Patent ID: 6763218
Filing Date: 2004-07-13
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
A fixing apparatus comprising:a fixing roller; a pressing roller in rotational contact with said fixing roller; a biasing member for applying a biasing force to said pressing roller so as to bring said pressing roller into press contact with said fixing roller at a given pressure; a heating roller disposed apart from said fixing roller; a fixing belt wound around both said heating and fixing rollers in an endless manner; and a heat-generating device embedded in said heating roller to heat said fixing belt so as to heat unfixed toner on a sheet passing through a rotational contact region between said fixing and pressing rollers, whereby when the sheet having unfixed toner on a surface thereof is passed through said rotational contact region along one direction, said unfixed toner is fixed onto said sheet, wherein an interior angle &thgr; between an axis X and an axis Y is arranged to satisfy the following relationship, âˆ’30Â°where X is an axis connecting the center of said fixing roller and the center of said pressing roller, and Y is an axis along a biasing direction in which said pressing roller applies the biasing force to said fixing roller in said rotational contact region, whereinon the basis of said axis X, a positive sign is provided to said angle &thgr; when said axis Y is located on a sheet-feed side where the sheet is fed into said rotational contact region, and a negative sign is provided to said angle &thgr; when said axis Y is located on a sheet-discharge side where the sheet is discharged from said rotational contact region.