US Patent Issued to BROTHER KOGYO on Feb. 6 for "Image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 7 -- United States Patent no. 11,892,794, issued on Feb. 6, was assigned to BROTHER KOGYO K.K. (Nagoya, Japan).

"Image forming apparatus" was invented by Ayaka Ohira (Nagoya, Japan) and Tomonori Watanabe (Ichinomiya, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device including a fixing device frame, a chute rotatable between a path forming position and a path opening position, an optical sensor including a light-emitting element, and an actuator. The actuator has a shaft, a first lever configured to contact an anti-pivot rib, and a second lever configured to shield light emitted from the light-emitting element. The actuator is movabl...