Fixing device and image forming apparatus
AssigneeKYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
InventorKanako Morimoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fixing device includes a fixing belt, a flat heater, a holder and a pressing roller. The fixing belt is rotatable and cylindrical. The flat heater has a holding body and a heating resistor. The holder is configured to hold the flat heater such that a surface in which the heating resistor is embedded comes into contact with an inner circumferential face of the fixing belt via a lubricant. Of a contact area of the flat heater with the inner circumferential face of the fixing belt, in an area outside longitudinal end portion of the holding body, a groove is formed such that the lubricant flows to a center side of the holding body toward a downstream side in a rotational direction of the fixing belt.
Claims9
A fixing device comprising:
- a rotatable cylindrical fixing belt;
- a flat heater having a holding body and a heating resistor, the holding body having a longitudinal length longer than a longitudinal length of the fixing belt, the heating resistor having a longitudinal length shorter than the longitudinal length of the fixing belt and being embedded in the holding body such that both longitudinal end portions of the heating resistor are positioned inside longitudinal end portions of the holding body;
- a holder configured to hold the flat heater such that a surface in which the heating resistor is embedded comes into contact with an inner circumferential face of the fixing belt via a lubricant, the longitudinal end portions of the holding body are positioned outside the longitudinal end portions of the fixing belt and the longitudinal end portions of the heating resistor are positioned inside the longitudinal end portions of the fixing belt;
- and
- a pressing roller configured to hold the fixing belt between the pressing roller and the flat heater to form a pressing area between the pressing roller and the fixing belt, a sheet being conveyed through the pressing area and the fixing belt being driven by the pressing roller to be rotated,
- wherein of a contact area of the flat heater with the inner circumferential face of the fixing belt, in an area outside the longitudinal end portion of the heating resistor, a groove is formed such that the lubricant flows to a center side of the holding body toward a downstream side in a rotational direction of the fixing belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.