Fixing device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• image forming means for forming a toner image on a surface of an image carrier by using a liquid developer in which a toner is dispersed in a carrier liquid;
• and
• transferring/fixing means for concurrently transferring and fixing said toner image to one side of a recording medium,
• wherein said transferring/fixing means includes a contact member arranged to be able to contact a back side of said image carrier and a pressing member pressing on the other side of said recording medium for pressing said recording medium against the surface of said image carrier, and performs the transferring/fixing process by passing said recording medium and said image carrier through a nip portion defined between said contact member and said pressing member;
• and
• wherein a nip pressure at an inlet site of said nip portion is set higher than a nip pressure at an exit site of said nip portion.

A fixing device as claimed in claim 9,

• wherein said heat contact member includes a heat roller;
• wherein said pressing member includes a plurality of rollers in pressure contact with said heat roller, said plural rollers cooperating with said heat roller to establish said nip portion;
• and
• wherein a roller on the inlet side of said nip portion has a lower pressing force on said heat roller than a pressing force of a roller on the exit side of said nip portion.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• image forming means for forming a toner image on an image carrier by using a liquid developer including a toner dispersed in a carrier liquid;
• transfer means for transferring the toner image, formed by said image forming means, to one side of a recording medium;
• and
• fixing means having the same arrangement as the fixing device as claimed in claim 9 and operating to fix the unfixed toner image to said recording medium, the unfixed toner image transferred to the one side of said recording medium by said transfer means.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• image forming means for forming a toner image on a surface of an image carrier by using a liquid developer including a toner dispersed in a carrier liquid;
• and
• transferring/fixing means for concurrently transferring and fixing said toner image to one side of said recording medium,
• wherein said transferring/fixing means includes a heat contact member arranged to be able to contact a back side of said image carrier while heating the back side thereof and a pressing member pressing on the other side of said recording medium for pressing said recording medium against the surface of said image carrier, and performs the transferring/fixing process by passing said recording medium and said image carrier through a nip portion defined between said heat contact member and said pressing member;
• and
• wherein a nip pressure at an inlet site of said nip portion is set lower than a nip pressure at an exit site of said nip portion.