US 12,487,545 B2
Heating device including a lubricant holding region, a fixing device including the same, and an image forming apparatus including the same
Tomoya Adachi, Kanagawa (JP); Yuusuke Furuichi, Kanagawa (JP); and Yukimichi Someya, Saitama (JP)
Assigned to Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 18/718,633
Filed by Tomoya Adachi, Kanagawa (JP); Yuusuke Furuichi, Kanagawa (JP); and Yukimichi Someya, Saitama (JP)
PCT Filed Jan. 24, 2023, PCT No. PCT/IB2023/050564
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 11, 2024,
PCT Pub. No. WO2023/166360, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 7, 2023.
Claims priority of application No. 2022-032745 (JP), filed on Mar. 3, 2022; and application No. 2022-089587 (JP), filed on Jun. 1, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2025/0044728 A1, Feb. 6, 2025
Int. Cl. G03G 15/20 (2006.01)
CPC G03G 15/2053 (2013.01) [G03G 15/2064 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A heating device comprising:
a tubular rotator;
a pressure rotator configured to form an outer surface nip between the tubular rotator and the pressure rotator;
a heater inside a loop of the tubular rotator, the heater configured to form a sliding nip between an inner circumferential surface of the tubular rotator and the heater, the heater including,
a base, and
a resistive heat generator inside the sliding nip in a recording medium conveyance direction;
a holder having a recessed portion configured to hold the heater; and
at least one lubricant reservoir configured to,
store lubricant, and
supply the lubricant to the inner circumferential surface of the tubular rotator and a sliding surface of the heater on which the tubular rotator slides, the at least one lubricant reservoir adjacent to the sliding nip and between the holder, the heater, and the inner circumferential surface of the tubular rotator,
wherein the pressure rotator is further configured to press the tubular rotator toward the heater,
the sliding nip is configured to gradually receive the lubricant from the at least one lubricant reservoir in response to rotation of the tubular rotator and the pressure rotator, and
the lubricant has an application quantity P satisfying the following expression:

OG Complex Work Unit Math
where A is a height of irregularities on the inner circumferential surface of the tubular rotator, X1 is a length of the tubular rotator in a longitudinal direction of the tubular rotator, B is a circumferential length of the tubular rotator, C is a specific weight of the lubricant, and D is a volume of the at least one lubricant reservoir.