Fixing device and image forming apparatus including the same

A fixing device comprising:

• a fixing roller pair including a heating roller and a pressure roller and having a fixing nip formed between the two rollers;
• a separation plate provided at a downstream side in a sheet conveyance direction of the fixing nip and separating a sheet, which is discharged from the fixing roller pair, from the heating roller;
• and
• a conveying roller pair provided at the downstream side in the sheet conveyance direction of the separation plate, including a pair of conveying rollers, and having a conveyance nip formed between the two rollers,
• wherein the conveyance nip is positioned at a heating roller side from a common tangent of the heating roller and the pressure roller in the fixing nip when viewed from an axial direction of the fixing roller pair, and
• the fixing device further comprises:
• an abutting member provided separately from the separation plate on a sheet conveyance path between the fixing roller pair and the conveying roller pair and abutting a surface of a sheet having passed or passing through the separation plate, the surface facing the heating roller side;
• and
• an urging member that urges the abutting member such that the sheet is pressed by the abutting member to a side separated from the separation plate,
• wherein the separation plate is arranged at the heating roller side from a nip line passing through the fixing nip and the conveyance nip when viewed from the axial direction of the fixing roller pair,
• at least a part of the abutting member is positioned at a pressure roller side of the nip line when the urging member is in a natural length state, and
• when the urging member enters a state in which the sheet has extended across the conveying roller pair and the fixing roller pair, the urging member is compressed by the tension acted on the abutting member so that the whole of the abutting member is positioned to the heating roller side of the nip line, whereas when the sheet enters a state in which the sheet is conveyed only by the conveying roller pair, the urging member returns to the natural length as the tension is reduced so that the abutting member is moved to the pressure roller side thereby moving an abutting position of the sheet and the abutting member to the pressure roller side of the nip line.