Patent ID: 8346147

Claim:
A fixing unit comprising: a heating roll that includes an elastic layer; an endless belt that is in contact with an outer peripheral surface of the heating roll; and a pressing body that presses the endless belt against the outer peripheral surface of the heating roll from an inner peripheral surface side of the endless belt to form a press contact part, wherein the press contact part allows a record medium holding an unfixed image to pass through between the endless belt and the heating roll, and the pressing body comprises: a hard pressing member that (i) is placed on a downstream side of a passage direction of the record medium in the press contact part and (ii) is formed of higher hardness than the elastic layer of the heating roll; and a soft pressing member that (i) is placed on an upstream side of the passage direction from the hard pressing member, (ii) is formed of lower hardness than the elastic layer of the heating roll, and (iii) is elastically deformed, wherein the hard pressing member has a first press contact portion in the press contact part, the soft pressing member has a second press contact portion in the press contact part, and the press contact part is formed in a state in which the first press contact portion is longer than the second press contact portion, and the hard pressing member has an end part opposed to the heating roll on the upstream side, the end part having a face approaching the heating roll from the upstream side to the downstream side.