Fixing device having a skew compensation capability
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorsMinoru Satoh, Kazuhito Nakamura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fixing device incorporated in an image recording apparatus has a heater 24 for fixing an image formed on a sheet 11 by heating a toner 12 constituting the image, and a thin endless belt 21 for carrying the sheet 11. The endless belt 21 is rotated by a drive roller 22 and is given tension by a tension roller 23. A tapered member 26a is located at an end of the tension roller 23 and a guide member 30 contacts with a side tapered surface of the tapered member. When the endless belt 21 skews, the tension roller 23 moves along its axis by a reaction force and inclines in a direction parallel to a tension direction of the tension roller 23 to compensate for the skew.
Claims10
A fixing device incorporated in an image recording apparatus for fixing an image formed on a sheet by heating a toner constituting the image, comprising:
- an endless belt having an inner and an outer surface;
- drive means for rotating said endless belt;
- heating means, which contacts with the inner surface of said endless belt, for supplying heat to a toner image formed on a sheet via said endless belt;
- a tension roller mounted for rotation about an axis and which contacts with the inner surface of said endless belt, said tension roller imparting a predetermined tension to said endless belt in a tension direction and being movable axially along said axis of said tension roller;
- a tapered member, which has a tapered side surface, coupled to one end of said tension roller;
- and
- a guide member which contacts with said tapered side surface of said tapered member and is fixed on said fixing device;
- said tension roller being moved along said axis by a skew of said endless belt, and the movement along said axis causing a contacting position between said tapered side surface and said guide member to be changed to incline said tension roller along said tapered side surface for canceling the skew.
A fixing device incorporated in an image recording apparatus for fixing an image formed on a sheet by heating a toner constituting the image, comprising:
- an endless belt having an inner and an outer surface;
- drive means for rotating said endless belt;
- heating means, which contacts with the inner surface of said endless belt, for supplying heat to a toner image formed on a sheet via said endless belt;
- a tension roller, which contacts with the inner surface of said endless belt, for imparting a predetermined tension to said endless belt in a tension direction;
- and
- means for inclining said tension roller in a direction parallel to the tension direction of said predetermined tension, wherein said inclining means comprises a tapered member, which has a tapered side surface, coupled to one end of said tension roller, and a guide member which contacts with said tapered side surface of said tapered member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.