Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus

A fixing apparatus which fixes a toner image on a recording material, the fixing apparatus comprising:

• an endless fixing belt;
• a pad member having (i) a receiving surface facing an inner circumferential surface of the fixing belt, and (ii) a supported surface located opposite to the receiving surface;
• a pressing rotator disposed to face an outer circumferential surface of the fixing belt, and forming a nip portion between the pressing rotator and the outer circumferential surface of the fixing belt, the recording material being transported through the nip portion;
• a supporting member supporting the pad member;
• and
• a heating source to heat the fixing belt,
• wherein the pressing rotator is rotationally driven, in a state of pressing the fixing belt in a pressing direction toward the receiving surface, to cause the fixing belt to rotate following rotation of the pressing rotator and to slide on the receiving surface,
• wherein the supporting member includes:
• a base having a flat plate shape, disposed in a space inside the fixing belt, and abutting on the supported surface, and
• an erected wall having a flat plate shape and erected from the base in a direction away from a position of the pressing rotator, the erected wall partitioning the space inside the fixing belt into an upstream space located upstream in a recording-material transport direction in which the recording material is transported, and a downstream space located downstream in the recording-material transport direction,
• wherein the erected wall is disposed upstream or downstream in the recording-material transport direction, from an intermediate position of the nip portion in the recording-material transport direction,
• wherein the heating source is disposed in a larger one of the upstream space and the downstream space, and
• wherein the heating source is disposed between opposite ends of the pad member in the recording-material transport direction, as seen in the pressing direction.