Patent ID: 7224918
Filing Date: 2007-05-29
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A method for controlling a temperature of a printing material fixing apparatus in an image forming apparatus, said method comprising: (a) providing an image forming apparatus having a memory circuit for storage of data, a print engine, and a processing circuit, said print engine including a belt fuser and a heater driver circuit, and said print engine including a supply of printing material to be applied to print media; (b) under the control of said processing circuit, energizing said belt fuser with electrical power from said heater driver circuit in a standby mode, to raise a temperature of the belt fuser to a first temperature that is greater than an ambient temperature of said image forming apparatus; and (c) upon receiving a print job, and under the control of said processing circuit, energizing said belt fuser with electrical power from said heater driver circuit in one of a ramping mode and a printing mode, to quickly raise a temperature of the belt fuser to a second temperature that allows said belt fuser to fix said printer material to said print media, such that a time to first print parameter is reduced as compared to raising said belt fuser temperature from an ambient temperature to said second temperature.