US Patent Issued to RICOH on March 25 for "Sliding fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating the same" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,259,668, issued on March 25, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Sliding fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating the same" was invented by Shuntaroh Iwami (Kanagawa, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The fixing device includes a fixing rotator rotatable in a rotation direction and forming a loop, a nip formation pad inside the loop, a pressure rotator pressed against the nip formation pad via the fixing rotator to form a fixing nip, a sliding sheet between the nip formation pad and the fixing rotator, and a holder. The sliding sheet covers the nip formation pad and has a nip entrance at an upstream end of the...