Patent ID: 8644746
Filing Date: 2014-02-04
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A fixing apparatus comprising: a first roller; a second roller that forms a nip between the second roller and the first roller and presses a sheet passing through the nip against the first roller; a third roller that is disposed in parallel with the first and second rollers; a fixing belt that is stretched over the first and third rollers; a heater that uniformly heats the fixing belt in a direction of a width of the fixing belt; and a shaft-shaped heat pipe embedded in the third roller, an effective length in a longitudinal axial direction of the heat pipe being set to be the same or greater than a width of a predetermined maximum sheet width so as to uniformly distribute heat of the fixing belt which is in contact with the third roller in the longitudinal axial direction of the heat pipe, the effective length being a length of a region where an outer peripheral surface of the heat pipe is in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the third roller, the effective length of the heat pipe being the same as, or greater than, a heating range of the heater in the direction along the width of the fixing belt, the heating range of the heater being the same or smaller than the width of the fixing belt and greater than a maximum printing width of the predetermined maximum sheet width, and the effective length of the heat pipe being the same as, or smaller than, the width of the fixing belt.