A belt device includes a secured member, a belt, a pressure rotator, and lubricant. The belt has an endless shape and slides on a slide surface of the secured member. The belt has an inner portion having an elastic power of 55% or more and a sliding surface sliding on the slide surface of the secured member. The sliding surface has a surface roughness smaller than a surface roughness of the slide surface of the secured member. The pressure rotator presses the secured member via the belt to form a nip between the belt and the pressure rotator. The lubricant is interposed between the sliding surface of the belt and the slide surface of the secured member.

A heater includes a heat generating member in a first layer, a sensor that is in a second layer different from the first layer and configured to detect a temperature of the heat generating member, and a wiring pattern in one or more third layers between the first and second layers to supply power to the heat generating member.

A fixing device includes a heating and fixing rotator, a pressing rotator, a blower, a guide, an opening and closing device, and a driving device. The heating and fixing rotator is rotatable and heats an unfixed image on a recording medium to fix the unfixed image on the recording medium. The pressing rotator is rotatable, faces the heating and fixing rotator, and is pressed against the recording medium. The guide has an air blowing port and guides air sent from the blower to at least one of the heating and fixing rotator and the pressing rotator. The opening and closing device moves to open and close the air blowing port. The driving device includes a driver to move the opening and closing device and at least one member other than the opening and closing device and separately drives the opening and closing device and the at least one member.

A fixing apparatus includes a rotatable belt, a rotatable pressurizing member, a steering roller, a contact portion, a detected portion, a sensor, and a guiding portion. The contact portion comes into contact with an end portion, in the width direction, of the belt. A position of the detected portion is changed on a basis of a position of the contact portion. The sensor detects the position of the detected portion. An inclination of the steering roller is controlled on a basis of a detection result of the sensor. The guiding portion is provided by connecting with the contact portion. The lubricant is guided from the contact portion to the guiding portion. The guiding portion is provided in a region below the contact portion in a vertical direction, inside of the belt, and overlapped with the belt in the width direction.

The fixing device includes a fixing member, a heat source, a pressure member, a nip forming member, and a heat equalizing member. The heat equalizing member covers a face of the nip forming member, the face facing the fixing member, and transfers heat in an axial direction of the fixing member. The fixing member includes at least a tubular base made of metal and a sliding layer made of heat resistant resin on an inner circumferential surface of the base. The heat equalizing member made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy includes an alumite layer on a surface facing an inner circumferential surface of the fixing member. A plurality of micropores in the alumite layer is filled with a solid lubricant having a coefficient of friction lower than that of the alumite layer. The alumite layer has a thickness smaller than that of the sliding layer of the fixing member.

A resistance heating component is to come into contact with and heat a fixing belt made of a heat resistant material, and is to be provided at a position away from a fixing area between which the resistance heating component and the fixing belt a recording material is held and conveyed, the resistance heating component including: a metal base material having a low heat capacity; and a resistance heating layer laminated on a front surface or a rear surface of the base material with an insulating layer interposed between the base material and the resistance heating layer.

A method of manufacturing a heat generating roller includes forming an insulating portion on a surface of a metal base member by providing poly-ether-ether-ketone resin over the surface of the base member and heating the poly-ether-ether-ketone resin, the poly-ether-ether-ketone resin being electrically insulating and heat-shrinkable; and forming a heat generating portion on a surface of the insulating portion, the heat generating portion generating heat when energized.

An image forming apparatus is operable in a first small-sheet printing in which power is supplied to the first heat generating element and the second heat generating element and in a second small-sheet printing in which power is supplied to the first heat generating element and the third heat generating element. A first power ratio, which is a proportion of power supplied to the first heat generating element to power supplied to the second heat generating element in the first small-sheet printing, is higher than a second power ratio, which is a proportion of power supplied to the first heat generating element to power supplied to the third heat generating element in the second small-sheet printing.

A fixing unit includes a film with a tubular shape, a nip forming unit including a heater and configured to be in sliding contact with an inner surface of the film. The heater includes a substrate made of metal. The fixing unit further includes a power supply connector electrically connected to the power supply electrode so that the power supply connector is connected to the heating element at a first end portion of the substrate in a longitudinal direction of the heater, and a pressing member opposed to the nip forming unit. The fixing unit further includes a voltage application circuit configured to apply a voltage of a same polarity as a normal charging polarity of the toner to the substrate, the voltage application circuit being connected to the substrate at a second end portion of the substrate opposite to the first end portion in the longitudinal direction.

A fixing device includes a heater, a heater holding member, a stay sheet-metal, and a belt holding member. The stay sheet-metal includes a top plate and side plates and is configured to control a load applied to the heater holding member, the side plates extending respectively from opposite sides of the top plate in a short-length direction of the top plate, toward the heater holding member. The belt holding member holds the fixing belt such that the fixing belt can peripherally rotate, the belt holding member holding at least one end of the heater holding member in a longitudinal direction thereof and at least one end of the stay sheet-metal in a longitudinal direction thereof. The top plate of the stay sheet-metal is formed to extend to at least one end of the stay sheet-metal in the longitudinal direction thereof.