Patent ID: 8843041

Claim:
A fixing device, comprising: a heat assembly including an endless belt that moves in a circulation manner and has an inner surface and an outer surface, a heat source that heats the endless belt, a pressure pad that is pressed to the inner surface of the endless belt, and a cleaning member that cleans the inner surface of the endless belt by contacting the inner surface and sliding on the inner surface as the result of the circulation movement of the endless belt; and a pressure member that presses the outer surface of the endless belt to the pressure pad, receives a medium that holds an unfixed toner image between the pressure member and the endless belt, and fixes the toner image to the medium in cooperation with the heat assembly, wherein the cleaning member contacts the endless belt with a contact-pressure distribution such that a contact pressure of a portion located downstream of a most upstream portion in a moving direction of the endless belt is the maximum in a contact region where the cleaning member contacts the endless belt.