US 12,271,130 B2
Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus
Yusuke Nakazono, Kanagawa (JP); Yutaka Sato, Tokyo (JP); Naofumi Murata, Tokyo (JP); and Hikaru Osada, Kanagawa (JP)
Assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo (JP)
Filed by CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Oct. 18, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/489,035.
Claims priority of application No. 2022-170350 (JP), filed on Oct. 25, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2024/0134304 A1, Apr. 25, 2024
Prior Publication US 2024/0231261 A9, Jul. 11, 2024
Int. Cl. G03G 15/20 (2006.01)
CPC G03G 15/2025 (2013.01) [G03G 15/2039 (2013.01)] 8 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A fixing apparatus, comprising:
a first rotation member;
an elongated heater configured to have a heat generating member and a substrate on which the heat generating member is provided and to be disposed in an internal space of the first rotation member;
a temperature sensing unit configured to detect a temperature of the heater;
a heater holder configured to hold the heater;
a second rotation member configured to form a nip portion with the heater, across the first rotation member;
a reservoir to store grease that is supplied between the first rotation member and the heater; and
an elastic member configured to enclose the temperature sensing unit,
in the nip portion, a toner image formed on a recording material being heated and fixed,
wherein the reservoir, the temperature sensing unit and the elastic member are provided between the heater and the heater holder, in a thickness direction orthogonal to both a longitudinal direction of a surface of the substrate on which a heat generating member is provided, and to a transverse direction that is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction;
the temperature sensing unit is enclosed by the elastic member in the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction; and
the elastic member has a lower Young's modulus than that of a body of the heater holder.