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:
Nov. 12, 2024
Filed:
Jul. 05, 2023
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Kazuhiro Doda, Kanagawa, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit including a tubular film, a pressure roller, and a heater including a heating element. The apparatus further includes a control unit configured to calculate an accumulated electrical energy supplied to a portion of the heating element. The portion of the heating element is located in an area corresponding to a second area of the nip portion. The second area is an area of the nip portion through which the recording material conveyed to the nip portion is not passed. The control unit is configured to determine an operation of heat leveling, which is performed for leveling a heat distribution in the nip portion after the recording material had passed the nip portion, based on the calculated accumulated electrical energy.