Patent ID: 7593680

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a toner image forming mechanism configured to form a toner image on a recording medium; and a fixing mechanism configured to fix the toner image on the recording medium, the fixing mechanism including a fixing apparatus, the fixing apparatus including an elastic roller having a stiffness greater than or equal to 28 Hs and less than or equal to 34 Hs on an Asker C scale, and including a sponge-like elastic layer having a density greater than or equal to 0.38 g/cm 3 ; a high-stiffness roller having a stiffness greater than the stiffness of the elastic roller, the high-stiffness roller configured to form a fixing nip between the elastic roller and the high-stiffness roller; and a heating mechanism configured to heat the fixing nip, wherein the fixing apparatus satisfies a relationship expressed by Stmin/St≧0.75, where St is a thickness of the elastic layer in a state where the fixing nip is not formed, and Stmin is a minimum thickness of the elastic layer in a state where the fixing nip is formed.