ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,474,654, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).
"Image forming apparatus" was invented by Akimitsu Obana (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a container, a thermal fixing device, and a duct. The image forming device forms an image on a sheet with an image forming substance. The container is separate from the image forming device and stores the image forming substance to be supplied to the image forming device. The thermal fixing device applies heat and pressure to the image forming substance to fix the image on the sheet. The duct guides air ...