ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,271,127, issued on April 8, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).
"Pressing device and image forming apparatus" was invented by Ryohsuke Kawasaki (Tokyo) and Takahiro Konishi (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pressing device includes a pressed unit, a pressing member, a support shaft, and a drive transmission mechanism. The pressed unit is supported to be rotatable. The pressing member presses the pressed unit. The support shaft supports the pressing member such that the pressing member is rotatable. The drive transmission mechanism transmits a drive force of a drive source to the pressed unit, is disposed on the pressing mem...