Patent ID: 7725064

Claim:
A fixing device comprising: a heating rotary member having a surface which is not electrically conductive; a pressing member which comes in contact with the heating rotary member, the pressing member coming in contact with the heating rotary member to form a fixing nip portion, and allowing a sheet to pass through the fixing nip portion in an orientation such that an unfixed toner image bore on a sheet surface comes in contact with a surface of the heating rotary member, so that the toner image is heated and pressed to fix on the sheet; a base member being electrically conductive and positioned with respect to the surface of the heating rotary member; a separating member which has a separating portion on its leading end for separating the sheet bearing the fixed toner image from the surface of the heating rotary member, the separating member being retained by the base member at its base end side so that the separating portion is so positioned as to face the surface of the heating rotary member at a first clearance apart; and a charge-removing member retained by the base member for removing electric charge from the surface of the heating rotary member, wherein the charge-removing member has a charge-removing portion which is arranged along a longitudinal direction of the circumferential surface of the heating rotary member on further downstream side along a rotational direction of the heating rotary member than the separating portion, and is so positioned as to face the surface of the heating rotary member at a second clearance apart.