Fixing apparatus

Abstract

A fixing apparatus used in an image forming apparatus has a fixing member for fixing toner on paper and a pressure member making contact therewith to form in between a nip through which paper is passed. The fixing member has a support member formed of a ferromagnetic material and a heating layer formed adjacent thereto in the form of a thin layer of a non-magnetic, electrically conductive material. When a high-frequency electric current is passed through an exciting coil that is combined with the fixing member, the fixing member produces a high-frequency magnetic field, thereby produces induced eddy currents in the heating layer of the fixing member, thereby produces Joule's heat in the heating layer, and thereby heats the fixing member. A leaking magnetic flux is absorbed by the support member of the ferromagnetic member, and thus has reduced influence on metal parts located around the fixing apparatus.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.