IMAGE FIXING UNIT FOR USE IN WET-TYPE ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC COPYING MACHINE

摘要

An image fixing unit for a wet-type electrophotographic copying machine capable of forming a latent electrostatic image on a photoconductor element, developing the latent electrostatic image to a visible toner image by a developer comprising a carrier liquid and toner particles and transferring the visible toner image to a transfer sheet, is disclosed, which comprises (a) a non-thermal carrier liquid content reduction device for reducing the content of the carrier liquid in the developer deposited imagewise on the transfer sheet without application of heat thereto; and (b) a thermal image fixing device for fixing the toner image to the transfer sheet by directly heating the toner image formed on the transfer sheet after the reduction of the content of the carrier liquid in the imagewise deposited developer by the non-thermal carrier liquid content reduction device.