Patent ID: 7783220

Claim:
A roller drive control method of a fixing apparatus in which a separation claw for separating recording paper is arranged in a vicinity of a surface of at least one of fixing rollers that sandwich and transport the recording paper to cause toner to fix onto the recording paper, the roller drive control method comprising: a fixing process step of carrying out fixing of toner onto the recording paper in a fixing process period, and a toner removal step of removing toner adhered to the separation claw, in a toner removal period, which is different from the fixing process period, wherein the toner removal period is set to be after a surface temperature of the fixing rollers has reached a softening temperature or a melting temperature of the toner, or higher, and wherein at least one of the fixing rollers is rotationally driven such that a rotational state of the fixing rollers is different in the fixing process step and the toner removal step, and the fixing rollers intermittently rotate at multiple intervals in the toner removal period, the intermittent rotation of the fixing rollers being performed at a frequency such that the separation claw on the surface of the fixing roller vibrates.