Patent ID: 7058329

Claim:
An image heating apparatus comprising: an image heating rotation member that is configured and positioned to rotate and to heat an image on a recording material; driving means for rotationally driving said image heating rotation member; an external heating member including an exothermic member, said external heating member being configured and positioned to contact and separate from said image heating rotation member, wherein said external heating member heats said image heating rotation member by contact therewith; contacting-and-separating means for making said external heating member contact and separate from said image heating rotation member; conduction control means for controlling conduction to said exothermic member so that the temperature of said external heating member becomes a target temperature; contacting-and-separating state detecting means for detecting for detecting a contacting-and-separating state of said external heating member with respect to said image heating rotation member; and abnormality detecting means for detecting an abnormality in the contacting-and-separating state of said external heating member controlled by said contacting-and-separating means, on the basis of the detection by said contacting-and-separating state detecting means.