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. 06, 2007
Filed:
Jul. 22, 2005
Kenji Kuroki, Toride, JP;
Katsuhide Koga, Moriya, JP;
Jun Nakazato, Toride, JP;
Tomoichiro Ohta, Kashiwa, JP;
Yoshitaka Yamazaki, Toride, JP;
Nobuo Sekiguchi, Moriya, JP;
Kenji Kuroki, Toride, JP;
Katsuhide Koga, Moriya, JP;
Jun Nakazato, Toride, JP;
Tomoichiro Ohta, Kashiwa, JP;
Yoshitaka Yamazaki, Toride, JP;
Nobuo Sekiguchi, Moriya, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus has a fixing unit for fixing a toner image formed on a recording material, and a heater, for heating the fixing unit, made of a carbon-based material. In order to detect and expect the life of the heating unit with good accuracy, the image forming apparatus further has a current measuring device for measuring a current passing through the heating unit and a notification device for providing notification of information on a life of the heating unit depending on an output of the current measuring device.