Patent ID: 8360426

Claim:
A medium pressurizing device comprising: a pair of rotating bodies that rotate while forming a contact part in which the rotating bodies contact each other, and allow a recording medium to pass while holding the recording medium in the contact part; a pressurizing member that applies, to one rotating body of the pair of rotating bodies, a pressure of pressing the one rotating body toward the other rotating body; a drive roll that is disposed downstream from the contact part in a conveyance direction of conveying the recording medium, and rotates by receiving a driving force, to transmit a conveyance driving force to the recording medium; a following roll that has a surface disposed to contact a surface of the drive roll, and rotates by following rotation of the drive roll, to convey the recording medium while holding the recording medium between the drive roll and the following roll; and an axis member that rotates by receiving a driving force; a cam member that is fixed to the axis member, acts on the pressurizing member, and follows rotation of the axis member to change the pressure of pressing the one rotating body toward the other rotating body, wherein the following roll is formed to have a hollow inside, and the axis member is disposed to pass through a space formed in the hollow, and wherein the space formed in the hollow inside the following roll is larger than a diameter determined by adding a thickness of the recording medium having a maximum thickness among recording media to pass between the pair of rotating bodies to a diameter of the axis member.