Fixing device and image forming system using the same

Abstract

A fixing device includes: a heating fixing unit that is rotatable and includes a heat source; a belt-like transport fixing unit that is rotatably provided as a result of being tightly stretched on the heating fixing unit and that transports a medium having an unfixed image formed thereon while contacting a surface of the medium on which the unfixed image is formed; a pressurizing fixing unit that is rotatable and is disposed to face the heating fixing unit so as to sandwich the transport fixing unit therebetween and that applies pressure so as to form a fixing area between the pressurizing fixing unit and the heating fixing unit, the fixing area being an area where the unfixed image is fixed; a cooling unit that cools the transport fixing unit, the cooling unit being disposed in a transport region of the transport fixing unit for the medium so as to contact a back side of the transport fixing unit, the cooling unit being disposed at a position farther downstream than the fixing area in a transport direction of the medium; and a heat transfer unit that is disposed in an internal space on the back side of the transport fixing unit and is positioned between the cooling unit and the heating fixing unit without contacting the cooling unit and the heating fixing unit and that contacts a first position and a second position and transfers part of heat of the transport fixing unit from the first position to the second position, the first position being located in a region where the transport fixing unit is heated and is not yet cooled, the second position being located in a region where the transport fixing unit is cooled and is not yet heated.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.