US Patent Issued to RICOH on Nov. 4 for "Heating device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,461,473, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Heating device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus" was invented by Toshiyuki Kabata (Kanagawa, Japan), Takayuki Andoh (Kanagawa, Japan), Masahiro Samei (Osaka, Japan), Kota Shiodera (Tokyo), Hiroshi Yoshinaga (Chiba, 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 having an internal space, a heater heating the rotator, lubricant applied to the rotator, a rotator support supporting the rotator, and a...