Patent ID: 8699928
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A fixing unit comprising: a heating roller; a pressing roller that is capable of being in pressure contact with the heating roller; a compressor that generates compressed air; an air tank that reserves therein the compressed air; a first pipe through which the compressed air generated by the compressor is fed into the air tank; an injection nozzle that is provided at a downstream in a printing-medium conveying direction relative to a fixing nip formed by the heating roller and the pressing roller and that causes the compressed air to blow a printing medium fed from the fixing nip; a second pipe through which the compressed air reserved in the air tank is fed into the injection nozzle; a compressed air injection solenoid valve that is provided in middle of the second pipe; a droplet separator that separates a droplet from the compressed air, the droplet separator being provided to either one of the first pipe between the compressor and the air tank and the second pipe between the air tank and the compressed air injection solenoid valve; a first droplet discharging pipe that extends from the droplet separator and a second droplet discharging pipe that extends from a bottom portion of the air tank, the first and second discharging pipes joining together with one droplet discharging solenoid valve arranged at a downstream of a joining portion in a droplet discharging directions; and a unit for reserving therein discharged droplets provided on an outlet side of the droplet discharging solenoid valve.