Image heating device and image forming apparatus

An image heating device comprising:

• a tubular film;
• a heater that is disposed in an inner space of the film;
• a roller that comes into contact with an outer surface of the film and forms a nip between the roller and the film;
• a film guide that guides an inner surface of the film that is driven by and rotates with rotation of the roller, the film guide being disposed in the inner space of the film over an entire region of the inner space of the film with respect to a longitudinal direction of the film;
• a flange member that guides a region of end of the inner surface of the film in the longitudinal direction of the film;
• and
• a metal stay for pressing the film guide such that the nip is formed,
• wherein the image heating device heats, with heat of the heater, an image formed on a recording material sandwiched and conveyed by the nip through rotation of the roller, and
• wherein when viewed in the longitudinal direction of the film when the film is rotated, a position on a most upstream side of an outer surface of the flange member in a conveyance direction of the recording material in a region where the inner surface of the film comes into contact is regarded as a first position,
• when viewed in the longitudinal direction of the film, a position at which a first virtual line that passes through the first position and is parallel with the nip intersects the outer surface of the flange member facing the inner surface of the film on a side downstream of the nip in the conveyance direction is regarded as a second position,
• when viewed in the longitudinal direction of the film, a position at which the first virtual line intersects an outer surface of the film guide facing the inner surface of the film on a side upstream of the nip in the conveyance direction is regarded as a third position, and
• when viewed in the longitudinal direction of the film, a position at which the first virtual line intersects the outer surface of the film guide on a side downstream of the nip in the conveyance direction is regarded as a fourth position,
• a first distance between a second virtual line perpendicular to a center of the nip in the conveyance direction and the first position is longer than a second distance between the second virtual line and the second position, and a third distance between the second virtual line and the third position is longer than a fourth distance between the second virtual line and the fourth position, and
• a fifth distance in a direction of the second virtual line between a top of the film guide and a top of the metal stay when viewed in the conveyance direction from an upstream side of the conveyance direction is smaller than a sixth distance in the direction of the second virtual line between the top of the film guide and the top of the metal stay when viewed in an opposite direction of the conveyance direction from a downstream side of the conveyance direction.