US Patent Issued to Ricoh on Sept. 9 for "Heating device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,411,440, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to Ricoh Co. Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Heating device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus" was invented by Tomoya Adachi (Kanagawa, Japan) and Yuusuke Furuichi (Kanagawa, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A heating device includes a first rotator, a heater including a base having a slide face over which an inner face of the first rotator slides, a second rotator forming an outer face nip between the first rotator and the second rotator and a slide nip between the heater and the inner face, and a lubricant holder disposed between the first rotator and the heater to hold a lubricant. The first rota...