US Patent Issued to Canon on Sept. 8 for "Image forming apparatus having a connector including a terminal that does not contact any terminal of an attached fixing apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,730,397, issued on Sept. 8, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).

"Image forming apparatus having a connector including a terminal that does not contact any terminal of an attached fixing apparatus" was invented by Noriaki Sato (Shizuoka, Japan) and Rikuo Kawakami (Shizuoka, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image forming apparatus includes an attachment portion to which any one of a first fixing apparatus and a second fixing apparatus is selectively attached, and a power supply circuit including a plurality of power supply paths. The first fixing apparatus includes a plurality of first heating elements grouped into a plurality of gr...