A driving apparatus includes an endless belt, a belt roller which engages the endless belt, a steering member and an adjustment member. The belt roller has a rotation shaft. The steering member contacts the endless belt at the inner side of the endless belt. The adjustment member is supported rotatably. The adjustment member receives a force in response to the endless belt moving in a longitudinal direction of the rotation shaft of the belt roller, and generates a pressing force that tilts the steering member via a rotational movement of the adjustment member.

An inclined flange roller is located outward of an end portion of a tension roller in the belt width direction. The inclined flange roller includes a flange surface capable of being in contact with the edge portion of a belt in a region in which the belt is wound around the tension roller and a roller surface capable of being in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the belt between the flange surface and an end portion of the tension roller in the belt width direction.

A belt control device includes a holder to movably support a rotation shaft of at least one of the plurality of rotators around which a belt is looped, a contact part to contact an end of the belt as the belt moves in a belt width direction, a stationary frame part disposed facing the holder, a shaft moving device to move the rotation shaft as the belt moves, and at least one projection disposed on one of the stationary frame part and the holder. The projection is to contact the other of the stationary frame part and the holder. The projection includes a long projection having a contact portion extending in a shaft moving direction in which the rotation shaft moves, and the contact portion is contactable with the other of the stationary frame part and the holder.

An image forming apparatus having a fixing unit, a belt, a conveyance unit, a heat sink, first and second rollers, a belt position detection unit, a steering unit, and a control unit further includes an image forming unit to form a toner image on a recording material, and perform a state transition to a power-off state and to a standby state where image forming by the image forming unit is possible. The belt position detection unit detects a position of the belt. The steering unit swings the first roller relative to the second roller based on a detection result by the belt position detection unit to widthwisely move the belt relative to the first roller. When the image forming apparatus enters the power-off state, the control unit controls the steering unit to make a rotational axis of the first roller approximately parallel to a rotational axis of the second roller.

An imaging system includes an endless belt, a tension roller to engage the endless belt, a steering roller to contact the endless belt and a tilting mechanism to tilt the steering roller. The tension roller has a first end adjacent a first edge portion of the endless belt and a second end adjacent a second edge of the endless belt. A first belt meandering detection member is located at the first end of the tension roller. A second belt meandering detection member is located at the second end of the tension roller. The tilting mechanism operates the steering roller between a first mode wherein the first edge portion of the endless belt contacts the first belt meandering detection member, and a second mode wherein the second edge portion of the endless belt contacts the second belt meandering detection member.

A fixing device includes a heated rotational body, a heating unit, a pressing rotational body, a pressing mechanism, a drive unit, a position recognition part, a rotational state determination part, a drive control part, and a pressing control part. The heated rotational body has a pattern. The position recognition part is configured to recognize a specific point contained in the pattern at a prescribed period. The rotational state determination part is configured to determine a variation in a rotational speed of the heated rotational body and a meandering state of the heated rotational body based on a position of the specific point recognized at the prescribed period. The drive control part is configured to control the drive unit based on the variation in the rotational speed. The pressing control part is configured to control the pressing mechanism based on the meandering state.

An edge regulating member provided in a belt rotation device that tensions a belt via a belt tensioning roller and rotates the belt in a rotation direction includes a body that comes into contact with an inner surface of the belt and a regulating portion that extends, at a position adjacent to the body, further outward in a radial direction of the belt tensioning roller than the body, and comes into contact with an edge of the belt. Tension of the belt acting on the body while the inner surface of the belt is in contact with the body causes the regulating portion to tilt, turned outward in the rotation axis direction from a fold-back portion of the belt toward an upstream side in the rotation direction.

A belt drive device includes a drive unit, a detection unit, a blade, and a control unit. The drive unit rotates an endless belt. The detection unit detects a position of a connection portion in which both ends of a reinforcing tape, which is provided on an outer surface of an edge of the belt in a width direction orthogonal to a rotation direction of the belt, in a longitudinal direction along the edge of the belt are overlapped and connected. The blade comes into contact with an outer surface of the belt and an outer surface of the reinforcing tape and is provided to extend in the width direction. The control unit controls driving of the drive unit based on a detection result obtained by the detection unit such that when the drive unit rotates the belt by a constant length in a reverse direction from one end of the reinforcing tape overlapped inside toward the other end of the reinforcing tape overlapped outside at the connection portion from a state in which the belt is stopped, the drive unit rotates the belt in a forward direction to a rotation position where the other end of the reinforcing tape does not come into contact with the blade by a reverse rotation and stops the belt before the belt is reversely rotated.

An imaging system includes a pair of belt rollers, a steering roller, a wheel, and a link mechanism. The pair of belt rollers includes a first roller and a second roller to drive an endless belt along a belt path. The steering roller is between the first roller and the second roller. The steering roller is tiltable to engage the endless belt. The wheel is at an end of the first roller in abutment with an edge of the endless belt, to move in an outward direction along a rotation axis of the first roller, when the endless belt shifts away from the belt path toward the wheel. The link mechanism is between the wheel and the steering roller to tilt the steering roller in response to a sliding movement of the wheel in the outward direction, to urge the endless belt to shift toward the belt path.

A belt driving device includes: an endless belt; a stretch roller to engage the endless belt, the stretch roller including a rotary shaft; a steering roller spaced apart from the stretch roller within the endless belt; an adjustment member located along the rotary shaft of the stretch roller, the adjustment member movable along the rotary shaft; and linking mechanism to couple the adjustment member to the steering roller, the linking mechanism to engage a contact surface of the adjustment member. The contact surface includes contact points positioned at different distances from the rotary shaft to raise the linking mechanism during movement of the adjustment member, to cause the steering roller to tilt at an angle, and to maintain an alignment of the endless belt.