The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 24, 2022
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2020
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Nagoya, JP;
Fumitake Tajiri, Nagoya, JP;
Yusuke Mizuno, Nagoya, JP;
BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Nagoya, JP;
Abstract
In an image-forming apparatus, a fixing device includes first and second fixing members; and a pressure modifying mechanism. The first and second fixing members form a nip. The pressure modifying mechanism modifies a nip pressure at the nip to one of a first nip pressure and a second nip pressure smaller than the first nip pressure. A controller performs: a converting process to convert print data into raster image data; an image-forming process to form a developer image on a sheet using the raster image data; and a fixing process to fix the developer image to the sheet with the fixing device at the first nip pressure. When a second converting process is not completed before a prescribed time following completion of a first fixing process has elapsed, the controller further performs a nip pressure reducing process to modify the nip pressure from the first to the second nip pressure.