US Patent Issued to RICOH on Oct. 7 for "Fixing device including a conductor contacting an inner surface of a fixing rotator" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,436,486, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Fixing device including a conductor contacting an inner surface of a fixing rotator" was invented by Tamotsu Ikeda (Tokyo), Yutaka Ikebuchi (Kanagawa, Japan), Yuusuke Furuichi (Kanagawa, Japan), Seiji Saitoh (Kanagawa, Japan) and Jun Okamoto (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fixing device includes a fixing rotator, a pressure rotator, a planar heater, a holder, a conductor, and a support. The pressure rotator presses the fixing rotator to form a fixing nip between the pressure rotator and the fixing rotator. The planar heater contacts an inner surface of the fix...