US Patent Issued to RICOH on Oct. 21 for "Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and inspection method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,449,758, issued on Oct. 21, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and inspection method" was invented by Mototaka Iwama (Kanagawa, Japan), Arinobu Yoshiura (Kanagawa, Japan), Shogo Nakamoto (Kanagawa, Japan), Takamasa Hase (Kanagawa, Japan), Kentaro Yamashita (Kanagawa, Japan) and Daisuke Inoue (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fixing device includes a fixing rotator to fix an unfixed image on a recording medium, a pressure member disposed opposite the fixing rotator to press an outer circumferential surface of the fixing rotator; a heating source disposed inside an inner circumferenti...