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:
Sep. 22, 2009
Filed:
Mar. 18, 2005
Applicant:
Fumihito Masubuchi, Kanagawa, JP;
Inventor:
Fumihito Masubuchi, Kanagawa, JP;
Assignee:
Ricoh Company, Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03G 15/20 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
In an image forming apparatus, a recording medium with a toner image is heated in a heat fusion region to fix the toner image on the recording medium. The image forming apparatus includes a heat pump. The heat pump includes a heat absorbing unit that absorbs heat from the recording medium and/or the toner image in a region that is different from the heat fusion region; and a heat radiating unit that release the heat, which is absorbed by the heat absorbing unit, to heat a recording medium with a toner image in the heat fusion region. Thus, the heat can be reused.