Method and apparatus for reducing sheet material curl induced in a fusing operation

摘要

A fuser assembly within an image forming apparatus having a paper path along which substrates travel through the image forming apparatus comprises a heating member and a backup member cooperating with the heating member to form a nip therebetween for fusing images onto substrates passing through the nip. Also provided is structure for conveying substrates along the paper path to the nip, and a processor. The processor determines a relative humidity, determines if the relative humidity is above a predefined value corresponding to undesirable substrate curl; sets an interpage gap between conveyed substrates to a nominal value if the relative humidity is below the predefined value; and determines if the interpage gap should be increased beyond the nominal value if the relative humidity is above the predefined value. A corresponding method is provided.