Fuser including rotation body and endless belt
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorAkihiro Kobayashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuser includes: a heater; a rotation body which is heated by the heater; an endless belt; an elastic pad which is in contact with an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt to form a nip portion with the endless belt intervening between the elastic pad and the rotation body; and a wall surrounded by the endless belt and disposed upstream of the elastic pad in a moving direction of the endless belt at the nip portion. The wall has a facing surface facing the elastic pad in the moving direction. The facing surface includes: contact portions positioned at both ends in a width direction of the endless belt and in contact with the elastic pad; and a center portion positioned between the contact portions in the width direction, at an upstream side of the contact portions in the moving direction.
Claims17
A fuser, comprising:
- a heater;
- a rotation body configured to be heated by the heater;
- an endless belt;
- an elastic pad configured to be in contact with an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt and to form a nip portion with the endless belt intervening between the elastic pad and the rotation body;
- and
- a wall surrounded by the endless belt and disposed upstream of the elastic pad in a moving direction of the endless belt at the nip portion;
- wherein the wall has a facing surface which faces the elastic pad in the moving direction,
- the facing surface includes:
- a first contact portion which is positioned at one end in a width direction and which is in contact with the elastic pad, the width direction being parallel to the endless belt in the nip portion and orthogonal to the moving direction;
- a second contact portion which is positioned at another end in the width direction and which is in contact with the elastic pad;
- and
- a center portion which is positioned between the first contact portion and the second contact portion in the width direction, and upstream of the first contact portion and the second contact portion in the moving direction, and
- the center portion is out of contact with the elastic pad in a state where the nip portion is not formed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.