Patent ID: 8391764

Claim:
A fixing device comprising: a rotatable fixing member; a heating member; an endless fixing belt, provided across the fixing member and the heating member in a tensioned state, the fixing belt (i) being rotated and (ii) being heated by the heating member; a pressure member being pressed against the fixing member while having the fixing belt sandwiched between the pressure member and the fixing member, to form a fixing nip area at this pressured region together with the fixing belt, the fixing device fixing onto a recording material that passes through the fixing nip area an unfixed image formed on the recording material; and a tension roller applying a load on the fixing belt from an inner circumferential side of the fixing belt, wherein the tension roller is determined in position on the fixing belt so that a length of the fixing belt upstream of the fixing nip area in a fixing belt rotating direction, from the tension roller to the fixing member, is longer than that downstream of the fixing nip area in the fixing belt rotating direction, from the fixing member to the tension roller, and the following inequality is satisfied: N1>N2>N3, where N 1 is a load received by the fuser roller from the pressure roller, N 2 is a load received by the tension roller from the fixing belt, and N 3 is a load received by the heating member from the fixing belt.