Externally heated thick belt fuser

摘要

A heat and pressure belt fuser structure (10) having an endless belt (12) and a pair of pressure engageable members (14,20) between which the endless belt is sandwiched for forming a fusing nip (50) through which substrates (24) carrying toner images (26) 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 (40) 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.