Patent ID: 7486902

Claim:
An image fixing apparatus, comprising: a first conveying path on which a sheet is conveyed; a first fixing unit that fixes a toner image on a sheet conveyed on said first conveying path; a second conveying path on which a sheet is conveyed, wherein said second conveying path branches from said first conveying path in a bifurcation provided on an upstream of said first fixing unit and joins into said first conveying path in a confluence provided on a downstream of said first fixing unit; and a second fixing unit provided on an upstream of said bifurcation or on a downstream of said confluence, wherein a preceding sheet and a subsequent sheet are sequentially conveyed with an interval therebetween on an upstream of said bifurcation, and wherein, in a case that one sheet of the preceding sheet and the subsequent sheet is conveyed from said bifurcation through said first conveying path and the other sheet of the preceding sheet and the subsequent sheet is conveyed from said bifurcation through said second conveying path, a time to convey the sheet from said bifurcation to said confluence through said first conveying path and a time to convey the sheet from said bifurcation to said confluence through said second conveying path are nearly equal so that the interval is kept between the preceding sheet and the subsequent sheet on a downstream of said confluence.