Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, L.L.P.
Image forming apparatus with toner image fixing unit, and the fixing method thereof
The fixing unit satisfies following three conditions. That is, (1) 2.4×103×d/(TC×t)<T0, where d is a thickness of the unfixed toner layer in meters, TC is a thermal conductivity of toner in W/mK, and t is the fixing time in seconds; (2) a temperature Ttop of a topmost layer of the toner layer is not greater than the minimum temperature TOFF at which the hot offset of the surface of the first fixing member occurs when the fixing time is set to 1 seconds; and (3) a temperature Tbot of a bottommost layer of the toner layer that is in contact with the recording medium is not less than the lower limit temperature TMIN for fixing of the surface of the first fixing member when the fixing time is set to 1 second.
Ricoh Company, Limited
G G
G03G G03G
inventional additional
Takashi Katsuhiro Yukimichi Atsushi Toshihiko Shigeo Hiroyuki Hisashi
Fujita Echigo Someya Nakafuji Baba Kurotaka Kunii Kikuchi