| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the need to wait during the time it takes for the temperature of a fixing device to rise, in particular, the need to wait until the temperature of the fixing device rises halfway through a consecutive printing, and to enable high speed printing at all times, by providing a switching means which switches the fixing unit to be used among fixing units arranged in parallel with each other in a sheet carrying direction. SOLUTION: A fixing device 1 comprises two fixing units 10 and 20 with the same function which are arranged parallel to each other in a sheet carrying direction. In the fixing units 10 and 20, nips 11 and 21, respectively, are formed by their respective upper and lower rollers. The fixing device 1 is provided in its sheet carrying path with a switching pawl 50 for switching the sheet carrying direction. The switching pawl 50 switches a carrying direction for a sheet ejected from an image forming process, to either a carrying guide 51 leading it to the nip 11 of the first fixing unit 10 or a carrying guide 52 leading it to the nip 21 of the second fixing unit 20. Thus, the fixing units 10 and 20 to be used are altered from one to the other. |
