CLEANER FOR ROTARY FIXING MEMBER, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING THE CLEANER, AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD EXECUTED BY THE IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes a rotary fixing member cleaner that includes a freely rotatable rotary unwinding member, around which a cleaning web winds, a rotary winding member to wind the cleaning web thereon from one end thereof, and a load applicator to apply a load to the cleaning web unwound from the rotary unwinding member. The rotary fixing member cleaner removes any unnecessary substance adhering to an outer circumferential surface of the rotary fixing member therefrom by unwinding and moving the cleaning web from the rotary unwinding member in an opposite direction to a direction of movement of the outer circumferential surface of the rotary fixing member at a contacting point at which the cleaning web contacts the outer circumferential surface of the rotary fixing member. The load applicator presses against the cleaning web winding around the rotary unwinding member at a prescribed angular contact position.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a toner image forming device to form multiple toner images on a recording medium by using multiple toner particles respectively having different optimum fixing conditions; a fixing device having a rotary fixing member and a pressing member to fix the toner image formed by the toner image forming device into the recording medium based on a given fixing condition while holding the recording medium bearing the toner image thereon therebetween; and a rotary fixing member cleaner including;
a freely rotatable rotary unwinding member, around which a cleaning web winds,a rotary winding member to wind the cleaning web unwound from the freely rotatable rotary unwinding member thereon from one end thereof, anda load applicator to apply a load to the cleaning web unwound from the rotary unwinding member, the rotary fixing member cleaner removing any unnecessary substance adhering to an outer circumferential surface of the rotary fixing member therefrom by unwinding and moving the cleaning web from the rotary unwinding member in an opposite direction to a direction of movement of the outer circumferential surface of the rotary fixing member at a contacting point at which the cleaning web contacts the outer circumferential surface of the rotary fixing member, the load applicator applying the load to the cleaning web by pressing against the cleaning web winding around the rotary unwinding member at a prescribed angular contact position, up to which the cleaning web winds around the rotary unwinding member at a prescribed angle from an unwinding angular position at which the cleaning web is unwound from the rotary unwinding member.