Fixing device
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsSatoshi Kinouchi, Toshihiro Sone, Ryota Saeki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fixing device includes a fixing belt including a metal layer, a pressing member to form a nip between the pressing member and the fixing belt, an induction current generating coil that faces an outer periphery of the fixing belt, and heats the fixing belt located at a nip position through a hollow inside of the fixing belt, and a coil controller supplies a high frequency to the induction current generating coil.
Claims14
A fixing device comprising:
- a fixing belt including a metal layer;
- a pressing member pressing the fixing belt;
- an induction current generating coil that faces an outer periphery of the fixing belt, and configured to cause a heating of the fixing belt at a nip position formed between the pressing member and the fixing belt;
- and
- a coil controller configured to cause a first current to be supplied to the induction current generating coil during a warm-up or a ready mode of an image forming apparatus and a second current to be supplied to the induction current generating coil during a print mode of the image forming apparatus, a frequency of the first current being higher than a frequency of the second current.
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- an image transferring unit configured to transfer an image on a recording medium;
- a fixing belt including a metal layer;
- a pressing member pressing the fixing belt and configured to convey the recording medium between the pressing member and the fixing belt;
- an induction current generating coil facing an outer periphery of the fixing belt and configured to cause a heating of the fixing belt at a nip position formed between the pressing member and the fixing belt;
- and
- a coil controller configured to cause a first current to be supplied to the induction current generating coil during a warm-up or a ready mode of an image forming apparatus and a second current to be supplied to the induction current generating coil during a print mode of the image forming apparatus, a frequency of the first current being higher than a frequency of the second current.
A method for fixing an image on a recording medium using a fixing device comprising:
- a fixing belt including a metal layer;
- a pressing member pressing the fixing belt;
- and
- an induction current generating coil facing an outer periphery of the fixing belt, and configured to cause a heating of the fixing belt at a nip position formed between the pressing member and the fixing belt with a magnetic flux, the method comprising;
- supplying a first current to the induction current generating coil to cause a first magnetic flux in the fixing belt during a warm-up or a ready mode of an image forming apparatus;
- and
- supplying a second current to the induction current generating coil to cause a second magnetic flux in the fixing belt during a print mode of the image forming apparatus, a concentration of the second magnetic flux at the nip position of the fixing belt being higher than a concentration of the first magnetic flux at the nip position of the fixing belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.