...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8032044 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus capable of preventing toner fusion between recording sheets, with a construction that does not require increase in cost and size of the apparatus and does not unduly lower productivity, to thereby offer high usability. For image formation ... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8005388 | Media velocity, media present and bubble control in an electrophotographic process In an image forming device, the actual speed of a media sheet through a fuser is detected and the fuser speed is controlled so as to maintain a bubble in the media sheet within predetermined limits. A media sheet speed sensor is disposed downstream of the fuser nip.... | 08/23/2011 |
| 7941065 | Image forming apparatus and control method therof An image forming apparatus according to the invention includes an auxiliary power supply configured to detachably mountable on the image forming apparatus, a fixing device including a main heater heated by a commercial power supply and an auxiliary heater heated by ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7869729 | Fixing device capable of providing stable quality of fixed image A fixing device fixes an image on a recording medium by applying heat and pressure. In the fixing device, a belt is looped over a heating roller and a first roller provided inside a loop formed by the belt. A belt tensioner is provided outside the loop formed by the... | 01/11/2011 |
| 7853163 | Fixing device and image forming apparatus In a fixing unit, a fixing roller is rotated under driving force transmitted from a paper discharge unit-side gear of a driving section via a fixing roller driving gear, and holds and conveys a recording medium in cooperation with a pressure roller in a nip region. ... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7801456 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus has a heating rotator 12 that is heated by a first heat source 18, a pressurizing rotator 24 that is heated by a second heat source 28, that is in pressure contact with the heating rotator 12, and that fo... | 09/21/2010 |
| 7792448 | Image forming apparatus having heat-fixing unit An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion. The image forming apparatus further includes a fixing portion having a fixing nip portion that heats and fixes the unfixed image and an discharge roller that discharges the recording material. In the case... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7778563 | Variable speed fusing Systems and methods are described that facilitate reducing temperature droop during an initial portion of a print job by reducing fuser speed to increase fuser-to-paper interaction while fuser heat is absorbed by the paper during a temperature transient. For instanc... | 08/17/2010 |
| 7764894 | Image forming apparatus and method with control of image heating condition based on desired glossiness difference between achromatic image portion and color image portion An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device for forming a multi-color image using achromatic toner and chromatic toner; an image heating device for heating the multi-color image formed on a recording material; a setting device for setting a glossines... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7742714 | Image fixing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and image fixing method capable of effectively controlling an image fixing temperature An image forming apparatus, an image fixing apparatus, and an image fixing method that fix a toner image onto an recording medium in an electrophotographic process capable of effectively controlling an image fixing temperature. In one example, when a narrower record... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7720401 | Inter-document zone gloss defect eliminator A method for reducing gloss variation in prints, in an electrostatic printing system having a fuser for fusing sheets having marking particles thereon, the method including transporting a first sheet to the fuser; transporting a second sheet to the fuser; and abutti... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7657200 | Fixing device and image forming apparatus using the same A fixing device for fixing an unfixed toner image by heating and pressurizing a recording material by which the unfixed toner image is carried includes a heating member having a heat source, a pressurizing member that faces the heating member and that forms a fixing... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7639962 | Image forming apparatus with manual setting of an operating condition of at least one image heating device An image forming apparatus has an image forming device for forming a toner image on a recording material; a plurality of image heating devices for sequentially heating an image on the recording material in one of plural modes; a selecting device for selecting the mo... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7634208 | Driving device, image forming apparatus including driving device, and control method therefor It is desirable to reduce disturbance of an unfixed toner image by suppressing vibration of the trailing end of a recording medium, and to thereby stabilize the quality of a formed image. In a first control time period based on the leading edge of the recording medi... | 12/15/2009 |
| 7630662 | Image forming apparatus for fixing an image on a recording material and a current detection circuit therefor The image forming apparatus includes a current detection circuit for detecting an input current from the commercial power supply to the apparatus, in which: when a current detected by the current detection circuit exceeds a predetermined value, a maximum current sup... | 12/08/2009 |
| 7616911 | Electrophotographic printer and method of operation so as to minimize print defects A method is provided for operating an electrophotographic printer comprising providing an electrophotographic printer comprising a substrate transport assembly including a substrate transport member and a fuser assembly including a fuser member. The substrate transp... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7606509 | Image forming apparatus, recording material conveying method, program for implementing the method, and storage medium storing the program An image forming apparatus which can prevent a temperature increase at predetermined locations of a fixing unit and also realize the fastest printing with respect to each continuous printing number. The image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit that fixes an im... | 10/20/2009 |
| 7603048 | Image forming apparatus and control method thereof An image forming apparatus according to the invention includes an auxiliary power supply configured to detachably mountable on the image forming apparatus, a fixing device including a main heater heated by a commercial power supply and an auxiliary heater heated by ... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7577373 | Image forming apparatus having warm-up and normal modes and control method thereof An image forming apparatus includes: a conveyance motor for conveying paper; an image forming unit forms a toner image on the conveyed paper; and a fixing device having a heat roller including plural heat sources to cause the toner image to be fixed to the paper. Th... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7570895 | Image forming apparatus having heat-fixing unit An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion; a fixing portion having a fixing nip portion which heats and fixes the unfixed image and an discharge roller which discharges the recording material, wherein in the case where the recording material is th... | 08/04/2009 |
| 7529494 | Image forming apparatus and paper transporting apparatus An image forming apparatus discharging a printed medium at a stable speed. A image developer affixes an image to a printing medium to form a printed medium and a transporting roller moves the printed medium toward a discharge roller. A one-way clutch driving the tra... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7509066 | Image forming apparatus with loop detection and conveying speed control based thereon An image forming apparatus has transfer rollers for transferring an unfixed image, fixing rollers with a changeable conveying speed, discharging rollers with a changeable conveying speed thereof and for discharging the recording material on which the image has been ... | 03/24/2009 |
| 7496308 | Image transferring and forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a transferring section for transferring an image to an image receiving medium, a primary fixing section for fixing the image by pressurizing the medium and a secondary fixing section for fixing the image. Conveying lengths of the ... | 02/24/2009 |
| 7486902 | Image fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus An image fixing apparatus includes a first conveying path on which a sheet is conveyed, a first fixing unit that fixes a toner image on a sheet conveyed on the first conveying path, a second conveying path on which a sheet is conveyed, wherein the second conveying p... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7454150 | Image forming apparatus having a resist rotary member An image forming apparatus includes a belt stretched across rollers and a resist rotary member that feeds out a recording medium on the belt. A correlation between a velocity of the belt and the resist rotary member is obtained. A target velocity of the belt or the ... | 11/18/2008 |
| 7440707 | Image generating apparatus with temperature and feed interval control for fusing section An image generating apparatus is provided which can maximize the throughput without causing thermal damage of the fusing components. It determines a sub-thermistor temperature threshold value for switching small size paper feed intervals in response to a sub-thermis... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7437085 | Fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus A fixing apparatus includes a fixing rotary body; a rotary body provided with an interval from the fixing rotary body; an endless belt rotating in a condition in which it is wound around the fixing rotary body and the rotary body; a pressure rotary body which makes ... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7426353 | Image forming apparatus with variable convey speed control between transfer device and fixing device In a construction for forming images on the both surfaces of a sheet, a speed controlling device for effecting the conveyance control of the sheet between a transfer device and a fixing device controls, when the image is to be formed on a first surface, the sheet co... | 09/16/2008 |
| 7421219 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus, wherein a heating member heats a toner image formed on a sheet by an image forming portion, including: a first detector detecting a temperature of a first area of a contact area, which is contactable with the sheet, of the heating member,... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7409172 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of loop detecting sensors which detect various levels of loops formed on a recording material; and a controlling device which selects a specific one out of the loop sensors in accordance with information on the recordi... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7398027 | Image forming apparatus with conveyance speed control based in part on loop detection Conveyance speed of recording materials by a fixing roller pair can be set to conveyance speed based on detected results of a recording material detector and a loop detecting sensor, and information on the recording material that has been stored in a memory in advan... | 07/08/2008 |
| 7389062 | Image fixing apparatus and image forming apparatus An image fixing apparatus includes a first conveying path on which a sheet is conveyed, a first fixing unit that fixes a toner image on a sheet conveyed on the first conveying path, a second conveying path on which a sheet is conveyed, wherein the second conveying p... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7376367 | Method of controlling fusing speed of image forming apparatus Provided is a method of controlling a fusing speed of an image forming apparatus. Determination is made as to whether a sheet of paper to be printed is a special-purpose sheet. Determination is made as to whether a length 1 of the sheet of paper is shorter th... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7369786 | Sheet transporting apparatus and printing apparatus A sheet transporting apparatus includes: a heating roller and a pressure roller that heats and presses a toner image to fix the toner image onto the sheet; a pressure roller detection unit that detects a contact posture of the rollers; a sheet meander correction mec... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7366455 | Image fixing apparatus with heater and heater holder contacting the heater The image fixing apparatus includes a heater having a heat generating resistor on a substrate, a heater holder for holding said heater, and a backup roller for forming a nip portion in cooperation with said heater, wherein said heater holder has, in a direction alon... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7359654 | Image generating apparatus An image generating apparatus is provided which can maximize the throughput without causing thermal damage of the fusing components. It determines a sub-thermistor temperature threshold value for switching small size paper feed intervals in response to a sub-thermis... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7356275 | Apparatus and process for fuser control The invention is in the field of fusing and fusing apparatus for print media, particularly for fusing toner to print media and other variations. According to various aspects of the invention, an improved temperature control is provided for a fusing apparatus wherein... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7352979 | Image forming apparatus having a cooling section in a fixing apparatus An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing body; an image forming section to form a toner image on the image bearing body; a transfer section to transfer the toner image on a recording material; and a fixing apparatus having a pressure member and a heati... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7348524 | Image forming apparatus An image heating device has a magnetic flux generator, a heat generating element for generating heat by a magnetic flux from the magnetic flux generator; a magnetic flux confining member, the magnetic flux confining member including a magnetic flux confining portion... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7336405 | Thermal fixing device for controlling the temperature of a heat member to melt toner on a recording sheet A thermal fixing device for fixing toner images onto recording sheets includes a heat member, a pressing member, a temperature sensor, a clock, and a control unit. The control unit performs a toner fixing control and a high-temperature heat-up control. During the to... | 02/26/2008 |