Image heating apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTakuya Hasegawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image heating apparatus includes first and second rotatable members for heating a toner image therebetween; an endless belt for heating the first rotatable member while being rotated by the first rotatable member; first and second rollers provided inside the endless belt in this order along a rotational moving direction of the first rotatable member and for urging the endless belt toward the first rotatable member; a holding mechanism for rotatably holding the first and second rollers, the first roller being movable relative to the second roller; an urging mechanism for urging the holding mechanism toward the first rotatable member; and an urging member for urging the first roller in a direction away from the second roller.
Claims10
An image heating apparatus comprising:
- first and second rotatable members configured and positioned to heat a toner image on a sheet therebetween;
- an endless belt configured and positioned to heat said first rotatable member by contacting an outer surface of said first rotatable member;
- first and second rollers provided inside of said endless belt and configured to rotatably support said endless belt;
- a first bearing mounted on said first roller and configured to rotatably support said first roller;
- a second bearing mounted on said second roller and configured to rotatably support said second roller;
- a holding mechanism configured and positioned to hold said first bearing and said second bearing so as to permit movements of said first bearing relative to said second bearing in a direction away from each other;
- and
- a coil spring provided so as to directly contact said first bearing and said second bearing and configured to urge said first bearing relative to said second bearing in the direction away from each other,
- wherein said holding mechanism includes a spring holder extending along the direction in which said first and second bearings move away from each other and configured to hold said coil spring to regulate an expansion and contraction direction of said coil spring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.