Thermal fixing system for recording media of a printer or copier device that are printed on one or both sides

US6430381B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Océ Printing Systems GmbH · DE

Inventor

• Walter Kopp · Taufkirchen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 2, 1997
• Grant date: Aug 6, 2002
• Expiry date: Oct 2, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G03G2215/2083
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

In a thermal fixing system for fixing toner images on the front side of a recording medium in an electrographic printer or copier device, the back side of the recording medium can already have a fixed toner image. The thermal fixing means contains a heat transfer fixing station that fixes the toner images on the recording medium, and contains a pre-heating saddle that precedes the heat transfer fixing station in a running direction of the recording medium. A sliding surface that accepts the recording medium over its back side is allocated to the pre-heating saddle. The sliding surface is constructed of a toner-repellant material at least in a contact region with the recording medium. The preheating saddle is designed as a low temperature saddle with the largest possible constructional length, so that a temperature difference between recording substrate and saddle surface is as small as possible. The preheating saddle has, in the recording substrate running direction, a plurality of heating zones. A control device controls the heating zones in such a manner that, along the preheating saddle, an approximately constant thermal energy flow occurs on the saddle surface to the recording …