ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,346,046, issued on July 1, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).
"Fixing film" was invented by Akeshi Asaka (Chiba, Japan), Hiroki Muramatsu (Tokyo), Naoki Akiyama (Ibaraki, Japan), Hiroto Sugimoto (Ibaraki, Japan), Yasuhiro Miyahara (Tokyo) and Noriaki Kobayashi (Ibaraki, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fixing film includes a cylindrical base layer, an elastic layer formed on an outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical base layer, and a separation layer formed on an outer peripheral surface of the elastic layer. The separation layer includes fluororesin, and a degree of orientation of the fluororesin is greater than or equal to 4...