PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16137672
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-09
Publication Date: 2019-08
Patent Classification: ["399", "331000"]

Abstract:
A fuser includes a rotatable member, a belt, a pressure member, and a sliding member. The pressure member sandwiches the belt together with the rotatable member to form a nip portion. The sliding member is sandwiched between an inner peripheral surface of the belt and the pressure member. The sliding member includes a front surface, which faces the inner peripheral surface of the belt. The front surface includes a plurality of first dimples and a plurality of second dimples. The first dimples are arranged in a first zone, which corresponds to the nip portion. The second dimples are arranged in a second zone, which corresponds to a portion of the sliding member outside the nip portion. Each of the first dimples is of a shape that can release lubricant more easily than each of the second dimples.

Claim (Index 4):
A fuser comprising:\n a rotatable member; a belt comprising:\n an inner peripheral surface applied with lubricant, and \n an outer peripheral surface facing the rotatable member; \n a heater configured to heat the rotatable member; a pressure member configured to, with the rotatable member, sandwich the outer peripheral surface of the belt to form a nip portion; and a sliding member, a portion of the sliding member configured to be sandwiched between the inner peripheral surface of the belt and the pressure member at a position corresponding to the nip portion, the sliding member comprising a front surface facing the inner peripheral surface of the belt and a back surface facing the pressure member, wherein the front surface comprises a plurality of first dimples arranged in a first zone of the sliding member corresponding to the nip portion, to which a pressure is to be applied, and a plurality of second dimples arranged in a second zone of the sliding member corresponding to a portion outside of the nip portion in which the pressure member is not in contact with the sliding member, wherein the first dimples comprise a first upstream dimple and a first downstream dimple, positioned downstream from the first upstream dimple in a moving direction of the belt at the nip portion, wherein a first ridge portion is formed between the first upstream dimple and the first downstream dimple, wherein the second dimples comprise a second upstream dimple and a second downstream dimple positioned downstream from the second upstream dimple in the moving direction, wherein a second ridge portion is formed between the second upstream dimple and the second downstream dimple, wherein a first angle formed between the first upstream dimple and the first ridge portion is greater than a second angle formed between the second upstream dimple and the second ridge portion, and wherein each of the first dimples and each of the second dimples have pyramid shape.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 19.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.90385
- Patent Class: 399.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['16137646', '16137664', '15461801', '14231030', '14502387']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8232192157087346
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6010323154392914
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8010005256817903
- Mean Citation Score: 322.65244199999995
- Max Citation Score: 533.8588
- Similarity Product: 518.7245417712688

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test