US 8,553,238 B2Granted

Media separator, fixing device, and image forming apparatus

AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.

InventorsFumihiro Hirose, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takashi Seto, Kenichi Hasegawa, Naoto Suzuki

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Abstract

A media separator includes air nozzles and separation plates to form a row of members, and is configured to separate a sheet conveyed from a fixing nip formed of a fixing member and a pressure member. In such a media separator, the plurality of air nozzles and at least one separation plate are disposed along a longitudinal direction of the fixing device, and the plurality of air nozzles are disposed at both lateral ends of the row of members in the longitudinal direction of the fixing device, whereby waving of the edge of the sheet in the printing of frequently used sheet can be prevented and the occurrence of jam may be prevented, and a stable sheet separation and conveyance can be realized.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A media separator configured to separate a recording medium conveyed from a fixing nip formed of a fixing member and a pressure member from the fixing member or the pressure member, the media separator comprising:

a plurality of air nozzles;
and
at least one separation plate,
the plurality of air nozzles and the at least one separation plate being disposed as a row of members arranged along a longitudinal axis of the media separator and perpendicular to a direction of conveyance of the recording medium,
wherein two of the plurality of air nozzles are disposed at both lateral ends of the row of members in the longitudinal axis of the media separator, such that no separation plate is present in the row of members at a position closer to the lateral ends of the row of members than the two of the plurality of air nozzles.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.