ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,298,691, issued on May 13, was assigned to BROTHER KOGYO K.K. (Nagoya, Japan).
"Image-forming apparatus provided with mechanism for opening and closing shutter of fixing device" was invented by Saya Minoshima (Gifu, Japan), Tomonori Watanabe (Ichinomiya, Japan) and Yuichi Ikeno (Maibara, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image-forming apparatus includes a housing, a cartridge, and a fixing device. The fixing device includes a heating member, a fixing frame, and a shutter movable between an open position for opening an opening of the fixing frame and a closed position for closing the opening. The housing includes: a guide frame for ...