate and including a guide portion, wherein the recording material on which the image is formed is heated while being conveyed through the nip portion, and the image is fixed onto the recording material, and the guide member is supported by a first surface and a second surface of an upstream side leg among the two legs of the supporting member.

Image heating apparatus to mount on an image forming apparatus for fixing an image

A fixing device includes a cylindrical belt, a nip portion forming member contacting the belt, a halogen heater including a bulb filled with gas and having a sealing portion sealing the bulb, a filament inside the bulb and having a light emission portion, an external lead extending to outside the halogen heater, and a metal body arranged in the sealing portion and electrically connected the filament and the external lead, and a reflection member reflecting the radiation light of the halogen heater toward the nip portion forming member, the reflection member being long in a longitudinal direction of the halogen heater, wherein a longitudinal end of the reflection member is configured to lie in an area between an end of a light emission area constituted by the light emission portion of the halogen heater and the metal body in the longitudinal direction of the halogen heater.

Fixing device

A fixing apparatus that fixes an image onto a recording material includes: a belt; a nip plate contacting an inner surface of the belt; a roller configured to form a nip portion with the nip plate; a supporting member supporting the nip plate, the supporting member having a cross section in a shape of U, and supporting, with two legs, a surface of the nip plate opposite to a surface contacting the belt; and a guide member disposed on an upstream side of the nip plate and including a guide portion, wherein the recording material on which the image is formed is heated while being conveyed through the nip portion, and the image is fixed onto the recording material, and the guide member is supported by a first surface and a second surface of an upstream side leg among the two legs of the supporting member.

Image heating apparatus including a belt guide member

An image forming apparatus includes a toner carrying member for carrying a toner; an image carrying member on which a toner image is formed with the toner; and a plurality of divided electrode portions provided at a position in which the electrode portions oppose the toner carrying member via the image carrying member interposed therebetween. The electrode portions are supplied with a voltage on the basis of image information to move the toner between the toner carrying member and the image carrying member thereby to form the toner image. The electrode portions includes a first electrode portion for forming an image portion and a second electrode portion, adjacent to the first electrode portion, for forming a non-image portion. The image forming apparatus further includes a controller for variably controlling at least one of potential differences |Vp&#x2212;Vt| and |Vt&#x2212;V0| depending on the image information, where a potential of the toner carrying member is Vt, a potential of the first electrode portion is Vp and a potential of the second electrode portion is V0.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a toner carrying roller for carrying a toner, an image carrying member, contacting the toner on the toner carrying roller, on which a toner image is to be formed with the toner, and an electrode portion provided at an opposing position in which the electrode portion opposes the toner carrying roller via the image carrying member interposed therebetween. The toner image is formed on the image carrying member by changing a value of a voltage, on the basis of image information, applied to the electrode portion, and the toner carried on the toner carrying roller and the image carrying member contact each other in a toner contact area. The toner is moved between the toner carrying roller and the image carrying member in a toner movement area by changing the value of the voltage applied to the electrode portion, and the toner movement area is present downstream of the toner contact area with respect to a movement direction of the image carrying member.

Image forming apparatus having toner density control

The image forming apparatus includes an image formation unit for forming a toner image on a recording material to be carried by the recording material; a fixing apparatus having a heat-fixing rotation member and a pressure member with an elastic layer which rotate while pressed against each other, the heat-fixing rotor providing heat for heat-fixing treatment of the toner image formed on the recording material as the recording material is introduced into a press-fit nip portion of the rotors and held and transported between the rotors; and temperature adjusting means for adjusting a temperature of the pressure rotor by heating the pressure rotor at least during non-printing time. Thus, the image forming apparatus can achieve, even when the pressure rotor is heated, the best balance between the fixing performance and service life of the pressure rotor under actual use conditions.

Image forming apparatus with a plurality of selectable modes to maintain temperature

The image heating apparatus for heating an image formed on a recording material includes a heater having a substrate and first and second heat generating resistors, most of the region of said first heat generating resistor having smaller resistance value per unit length toward an end in the longitudinal direction of said substrate, and most of the region of said second heat generating resistor having larger resistance value per unit length toward the end part; wherein a safety element can control electrical power supply to said first heat generating resistor and electrical power supply to said second heat generating resistor individually, and operates in response to the heat of said heater to cut off electrical power supply to said first and second heat generating resistors; and wherein only said second heat generating resistor in said first and second heat generating resistors has a high resistance part high resistance part corresponding to said safety element in a part in the longitudinal direction thereof; and consequently, this can provide an image heating apparatus that can cut off electrical power supply quickly when a heater has run away and to provide a heater to be used in this apparatus.

Image heating apparatus and heater used therefor

A recording material separating apparatus has a rotary member contacting with a recording material, a separating member for contacting with the rotary member and separating the recording material from the rotary member, and a guide member for guiding that surface of the recording material separated from the rotary member which is adjacent to the rotary member. The guide member is provided for retraction from a guide position by the pressure of the recording material when jammed, and the separating member is retracted from a separating position in operative association with the retracting action of the guide member.

Recording material separating apparatus of which separating member is retractable in operative association with guide

In an oilless fixing apparatus of an image heating apparatus, a surface of a fixing roller or a pressure roller tends to be abraded by a separating claw if the contact pressure thereof is high, whereby the service life of the fixing roller or the pressure roller is often shortened. If the radius of curvature of the tip of the separating claw is reduced, there may be applied an excessively large force on the tip of the separating claw and the fixing roller or the pressure roller may be fatally damaged.

Image fixing apparatus having separating claw

In a conventional type of an image forming apparatus, when the top end of the paper whose charge is eliminated is brought into contact with the roller, or when the potential of the pressure roller is fluctuated by a separating discharge of the paper rear end, black spots phenomenon sometimes occurs at a portion in which the potential of the roller was lowered. It is provided, an image forming apparatus for preventing black spots of toner.

Image forming apparatus with second power source for charge elimination means

A fixing apparatus in which an unfixed image is fixed on a recording medium for bearing the unfixed image by pinching and conveying the recording medium by using a fixing body and a pressure body, wherein in the fixing apparatus in which the pressure body has a core metal, an elastic body layer for covering an outer periphery of the core metal, and a mold releasing layer for covering an outer periphery of a elastic body layer, the controller sets electric energy per predetermined time supplied from the power supply to the pressure body heater to a predetermined quantity or a lower quantity in such a manner that a temperature of the core metal of the pressure body is maintained at a predetermined temperature or a lower temperature.

Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus having the fixing apparatus

A sheet attachment detecting apparatus includes a rotary member which is rotatable for conveying a sheet and whose surface is electrically conductive, an electrically conductive member which can be abutted on and separated from the surface of the rotary member, and an attachment detector which applies a power to the rotary member and the electrically conductive member for detecting the attachment of the sheet around the rotary member.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Yasunari Kobaru