ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,313,991, issued on May 27, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).
"Fixing device and image forming apparatus incorporating the same which includes a lubricant supplier and a lubricant collector" was invented by Shuntaroh Iwami (Kanagawa, Japan), Jun Ogino (Kanagawa, Japan) and Kazuto Shibuya (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fixing device includes a belt, a pad, a pressure rotator, a lubricant supplier, and a collector. The belt forms a loop. The pad is inside the loop of the belt and contacts the belt. The pressure rotator presses the belt against the pad to form a fixing nip between the belt and the pressure rotato...