An image forming apparatus for forming a toner image on a recording material includes a fixing unit and a blower unit to blow air around a roller. The fixing unit includes a tubular shape film, a heating member disposed in a space surrounded by the film, and the roller forming a nip portion with the heating member. The fixing unit heats and fixes the toner image onto the recording material at the nip portion. For printing that forms toner images on continuously conveyed recording materials where a roller surface temperature is lower than a predetermined temperature, fan stop and operation periods are set. During the fan stop period, the blower unit is stopped and an interval between preceding and subsequent recording materials is widened. During the fan operation period, the blower unit is in operation and the interval is narrower than the interval during the fan stop period.

An image forming apparatus includes two rotators, a driver driving the rotators, a heating device to heat the rotator, a blower blowing air to the heating device, a temperature detector, a recording medium detector, a cover, an open-close detector, and circuitry. The circuitry detects an abnormal state and stops heat generation, determines whether the cover is closed using the open-close detector, controls the blower to blow air when the cover is closed, determines whether the recording medium is in the nip using the recording medium detector, controls the driver to rotate the two rotators when the cover is closed and no recording medium is in the nip, determines whether a temperature detected is equal to or lower than a threshold value before the cover is opened, and controls the blower to decrease an air volume when the temperature detected is equal to or lower than the threshold value.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a heater, and a controller. The image forming device is configured to generate a laser scanning beam based on the image data to form a toner image on a sheet. The heater is configured to heat the sheet. The heater includes heater elements arranged in a direction corresponding to the main scanning direction of the laser scanning. The controller is configured to selectively control the heater elements to be energized at an energization start timing based on the image data and a signal from the image forming device indicating a start of scanning by the laser scanning beam in the main scanning direction.

In an image forming apparatus, a controller causes a first fixing member to heat up to a standby temperature Tr lower than a fixing temperature, through a control process executed from a state in which rotation of the first fixing member is stopped and a nip pressure is set at a second pressure smaller than a first pressure. The control process includes: a first process of activating and controlling a heater to cause the first fixing member to heat up toward a target temperature; a second process of starting the rotation of the first fixing member; a third process of changing the nip pressure from the second pressure to the first pressure; a fourth process of changing the nip pressure from the first pressure to the second pressure; and a fifth process of stopping the rotation of the first fixing member, executed in this sequence.

A fixing device includes a heater, an endless belt, a holder, a temperature detector, and a partition sheet. The heater includes a substrate, and a resistance heating element provided on the substrate, and has a frontside surface and a backside surface opposite to the frontside surface. The endless belt is configured to rotate around the heater and has an inner peripheral surface in contact with the frontside surface of the heater. The holder holds the heater. The temperature detector is configured to detect a temperature of the heater and has a detection surface that detects a temperature. The partition sheet is located between the backside surface of the heater and the holder, and is in contact with the detection surface. A length of the partition sheet in a direction of conveyance of a recording material is longer than a length of the heater in the direction of conveyance.

An image forming system includes: a conveyor that conveys a recording material along a conveyance path; a detector that is disposed on the conveyance path and detects a characteristic of the recording material; a fixer that fixes a toner image formed on the recording material; and a hardware processor that: causes the detector to detect the characteristic during a warm-up of the fixer with respect to an image forming job, and based on the characteristic, sets an image forming condition in the image forming job.

A fixing device includes a fixing roller and a pressure roller provided in a rotatable manner, a heat source for heating the fixing roller, and a controller for controlling AC power supplied to the heat source. The fixing device fixes an unfixed image on a sheet held and conveyed by the fixing roller and the pressure roller. The controller causes a current to flow including current-carrying waveforms having different phase angles in half-wave units during preset control cycles.

A vehicle seat includes a seat portion having a heating element, such as an electrically conductive wire. A sensing structure having a characteristic that is responsive to a temperature of the heating element is provided adjacent to the heating element, such as by being helically wrapped thereabout or extending parallel thereto. For example, the sensing structure may include an optical fiber, and the characteristic of the sensing structure may be an amount of light transmitted through the optical fiber. A controller is responsive to the characteristic of the sensing structure for determining when the temperature of the heating element exceeds a predetermined value.

At a specified time within a heating period during which a fuser of a dry electrophotographic (DEP) printing device is heated to a set temperature, a temperature of the fuser is measured. Responsive to determining that the measured temperature is less than a threshold temperature, the set temperature to which the fuser is heated during the heating period is increased.

A fixing device to fix a toner image formed on a recording medium to the recording medium includes a rotating member, a guide member, a holding member, and a roller. The roller contacts with an outer surface of the rotating member and forms a fixing nip portion together with the guide member between the rotating member and the roller. The fixing device fixes the recording medium toner image to the recording medium while pinching and conveying the recording medium in the fixing nip portion. The guide member is pivotable relative to the holding member about a pivot point that is a shaft substantially perpendicular to a surface of the fixing nip portion. When the rotating member slides on the guide member, the guide member pivots due to a force received from the rotating member so that alignment of the guide member with respect to the holding member is corrected.