US Patent Issued to Brother Kogyo on July 21 for "Image-forming apparatus including mechanism for maintaining opening and closing states of shutter of fixing device through urging force of urging member" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,687,814, issued on July 21, was assigned to Brother Kogyo K.K. (Nagoya, Japan).

"Image-forming apparatus including mechanism for maintaining opening and closing states of shutter of fixing device through urging force of urging member" was invented by Saya Minoshima (Gifu, Japan) and Tomonori Watanabe (Ichinomiya, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image-forming apparatus includes a fixing device, a shutter, and an urging member. The fixing device includes a heater unit, and a pressure unit forming a nipping region in cooperation with the heater unit. The shutter is movable between a closing position for covering a part of the heatin...