Externally heated thick belt fuser

摘要

A heat and pressure belt fuser structure having an endless belt and a pair of pressure engageable members between which the endless belt is sandwiched for forming a fusing nip through which substrates carrying toner images pass with the toner images contacting an outer surface of the endless belt, at least one of the pressure engageable members has a deformable layer, and the endless belt has a thickness of from about 1 to about 8 mm; and the fuser structure includes an external source of thermal energy for elevating a pre-nip area of the belt. The thick belt in combination with a deformable layer of at least one of the pressure member(s) cooperate to provide a large nip and adequate creep for intrinsic paper stripping.