US Patent Issued to RICOH on Jan. 20 for "Heating device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,529,984, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Heating device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus" was invented by Masahiro Samei (Osaka, Japan), Takayuki Andoh (Kanagawa, Japan), Kota Shiodera (Tokyo), Hiroshi Yoshinaga (Chiba, Japan), Toshiyuki Kabata (Kanagawa, Japan), Tomoyuki Nishikawa (Saitama, Japan), Yuusuke Furuichi (Kanagawa, Japan), Hiroyuki Shimada (Tokyo) and Arinobu Yoshiura (Kanagawa, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A heating device includes a rotator, a heater, lubricant, a rotator support, and a cover. The rotator has an internal space inside a loop of the rotator. The rotator has a...