ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,298,690, issued on May 13, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).
"Fixing device" was invented by Suguru Takeuchi (Chiba, Japan), Ryo Yashiro (Tokyo), Masayuki Tamaki (Chiba, Japan) and Shinsuke Takahashi (Chiba, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fixing device includes an endless and rotatable belt of which an inner peripheral surface is applied with lubricant, a heater, a rotatable member to rotatably contact the belt and a nip forming member in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the belt. The nip forming member includes a holding portion, an upstream sliding portion and a downstream sliding portion. The downstream and upstr...