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US 2003/0190180 A1Published application
Fixing apparatus equipped with sheet flattener
AssigneeKonica Corporation
InventorsHidetoshi Katayanagi, Hajime Tanaka, Toshiki Hayami
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AssigneeKonica Corporation
InventorsHidetoshi Katayanagi, Hajime Tanaka, Toshiki Hayami
Estimating the term…
A fixing apparatus includes a fixing roller, a fixing belt forming a nip between them, a heat source for heating at least one of the rollers, wherein a recording medium carrying an unfixed toner image passes through the nip to perform fixing operation, and a flattener having a conveyance roller and a pressure contact member which is in pressure contact with the conveyance roller, which is provided downstream in the conveying direction of the recording medium of the nip. A convex shape of the nip formed by the fixing roller and the fixing belt, and a convex shape of a nip of the flattener formed by the conveyance roller and the pressure contact member are arranged to have opposite directions to each other, when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium.
A fixing apparatus comprising:
A fixing apparatus comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Backward citations are indexed for grants only.
Using contact heat: combined with pressure
Using contact heat: structural details of heat elements, e.g. structure of roller or belt, eddy current, induction heating
Using contact heat: structural details or chemical composition of the pressure elements and layers thereof
Structural features of the fixing device: pressure belt
Term end not estimated
The present invention relates to the improvement of a fixing apparatus in an image forming apparatus for forming an image according to electrophotographic method.
A heat roller type fixing apparatus using a pair of rollers is a fixing apparatus to be commonly used. To meet the requirements for color images and diversified recording media, a fixing apparatus using a belt is proposed. The fixing apparatus using a belt has the following advantages. The belt driven along the roller makes it possible to increase the width of the nip gripping a recording medium, and to prolong toner heating time, thereby ensuring improved heating efficiency. Thus, fixing by use of a belt is effective when there is a thick toner layer forming an image as in the case of a color image or when the transparency of an image is increased by raising the level of toner fusing, as in the case of an overhead transparency film (OHP film).
Belt type fixing apparatus are disclosed in the Official Gazette of Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. Hei 05-150679 and 2000-172103, for example.
FIG. 1 is a drawing representing an image forming apparatus using the fixing apparatus relating to Embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a drawing representing the fixing apparatus relating to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a drawing representing the fixing apparatus relating to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;
(1)<Image Forming Apparatus>
FIG. 1 is a drawing representing a color copier as an example of an image forming apparatus using a fixing apparatus relating to Embodiment of the present invention.
The main body GH of the image forming apparatus is what is called a tandem type color image forming apparatus, and has plural sets of image forming units 10Y, 10M, 10C and 10K, an belt shaped intermediate transfer unit 6, a paper supply means and a fixing apparatus 100.