JPH0887197A - Fixing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To accurately set a separating pawl for a transfer material provided in a fixing roller at a position where a proper interval is kept with a roller periphery. CONSTITUTION: The fixing device is constituted so that plural separating pawls 76 are supported through a shaft 170B by a pawl supporting member 170 whose position is set by energization force against the roller periphery caused by abutting an integrated butting member on an upper fixing roller 72 while the pawls 76 are individually energized counterclockwise by a tension spring 174 and further, the projecting part 76B of the upper separating pawl 76 is made to abut on the receiving part 173B of a screw member 173 screwed on the pawl supporting member 170 to individually adjust the gap Δ between the pawl tip part 76A of each upper separating pawl 76 and the roller periphery by the rotation of the screw member 173 in accordance with the shape and accuracy of the upper fixing roller 72.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fixing device provided in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, and more particularly to a fixing device for fixing an image on a recording material by pressure bonding and heating of a fixing roller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An elastic body coated with silicone oil is used for fixing a recording material holding a color image, especially for fixing a color toner image transferred with transparency used as a recording material for an overhead projector (OHP). It is known that the fixing device of the type in which the fixing roller of FIG.

Such an elastic fixing roller is formed by simply injecting liquid silicon of LTV under pressure into a mold for supporting a tube such as PFA and a core metal and heating it.
It has excellent releasability and excellent durability.
Further, in the fixing device, a plurality of claw members (peeling claws) are provided in parallel with the fixing roller shaft in order to prevent an accident in which the recording material winds around the fixing roller.

There are two types of peeling claws provided in the fixing device to prevent the recording material from winding around the fixing roller and causing a jam. The first method is a method in which the toes of a plurality of peeling claws provided in parallel with the axis of the fixing roller are lightly brought into contact with the surface of the fixing roller. In the first contact method, the recording material is reliably separated, but not only does the tip of the toe damage the surface of the fixing roller with which it slides, but the tip of the finger scrapes off the silicone oil applied to the surface of the fixing roller. The oil scraped off is collected and adheres to the recording material, resulting in so-called oil stain, which significantly deteriorates the quality of the recording material. This means that in a fixing device that can also fix transparency as a recording material, the amount of silicone oil applied to the surface of the fixing roller is large, and such a drawback becomes more remarkable. Therefore, the first method can be adopted. Can not. In the second method, the toes of the peeling claw provided in parallel with the plurality of fixing roller shafts are held with a slight gap from the surface of the fixing roller, and the toes of the recording material are scooped up by the toes. It is a method of separating. The second non-contact method has a feature that the surface of the fixing roller is not damaged and oil stains are not generated. On the other hand, it is necessary that the above-mentioned gap is accurately held in a non-contact state. When the gap is set wide, the recording material passes through the gap and winds around the fixing roller, and the effect of providing the peeling claw is lost.

[0005]

In a fixing roller having an elastic layer, there is a problem that when heated, the roller diameter causes a large difference in expansion depending on the position in the lengthwise direction, and becomes particularly thicker in the center than at both ends. is there. Therefore, when a plurality of non-contact peeling claws are provided on the fixing roller in which the roller diameter greatly changes due to such a heating state,
The required gap accuracy needs to be more severe, and it is necessary to have a high degree of adjustment function.

Regarding the adjustment of the position of the peeling claw with respect to the roller diameter, the applicant of the present invention has previously disclosed a proposal according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-119662. In the above proposal, the abutting rollers provided at both ends of the claw supporting member are fixed. The method is to uniformly regulate the positions of a plurality of peeling claws to be supported by pressing them against the roller, which makes it possible to easily adjust the gap with high accuracy, but the variation of the roller diameter is uniform. The uniform regulation is not sufficient for the non-fixing roller, and the above-mentioned proposal cannot adjust the gap for each peeling claw, so that there is a problem in the reliability of peeling the recording material.

The present invention solves this problem and improves the result.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fixing device in which all the peeling claws can be individually adjusted with respect to the corresponding roller diameters and the intervals can be set by adding a very simple device.

[0008]

The above object is to provide a fixing roller having at least one elastic layer in the radial direction, a plurality of claws for coming close to the fixing roller in a non-contact manner to separate a recording material, and the claws. The fixing device is provided with a claw support member for supporting a fixing roller, and an adjusting unit for individually adjusting a gap between the surface of the fixing roller and the claw.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention is a side sectional view showing the constitution of the fixing device of FIG. 1, a side sectional view showing the constitution of the image forming apparatus of FIG. 2 having the fixing device, and the image of FIG. And a block diagram showing the forming system.

However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described by taking a color printer as an example.

As shown in FIG. 2, the color image forming apparatus 1 comprises a laser writing system unit B, an image forming section C, and a paper feeding section D, and a color image is recorded by the following process. There is. First, the formation of a multicolor image according to this embodiment is performed according to the image forming system of FIG. That is, the data obtained by the color image data input unit (FIG. 3A) in which the image sensor scans the original image is processed by the image data processing unit (FIG. 3B) to create image data, This is once stored in the image memory (FIG. 3C). Next, the image memory is taken out at the time of recording and inputted to the recording unit (FIG. 3D), for example, the color image forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. That is, when a color signal output from an image reading apparatus separate from the printer is input to the laser writing system unit B, a laser beam generated by a semiconductor laser (not shown) is generated in the laser writing system unit B. The image is rotated and scanned by the polygon mirror 52 rotated by the drive motor 51, the optical path is bent by the mirror 54 through the fθ lens 53, and the image is uniformly charged to a predetermined charge by the charger 55 as a charging unit in advance. A bright line is formed by being projected onto the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 30 which is a carrier.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 30 in the sub-scanning direction
A photo sensor (neither of which is shown) detects an index provided at a specific position, and the semiconductor laser is started to be modulated by the image signal based on the detection signal to determine the main scanning direction. When scanning is started, a laser beam is detected by an index sensor (neither is shown) in the main scanning direction, and the modulated laser beam scans the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 30. Therefore, a latent image corresponding to the first color is formed on the peripheral surface of the photoconductor drum 30 by the main scanning by the laser beam and the sub-scanning by the rotation of the photoconductor drum 30. In the present embodiment, this latent image is developed by a developing device 31Y containing, for example, yellow (Y) toner (visual medium) among a plurality of developing means provided in parallel, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 30 is developed. A Y toner image is formed on. The toner image thus obtained, while being held on the photosensitive drum 30, passes through a cleaning device 59, which is a cleaning means spaced apart from the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 30, and is subsequently subjected to a copy cycle of the second color. enter.

That is, the photoconductor drum 30 on which the Y toner image is formed is charged again by the charger 55, and then the second color signal output from the image reading device is input to the writing system unit B. Writing is performed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 30 in the same manner as in the case of the above-described first color signal, and a latent image is formed. The latent image is developed by the developing device 31M containing, for example, magenta (M) toner as the second color. This M toner image is formed under development of the previously formed Y toner image.

Similarly, the latent image formed by the third image signal is developed by the developing device 31C containing cyan (C) toner, and after recharging, the latent image formed by the fourth image signal is black ( B) The toner is stored and developed by the developing device 31B, and the C toner image and the B toner image are superposed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 30, and a color toner image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 30.

An AC or further DC bias is applied to the sleeves of the developing devices 31Y, 31M, 31C and 31B, and reversal development (jumping development) is performed in a non-contact manner on the photosensitive drum 30 whose base is grounded. It is supposed to be. For developing devices that are not related to development, stop the rotation of the developing sleeve and cut the applied bias.
The toner image formed on the photoconductor drum 30 is prevented from being damaged, and unnecessary toner is not supplied to the latent image.

The color toner image formed on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 30 as described above is supplied from the paper feeding section D by the paper feeding belt at the transfer pole 56 provided as a transfer means, and is transferred by the timing roller. The color toner image is transferred onto a transfer material, which is a recording medium at the same timing.
This transfer is performed by applying a voltage from a high voltage power source having a polarity opposite to that of the toner by the transfer pole 56.

Thus, the transfer material on which the color toner image has been transferred is separated from the surface of the photosensitive drum 30 by the separating electrode 57 and is carried into the fixing device 70 of the present invention via the conveyor belt to fix the color toner image. After that, the sheet is conveyed to the sheet discharge device 80 and discharged to the tray 1A.

On the other hand, the photosensitive drum 30 which has completed the transfer and separation of the color toner image onto the transfer material is further rotated in the clockwise direction to bring the blade 59A of the cleaning device 59 into a pressure contact state to remove and clean the residual toner. Done. After the cleaning is completed, the blade 59A is separated from the photosensitive drum 30 again, and a new color image forming process is started.

In this way, a desired color image is recorded on the transfer material.

Next, the structure and operation of the fixing device 70 of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the fixing device 70 includes a fixing main body 71 forming a housing, an upper fixing roller 72 and a lower fixing roller 73 rotatably mounted in the fixing main body 71, and a periphery of the upper fixing roller 72. A silicone oil pad 74 provided on the upper left side of the surface, a leveling roller 75 provided on the upper right side, and a plurality of rollers provided on the downstream side (left side of the upper fixing roller 72) in the conveying direction of the transfer material so as to face the upper fixing roller 72. The upper separating claw 76 and the lower separating claw 77 that contacts the lower fixing roller 73 and separates the transfer material on the downstream side. Fixing upper roller 72
Has a dimension in the longitudinal direction (perpendicular to the paper surface) capable of fixing the toner image in the width direction of the B4 size transfer material, and is 3 concentrically outside the aluminum alloy shaft 72A.
An elastic layer 72B made of heat-resistant synthetic silicone rubber having a thickness of not less than mm and having an outer diameter of about 30 mm is provided. The preferable thickness of the elastic layer 72B is set to about 5 mm.

The surface of the elastic layer 72B is coated with a release agent layer 72C of a tetrafluoroethylene-perfluoroalkyl vinyl ether copolymer (hereinafter referred to as PFA) having a thickness of about 50 μ as a resin layer, and fixing is completed. The transfer material is easily peeled off from the upper fixing roller 72 and is not easily scratched. The hardness of the elastic layer 72B measured from above the PFA coated with PFA is 65 ° or less in Asker C, and is preferably set to around 56 °.

When the elastic layer 72B is made of LTV silicone rubber as a base, the shaft 72A as a core metal and the PFA as a release material layer 72C are provided inside a pipe-shaped mold.
With the tube set as a resin layer, liquid silicon is injected under pressure to be molded, and after vulcanization and cooling, it is taken out of the mold and used without post-processing.

On the other hand, when the HTV silicone rubber is used as the base material, the silicone rubber kneaded around the shaft 72A is pressure-molded in a mold in a wound state, and after polishing the outer diameter, it is covered with a PFA tube for use. To be done.

The upper fixing roller 72 whose base body of the elastic layer 72B is LTV silicon rubber has an outer diameter accuracy of ± 0.2 mm and an eccentricity of 0.3.
Although the precision is slightly inferior, the upper fixing roller 72, which uses HTV silicon as the base body, has an outer diameter precision of ± 0.1 mm and an eccentricity of 0.1 mm, but the cost is lower in the former and higher in the latter. There is, and it is selected in consideration of them.

The silicone oil pad 74 is preliminarily impregnated with silicone oil for releasing, and is attached so as to come into contact with the entire length of the upper fixing roller 72. The silicon pad 74 is made of foamable Teflon or other felt material, and due to its elasticity, is lightly pressed against the peripheral surface of the fixing upper roller 72 to supply the contained silicon oil to the roller surface without interruption.

The leveling roller 75 is in pressure contact with the upper fixing roller 72 and is forcibly driven and rotated in the opposite direction. The leveling roller 75 is made of felt or synthetic leather having a surface density of, for example, 550 g / m ² , and the elasticity of the leveling roller 75 rubs the peripheral surface of the fixing upper roller 72 to make the oil layer uniform.

On the other hand, the lower fixing roller 73 is also a metal base tube 73A of aluminum alloy having the same longitudinal dimension as the upper fixing roller 72, for example, an outer diameter of 30 mm and a wall thickness of 3 mm.
A W heater 73B is provided.

The upper fixing roller 72 and the lower fixing roller 73 are pressed against each other with a predetermined pressing force, and the elastic layer 72B of the upper fixing roller 72 is nipped between the lower fixing roller 73 and the lower fixing roller 73 as shown in the figure. In the process of forming the width d and passing through the nip width d, the toner image on the transfer material is fixed at a set temperature and time.

A silicone oil pad 74 as shown in the figure is provided in contact with the entire upper surface of the upper fixing roller 72 in the circumferential direction in the longitudinal direction. The silicone oil pad 74 is always applied to the surface of the upper fixing roller 72 and leveled. The roller 75 forms a uniform silicone oil layer so that the transfer material after fixing is easily separated from the upper fixing roller 72 and the durability of the fixing roller is maintained.

As shown in the figure, the transfer material conveyed from the direction of the arrow of the fixing device 70 is fixed by the upper and lower fixing rollers 72 and 73 which are set at a predetermined fixing speed and temperature, and the adjacent sheet discharging device. After 80, it is ejected onto tray 1A. Thus, the fixing upper roller 72 is provided on the shaft 72A with the elastic layer 72B having a low hardness and a large thickness, and the release material layer 72 is provided on the outer periphery thereof.
The fixing upper roller 72 which covers C and has no heater inside
And a lower fixing roller 73 made of a metal material and having a built-in heater, are pressed against each other and rotated to warm the surface of the upper fixing roller 72 by the lower fixing roller 73 to fix the transfer material.

The reason why this structure is reached will be described below from the viewpoint of OHP transparency. To improve durability,
By covering the surface layer of the elastic layer 72B with PFA, heat aging is prevented and scratches are less likely to occur. However, as the fixing upper roller 72 with a thin rubber layer according to the prior art does not have sufficient OHP permeability, as described above, the thickness is 3 mm or more, preferably 5 mm, and the hardness is Asker C. The transparency was obtained by setting the angle to 65 ° or less, preferably about 56 °. However, since the thickness is thick, if the surface temperature of the fixing upper roller 72 is raised to a required temperature by heating from the inside of the roller, the interface temperature between the shaft 72A and the elastic body layer 72B becomes high and the elastic body layer 72B and A durability problem arises in that separation from the shaft 72A occurs. Further, since it is inefficient to conduct heat through the elastic layer 72B having a low thermal conductivity, as shown in the present embodiment, the fixing upper roller 72 does not have a built-in heater, and the fixing lower roller 73 heats it. Thus, the upper fixing roller 72 is heated from the surface.

The lower separating claw 77 of the lower roller 73 is a fixing main body.
A plurality of rising portions 71D integrated with 71 are arranged at a predetermined interval and face the peripheral surface of the lower fixing roller 73.

Each lower separation claw 77 has a pair of bosses which are integrated with each other.
77B are rotatably supported by the rising portions 71D projecting from the fixing main body 71, and are biased clockwise by a tension spring 71E so that the tip 77A of the claw is fixed to the lower fixing roller.
It is lightly pressed against the circumference of 73.

A part of the tip end portion 77A of the claw forms a guide surface for the transfer material, and the separated transfer material is conveyed to the guide plate 78 and then discharged to the outside of the fixing main body 71.

The leveling roller 75 and the lower fixing roller 73 are coaxially provided with gears G1 and G2, respectively.
It is connected via G5 and G6.

The gear G3 is meshed with a gear G7 driven by a motor M. The rotation of the motor M causes the leveling roller 75 to rotate clockwise and the lower fixing roller 73 to rotate counterclockwise.
Therefore, the fixing upper roller 72 is driven to rotate clockwise,
The transfer material conveyed in the direction of the arrow is sandwiched by the pressure contact surfaces of the upper and lower fixing rollers and heated to fix the toner image.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned motor M is provided on the photosensitive drum 30.
Since it is used as a power source for the rotation and the transfer material transporting operation, the transfer material can be transported from the transfer of the toner image to the fixing in synchronism with these processes without any trouble.

As a result, in the present embodiment, it is possible to fix a beautiful color image having no stains or unevenness without impairing the transparency of the transfer material for OHP, which has a life of 10,000 to 20,000 pages. Can be done, for example, by fixing plain paper 10
Durability of over 10,000 pages was obtained. The fixing upper roller 72
Since the releasing material layer 72C is provided on the outer periphery of the fixing device 70, the releasing property of the fixed transfer material is good, and it does not wind around the upper fixing roller 72, so that the fixing jam is prevented and the fixing device 70 is highly reliable. Became.

Next, the fixing device 70 corresponding to the type of transfer material to be fixed and the formation of a transparent image will be described.

Since the structure of the fixing device, and in particular, the upper fixing roller 72 and the lower fixing roller 73 are the same as those of the fixing device 70 described above, the description thereof will be omitted.

Normally, when fixing plain paper, the linear velocity of the upper and lower rollers 72 and 73 for fixing is 74.4 mm / s, and the fixing temperature at that time is set to about 135.degree. For example, when the transfer material is thick paper, the linear velocity of the lower and upper rollers 72, 73 for fixing is fixed to 37.2 mm / s, which is about half that of the plain paper described above. Fixing is possible at a temperature of 120 ° C. If thick paper is used, the fixing temperature is required to be about 165 ° C. when the linear velocity is 74.4 mm / s.

Further, for example, in the case of fixing for forming a transparent image on a transfer material for OHP, the linear velocity of the upper and lower rollers 72, 73 for each fixing is set to 12.4 mm / s, which is 1/6 of that of plain paper. As a result, sufficient permeability can be obtained at a temperature of about 135 ° C.

Therefore, when thick paper or a transparent image is formed, by fixing the speed to a slower speed than plain paper, in the case of thick paper, the amount of heat given to the paper and the toner on the paper can be increased, and fixing to the thick paper is possible. In the case of a transparent image, the speed can be further slowed down and a large amount of heat can be applied at a fixing temperature similar to plain paper, and sufficient transparency can be obtained.

As described above, the fixing device 70 of this embodiment switches the fixing speed in three stages corresponding to the plain paper fixing mode, the thick paper fixing mode, and the transmission image fixing mode, and also fixes at the fixing temperature corresponding to each linear speed. To do.

Therefore, for example, when the user switches from plain paper to thick paper or a transparent image fixing mode, it is possible to fix at a lower fixing temperature by setting a slow linear velocity corresponding to each mode. Since a predetermined fixing temperature is reached much earlier and the waiting time is shortened, extremely efficient fixing can be performed.

The switching of the fixing speed is performed by the servo motor or the stepping motor (neither is shown) under the control of a CPU (not shown) stored in advance at the same time when the toner image is transferred onto the transfer material on the photosensitive drum 30. ) The number of rotations can be switched. When each fixing mode is set, each fixing
The fixing is performed at the above-mentioned fixing temperature corresponding to the lower rollers 72 and 73.

The transfer material on which the toner image has been fixed in this way is separated from the peripheral surfaces of both the upper fixing roller 72 and the lower fixing roller 73 and discharged horizontally from the inside of the fixing main body 71. When it is wound around the upper fixing roller 72 due to poor performance, it is forcibly peeled off by the upper separating claw 76 and when it is wound around the lower fixing roller 73 by the lower separating claw 77.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of upper separating claws 76 are arranged at predetermined intervals on a claw supporting member 170 provided along the peripheral surface of the fixing upper roller 72. Is being opposed to.

Both ends of the claw support member 170 are rotatably held by a pair of holding shafts 71B provided on a holding plate 71A inside the fixing body 71, and are biased by a torsion spring 71C.

The claw support member 170 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, a pair of abutting members 171 are provided at the bottoms of both ends thereof, and the tip portions 171A thereof are lightly pressed against both side end peripheral surfaces of the fixing upper roller 72 by the counterclockwise urging force of the torsion spring 71C. I am letting you.

The abutting member 171 has an integral pin 171B.
The position and the direction are regulated by engaging the round holes and the elongated holes of the claw support member 170 by the 171C, and the washer 172 is locked to the pin 171B, and integrated with the claw support member 170. Has been done.

The plurality of upper separation claws 76 are rotatably supported by shafts 170B fixed between the rising portions 170A of the claw support members 170, as shown in FIG. The tension springs 174 stretched between the top portion and the claw support member 170 are individually biased counterclockwise.

The upper separating claw 76 is provided with a claw tip portion 76A facing the peripheral surface of the fixing upper roller 72 on one side of the center of rotation, and projecting portions 76B and 76C projecting on the opposite side. 76B has a slit S.

On the other hand, the claw support member 170 is screwed with a screw member 173 having a neck portion 173A and a receiving portion 173B, and the neck portion 17
With 3A engaged with the slit S of the protrusion 76B of the upper separation claw 76, the receiving portion 173B receives the lower surface of the protrusion 76B to restrict the counterclockwise rotation of the upper separation claw 76. There is.

Therefore, by changing the height of the screw member 173, the tip end portion 76A of the upper separating claw 76 can be changed.
Of the upper separation claw 76 and is used as an adjusting means of the distance amount Δ corresponding to the fixing upper roller 72.

The gap amount Δ between the claw tip portion 76A of the upper separation claw 76 and the peripheral surface of the upper fixing roller 72 is set in consideration of the following conditions.

If the gap amount Δ is larger than necessary, it may be difficult to separate the transfer material wound around the fixing upper roller 72 from the peripheral surface, and jam may occur. However, if it is in contact with the peripheral surface of the upper fixing roller 72, the oil on the peripheral surface of the roller is scraped off and collected at the tip of the toe, which causes a so-called oil sag phenomenon. The upper limit is 0.
It is said that it is desirable to set 4 mm and the lower limit value to 0.05 mm, and set within that range.

However, in the above-mentioned fixing upper roller 72, the central portion in the axial direction expands more than the both end portions due to the temperature difference in the heated state, and in this embodiment, the radius difference tends to become thicker by about 0.25 mm. At the time of initial setting of the gap amount Δ, the value is 0.
4mm and the radius difference of 0.25m when added to the lower limit of 0.05mm
It must be set within a range of 0.1 mm between m, ie 0.3 mm. It is also possible to have a wide adjustment range on both sides.

Although the setting range in the central portion is extremely severe in terms of adjustment, in the fixing device 70 of the present invention, the screw member 173 is rotated to change the height thereof, so that the tip portion 76A of the claw is changed. Since it is possible to finely adjust each position individually, the gap amount Δ
The value of can be easily and accurately set to the required amount corresponding to the position of the separating claw 76.

[0062]

According to the present invention, the separation claw of the transfer material installed on the fixing roller adopts a non-contact type separation claw so that the recording material is not contaminated with oil and the quality is not deteriorated. As a result of being able to finely and individually adjust the gap amount to the peripheral surface according to the accuracy and deformation of the roller, separation failure will occur even for a fixing roller having an elastic layer that is often deformed by thermal expansion. A fixing device that does not cause jamming based on
By using the fixing roller made of an elastic material, a practically extremely useful fixing device capable of fixing a vivid color image not only on a general transfer paper but also on a transfer material for OHP has been provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram showing a fixing device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus including the fixing device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an image forming system.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a layout of separation claws.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of the plan view showing the layout of the separation claw.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of the plan view showing the layout of the separation claw.

[Explanation of symbols]

 70 Fixing device 71 Fixing main body 72 Fixing upper roller 73 Fixing lower roller 74 Silicon oil pad 75 Leveling roller 76 Upper separating claw 76A Claw tip 76B Projection 170 Claw support member 171 Abutment member 173 Screw member 174 Tension spring S S slit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A fixing roller having at least one elastic layer in a radial direction, a plurality of claws for coming close to the fixing roller in a non-contact manner to separate a recording material, and a claw support member for supporting the claw. A fixing device comprising: an adjusting unit that individually adjusts a gap between the surface of the fixing roller and the claw. 2. The position of the claw is regulated with respect to the peripheral surface of the fixing roller by contacting an abutting member provided on the claw support member with the peripheral surface of the fixing roller.
The fixing device described. 3. The fixing device according to claim 1, wherein the fixing roller is composed of a cored bar in a central portion, an elastic layer in an intermediate portion, and a resin layer in a surface portion.