Patent ID: 7389062

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 time to convey a sheet from said bifurcation to said confluence through said first conveying path and time to convey a sheet from said bifurcation to said confluence through said second conveying path are nearly equal, wherein one of said first conveying path and said second conveying path is longer than the other in regard to length from said bifurcation to said confluence, and wherein in at least a certain portion of the longer conveying path, a sheet on the longer conveying path is conveyed at a conveying speed faster than a conveying speed of a sheet conveyed on the shorter conveying path.