Patent ID: 9733599
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: G01K,G03G

Claim:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a fixing portion configured to heat and fix an unfixed image formed on a recording material to the recording material, said fixing portion including a heater having a substrate and a heat generating element provided on said substrate, a heat leveling member contacting said heater and having a thermal conductivity higher than that of said substrate, and a temperature detecting member configured to detect a temperature of said heat leveling member; and a controller configured to control electric power supplied to said heater so that the detected temperature of said temperature detecting member is maintained at a target temperature by lowering or raising the target temperature, wherein a period in which said controller raises the target temperature with an increase of the number of the recording materials, and a timing at which said controller lowers the target temperature, are provided in a period in which recording materials having widths smaller than a width of a maximum size recording material usable with said apparatus are continuously subjected to fixing operations.