Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.

Yuto Masaoka

Akihiro Kondo

Ryohei Tokunaga

Yuta Kitabayashi

Hiroki Kawasaki

Shunsaku Fujii

Rina Kikugawa

Tomohiro Watatani

In a fixing device, a heater heats an endless rotatable fixing belt. A retention member includes a groove for retaining a lubricant and retains the heater such that a surface on a front side comes into contact with an inner circumferential surface of the fixing belt via the lubricant. A pressure member is pressed against the heater while the fixing belt is interposed therebetween and forms, with the fixing belt, a pressure region for heating and pressurizing a paper sheet onto which a toner image has been transferred. A guide guides the paper sheet to the pressure region. The guide causes the paper sheet to come into contact with the fixing belt at a position more on a downstream side of a rotation direction of the fixing belt than the groove, to guide the paper sheet to the pressure region.

Fixing device for image forming apparatus with retention member having groove for retaining lubricant

A fixing device includes a fixing belt formed in a cylindrical shape, with a lubricant applied to an inner circumferential surface, and set such that a circumferential surface rotates in a circumferential direction, a heater retention member that retains the heater, inside of the fixing belt, and a pressure member that defines a nip region, through which a recording medium is transported in a nipped state, between the pressure member and a portion of the fixing belt heated from inside by the heater, and drives the fixing belt to rotate. The heater retention member includes a first opposing face extending in a rotation axis direction of the fixing belt, and opposed to the inner circumferential surface of the fixing belt. The first opposing face includes slits aligned in the rotation axis direction of the fixing belt, and a lubricant is applied in advance inside the slits.

Fixing device including heater retention member, having slits formed on face opposing inner circumferential surface of fixing belt, and image forming apparatus

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Osaka, Japan

Yuto Masaoka