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:
Jun. 23, 2009
Filed:
Jul. 10, 2007
Kei Yasutomi, Yokohama, JP;
Hitoshi Maruyama, Tokyo, JP;
Reki Nakamura, Sagamihara, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus is disclosed, including a fixing device and a sheet storing member. The fixing device performs both tentative fixing and regular fixing. In at least one embodiment, the fixing device performs tentative fixing for tentatively fixing a toner image on a recording sheet. Further, the fixing device performs regular fixing for further fixing the tentatively fixed toner image by contacting a gloss sheet onto the tentatively fixed toner image on the recording sheet. The sheet storing member temporarily stores the recording sheet bearing the tentatively fixed toner image before the recording sheet is sent to the fixing device for the further fixing.