JP2014109754A - Connector, fixing device, and image forming apparatus including the fixing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector that ensures electrical contact without applying more than necessary contact pressure, in a configuration in which spring contact parts of a contact terminal are in electrical contact with electrical contact points provided on both front and rear faces, and thereby eliminating requirement of high accuracy in dimensions of components.SOLUTION: A connector includes: a contact terminal 14 in a cross-sectional U-shape that has a pair of spring contact parts 16a and 16b brought into pressure contact with electrode parts 10 provided on both front and rear faces of a planar exothermic heater 5 with a predetermined contact pressure from both front and rear faces of the planar exothermic heater 5; a space 15b in a cross-sectional U-shape into which the contact terminal 14 is inserted movably in the front and rear face direction of the exothermic heater 5; an opening 6b that allows the spring contact points 16a and 16b to be in contact with the electrode parts 10 provided on both front and rear faces of the planar exothermic heater 5; and a housing member 15 in a cross-sectional U-shape that accommodates the contact terminal 14.

Description

  The present invention relates to a connector that can be used in a fixing device of an image forming apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a printer, there is a film-type fixing device as a fixing device that transfers a toner image formed by an image forming unit onto a sheet, and fixes it on the sheet by heating and pressing.

  This film-type fixing device uses a heating device having a sheet heating heater in which a sheet heating element is provided on a ceramic substrate. The sheet heating heater is supported by a support member, and a cylinder is formed outside the support member. A film member is attached.

  The pressure roller is in pressure contact with the sheet heater through the film member, and the toner image is transferred when a sheet carrying an unfixed toner image passes between the pressure roller and the film member. Melt and fix to sheet.

  In such a fixing device, an electrode portion electrically connected to the heating element is formed on one end of the surface heating heater at the end of the ceramic substrate. And a connector is inserted from the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the supporting member which is supporting the planar heater with respect to the electrode part. Thereby, the contact terminal provided in the connector is brought into contact with and electrically connected to the electrode portion of the sheet heater.

  The contact terminal needs to ensure a predetermined contact pressure with respect to the electrode portion of the sheet heater in order to prevent a fixing failure that occurs because the heating element cannot be heated due to poor conduction at the contact portion. However, the position of the sheet heater may be shifted due to the tolerance of parts or rattling between parts, and the contact pressure changes due to the slight displacement.

  As a countermeasure, in Patent Document 1, the electrode spring contact portion of the contact terminal is brought into contact with the electrode portion of the sheet heating heater and biased, and the supporting spring contact portion is formed on the surface opposite to the electrode portion of the sheet heating heater. Contacts through the spacer and biases in the direction opposite to the electrode spring contact portion.

  The contact pressure of the support spring contact portion is set larger than the contact pressure of the electrode spring contact portion. As a result, the planar heater is brought into contact with the heater support member, the positioning accuracy of the electrode portion and the contact terminal of the planar heater is improved, and the displacement amount of the electrode spring contact portion is stabilized. Thereby, a predetermined contact pressure can be secured.

Japanese Patent No. 4585668 (FIG. 3)

  However, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the following problems.

  In recent years, the size of a sheet printed by an image forming apparatus such as a printer is various. In the above-described planar heater, the length of the heating element in the longitudinal direction is usually larger than the maximum size width of the sheet passing through the fixing device. When a sheet having a small width is allowed to pass through the fixing device having such a sheet heater, the temperature rises because heat is not applied to the sheet in the end region where the sheet of the sheet heater does not pass.

  Therefore, the temperature also increases at the axial end of the pressure roller that contacts the planar heater via the film member. An elastic body such as silicon rubber is used for the pressure roller. At that time, if there is a temperature difference in the rubber part, the amount of expansion will be different, and if the rubber part continues to be used in this state, a fixing failure may occur. For this reason, when printing a sheet having a small size width, a down time (cooling time) is provided in order to release the heat at the end in the width direction to the peripheral portion. Further, glossy spots or the like may occur in the fixed image due to a temperature difference in the axial direction of the pressure roller.

  In order to solve this problem, a plurality of heating elements having different lengths are arranged on the ceramic substrate to prevent a temperature rise at the axial end of the pressure roller, and to prevent a fixed image defect without providing a waiting time due to downtime. May prevent. The length of the heating element in the longitudinal direction can be set arbitrarily, and the heating element to be heated is selected to reduce the area where the sheet does not pass with respect to the length of the heating element in the longitudinal direction according to the width of the sheet to be used. To do. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the temperature rise at the axial end of the pressure roller. However, if a plurality of planar heating elements having different lengths are arranged on the ceramic substrate, the width of the planar heating heater in the sheet conveying direction is increased, resulting in an increase in size of the apparatus and an increase in cost.

  To solve this problem, a double-sided heater that forms planar heating elements on both sides of the ceramic substrate is used. In the double-sided heater, since the heating elements are arranged on both sides, the width of the sheet-like heater in the sheet conveyance direction can be suppressed. The double-sided heater is formed so that the electrode part is paired on both the front and back surfaces of the end part of the ceramic substrate.

  However, in the case of a double-sided heater, when inserted into the connector shown in Patent Document 1, the contact pressure due to the spring contact portion of the contact terminal differs between the front and back of the double-sided heater, and the electrode portion on the side where the contact pressure is larger is more than necessary. Pressure is applied to the double-sided heater.

  For this reason, it is necessary to make the contact pressures on the front and back sides of the double-sided heating heater equal. In addition, in the double-sided heater, the pair of spring contact portions of the contact terminals are opposed to each other, but when the thickness of the double-sided heater is small, the amount of displacement of the spring contact portion is small.

  Further, when the position of the double-sided heater is shifted due to part tolerance or backlash between parts, the amount of displacement of the spring contact portion is small, and the contact is lifted, resulting in poor fixing due to poor contact. For this reason, high component dimensional accuracy is required, which may reduce the yield in mass production.

  The present invention solves the above-described problems, and the object of the present invention is to provide a contact pressure more than necessary in a configuration in which the spring contact portion of the contact terminal is in electrical contact with the electrical contacts provided on both the front and back surfaces. Ensure electrical contact without adding. Thus, a connector that does not require high component dimensional accuracy is provided.

  A typical configuration of the connector according to the present invention for achieving the above object is that the electrical contact provided on both the front and back surfaces of the connector member is pressed by a predetermined pressure from both the front and back surfaces of the connector member. A contact terminal having a U-shaped cross section having a pair of spring contact portions, a space having a U-shaped cross section in which the contact terminal is movably inserted in the front and back direction of the connector member, and the spring contact portion is covered with the covered contact. And a housing member having a U-shaped cross section that accommodates the contact terminal. The housing member has an opening that allows contact with electrical contacts provided on both front and back surfaces of the connector member.

  According to the above configuration, the contact terminal is held movably with respect to the housing. Thereby, even if the position of the electrical contact of the connector member relative to the contact terminal is shifted due to component tolerance or backlash between components, the spring contact portion follows the position of the electrical contact of the connector member. As a result, the contact pressures on the front and back sides are kept substantially equal, and the spring contact portion can reliably contact the electrical contacts of the connector member without requiring high component dimensional accuracy.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a fixing device using the connector according to the present invention. (A)-(c) is the whole perspective view which shows the engagement relationship of a planar heating heater and a heater support member, the partial perspective view seen from the lower surface, and the partial perspective view seen from the upper surface. (A) is sectional explanatory drawing of a planar heater, (b) is the top view seen from the arrow b direction of (a), (c) is the bottom view seen from the arrow c direction of (a). It is a perspective explanatory view which shows a mode that the connector which concerns on this invention attaches to a planar heating heater and a heater supporting member. It is an isometric view explanatory drawing which shows the structure of the contact terminal of a connector. It is a section explanatory view showing the composition of the connector concerning the present invention. It is a section explanatory view showing signs that a contact terminal in the state where a connector concerning the present invention was attached to a heater support member contacted an electrode part of a planar heater. It is a section explanatory view showing signs that the contact terminal in the state where the connector concerning the present invention was attached to the heater supporting member contacted the electrode part of the sheet heating heater which shifted below. 1 is an explanatory cross-sectional view showing a configuration of an image forming apparatus using a connector according to the present invention.

  An embodiment of a connector according to the present invention and a fixing device having the connector will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

<Image forming apparatus>
In the present embodiment, description will be made using an electrophotographic four-drum color image forming apparatus. FIG. 9 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the overall configuration of a full-color laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as “printer”) 22.

  In FIG. 9, a feeding cassette 23 is housed in a lower portion of the printer 22 so that it can be pulled out. A manual feeding unit 24 is disposed on the right side of the printer 22 in FIG. The recording materials stacked and accommodated in the feeding cassette 23 and the manual feeding unit 24 are separated and fed one by one. The printer 22 is arranged in parallel in a horizontal row, and cartridges 25y, 25m, 25c, and 25k (cartridge 25) corresponding to each color of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black are formed as image forming means for forming a toner image on a recording material. I have.

  The cartridge 25 includes photosensitive drums 26y, 26m, 26c, and 26k (photosensitive drum 26) as image carriers, and charging devices 27y, 27m, 27c, and 27k (charging device 27) that uniformly charge the surface of the photosensitive drum 26 negatively. Is provided. Furthermore, developing rollers 28y, 28m, 28c, and 28k (developing roller 28) are provided for developing toner images by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image. Further, photosensitive member cleaning blades 29y, 29m, 29c and 29k (photosensitive member cleaning blades 29) for removing residual toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 26 are provided.

  The developing roller 28 is configured to contact and be separated from the photosensitive drum 26. The life of the developing roller 28 is improved by contacting and separating the developing roller 28 in accordance with the electrostatic latent image, and the developing rollers 28y, 28m, 28c, and 28k are contacted in this order. Further, a scanner unit 30 and an intermediate transfer unit 31 that form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 26 by irradiating a laser beam based on the image information are provided in the vicinity of the cartridge 25.

  The intermediate transfer unit 31 includes primary transfer rollers 32y, 32m, 32c, and 32k (primary transfer roller 32), an intermediate transfer belt 33, a drive roller 34, and a driven roller 35. Further, it is configured as a unit having a cleaning device 36 that removes transfer residual toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 33. The intermediate transfer belt 33 is an endless cylindrical belt and is stretched around a driving roller 34 and a driven roller 35. The driven roller 35 is grounded and is urged in the direction of arrow d in FIG. 9 by an urging means (not shown) to apply a predetermined tension to the intermediate transfer belt 33.

  The drive roller 34 is driven to rotate by a motor or the like (not shown), so that the intermediate transfer belt 33 rotates at a predetermined speed in the direction of arrow e in FIG. The primary transfer is performed by applying a positive bias voltage to the primary transfer rollers 32y, 32m, 32c, and 32k and using a potential difference from the negatively charged surfaces of the photosensitive drums 26y, 26m, 26c, and 26k. .

  The toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 33 primarily transferred from the photosensitive drum 26 at the nip formed by the primary transfer roller 32 and the photosensitive drum 26 is transferred to the recording material by the secondary transfer unit 37, and then transferred to the recording material. The recording material passes through the fixing device 1 that performs fixing. Thereafter, the conveyance path is switched by the double-sided flapper 38 and conveyed to either the discharge roller 39 or the switchback roller 40. The recording material conveyed to the switchback roller 40 side is reversed and conveyed by the switchback roller 40 part, and again passes through the secondary transfer unit 37 and the fixing device 1 and then conveyed to the discharge roller 39 side. After passing through the discharge roller 39, the recording material is discharged to the recording material stacking portion 41.

<Fixing device>
First, the configuration of a fixing device 1 provided in an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a fixing device 1 in the present embodiment. The fixing device 1 includes a heating device 2, a pressure roller 3 serving as a pressure member, a conveyance roller 4 serving as a sheet conveyance unit, a sheet conveyance guide 18, an exterior portion 19, and the like.

  The heating device 2 has a planar heater 5 serving as a heater as an example of a connector member. Furthermore, it has a heater support member 6 that is a support member for supporting the sheet heater 5. As shown in FIG. 3, the sheet heater 5 includes a pair of heating elements 8 a and 8 b provided on both front and back surfaces of an insulating substrate 9. Further, the substrate 9 has electrode portions 10a, 10b, 10c, and 10d provided on both ends in the longitudinal direction of the substrate 9 (both left and right ends in FIGS. 3B and 3C) and on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9. The electrode portions 10a to 10d are electrical contacts that are electrically connected to the longitudinal ends of the pair of heating elements 8a and 8b (the left and right ends of FIGS. 3B and 3C), respectively.

  The heating elements 8a and 8b provided on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9 are configured to have predetermined lengths different from each other in the longitudinal direction of the sheet heater 5 (the left and right directions in FIGS. 3B and 3C). Has been. The lengths of the heating elements 8a and 8b are the fixing nip portion where the pressure roller 3 of the fixing device 1 and the cylindrical film member 7 provided on the outer periphery of the heater support member 6 of the heating device 2 are slidably and rotatably provided. It is set corresponding to the width size of the sheet S passing through 20.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, electrodes provided on both ends in the longitudinal direction of the substrate 9 (both left and right ends in FIGS. 3B and 3C) and on both front and back surfaces of the substrate 9 The parts 10a to 10d are as follows.

  That is, the grounded electrode portions 10b and 10d provided on both the front and back surfaces of one end portion in the longitudinal direction of the substrate 9 (the right end portions in FIGS. 3B and 3C) are arranged at the same position where both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9 overlap. Is done. Further, the electrode portions 10a and 10c to which power is provided on both the front and back surfaces of the other end portion in the longitudinal direction of the substrate 9 (left end portions in FIGS. 3B and 3C) are overlapped with each other on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9. Arranged at different positions.

  As shown in FIG. 7, a pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 has a predetermined pressure contact force on the electrode portions 10a to 10d provided to be connected to both ends of the heating elements 8a and 8b. Press to make electrical contact. When power is supplied from a power source (not shown) via the cable 21 electrically connected to the contact terminal 14, the heating elements 8a and 8b generate heat simultaneously or selectively.

  7 and 8 show a pair of contact terminals 14 connected to the ground-side electrode portions 10b and 10d arranged at the same positions overlapping on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9 shown in the right end portions of FIGS. 3B and 3C. This is an example in which the spring contact portions 16a, 16b are brought into electrical contact with pressure contact with a predetermined pressure contact force.

  In some cases, the electrode portions 10a and 10c on the power supply side are arranged at different positions so as not to overlap each other on the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9 shown at the left end of FIGS. 3B and 3C. In that case, only one spring contact portion 16a (16b) of the pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 is brought into pressure contact with the electrode portion 10a (10c) with a predetermined pressure contact and is in electrical contact therewith. . The other spring contact portion 16b (16a) is brought into pressure contact with the surface of the substrate 9 with a predetermined pressure contact force.

  The heating device 2 is urged toward the pressure roller 3 by an urging means (not shown). Thereby, the film member 7 and the pressure roller 3 are brought into pressure contact. The pressure roller 3 is rotated by external driving by a driving source (not shown). The heating device 2 is covered with a cylindrical film member 7 provided on the outer periphery of the heater support member 6 so as to be slidably rotatable. The film member 7 abuts on the pressure roller 3, and the pressure roller 3 Followed rotation.

  A sheet S carrying an unfixed toner image formed in an image forming section of an image forming apparatus (not shown) is conveyed to a fixing nip section 20 formed by a contact portion between the heating device 2 and the pressure roller 3. Then, the toner adheres to the sheet S by heat and pressure, and is then discharged by a transport roller 4 to a discharge unit (not shown).

<Heating device>
Next, the structure of the heating apparatus 2 in this embodiment is demonstrated using FIGS.

  First, the structure of the planar heater 5 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view of the sheet heater 5, and FIG. 3B shows a surface on which a long heating element 8a is arranged in the width direction of the sheet S as viewed from the direction of the arrow b in FIG. Show. FIG. 3C shows a surface on which the short heating element 8b is arranged in the width direction of the sheet S viewed from the direction of the arrow c in FIG.

  The planar heater 5 has an insulating substrate 9 made of a ceramic material. Furthermore, it has heating elements 8a and 8b provided on the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, a pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 are brought into pressure contact with a predetermined pressure contact force to be electrically contacted to supply electric power or grounded electrode portions 10a to 10a. 10d. Furthermore, it has the conduction | electrical_connection part 11 which conducts electricity from the electrode parts 10a-10d to the heat generating bodies 8a and 8b. Further, protective layers 12 for protecting the heating elements 8 a and 8 b and the conductive portion 11 are provided on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9 using glass or the like as a material. The electrode portions 10a to 10d are exposed from the protective layer 12.

  The heating elements 8a and 8b have different lengths in the longitudinal direction (left and right directions in FIGS. 3B and 3C) in order to correspond to the sheets S of various sizes used in the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment. ing.

  Then, power is supplied from a power source (not shown) via a cable 21 electrically connected to the connection terminal 14a of the contact terminal 14 of the connector 13 shown in FIGS. Then, current flows through the heating elements 8a and 8b through the pair of spring contact parts 16a and 16b, the electrode part 10, and the conduction part 11 of the contact terminal 14, and Joule heat is generated in the heating elements 8a and 8b.

  Then, each of the heating elements 8a and 8b generates heat at a predetermined temperature according to the amount of electric power and the resistance value of the heating elements 8a and 8b. By controlling the supply of electric power, it is possible to arbitrarily change whether each of the heating elements 8a and 8b generates heat simultaneously or only one of the heating elements 8a and 8b generates heat.

  In the present embodiment, the grounded electrode portions 10b and 10d are arranged at positions where they overlap on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate 9, as shown in FIGS.

<Attaching the connector>
Next, the attachment of the connector 13 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows the support relationship between the sheet heater 5 and the heater support member 6, and FIG. 2 (a) shows the overall configuration. The lower side of FIG. 2B shows the side of the sheet heater 5 that contacts the film member 7 as shown in FIG. 2C shows an opening 6b provided on the support surface 6c side of the heater support member 6 and enabling the pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 of the connector 13 to contact the electrode portion 10. .

  The heater support member 6 accommodates and supports the planar heating heater 5 in a groove 6a provided along the longitudinal direction (left and right direction in FIG. 2A), and the cylindrical film member 7 shown in FIG. Is slidably supported. Thereby, the rotation locus of the film member 7 is regulated.

  As shown in FIG. 2C, when the heater support member 6 has an electrode portion 10 on the support surface 6c side of the planar heater 5, an opening 6b is provided so that the electrode portion 10 is exposed. Yes. FIG. 4 shows how the connector 13 is attached to the sheet heater 5. The connector 13 is attached to the heater support member 6 by being inserted in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 4 outside the longitudinal end of the film member 7.

<Configuration of connector>
Next, the configuration of the connector 13 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is an explanatory perspective view showing the configuration of the contact terminal 14 of the connector 13. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional explanatory view of the contact terminal 14 that is inserted in the housing member 15 of the connector 13 so as to be movable in the front and back direction (vertical direction in FIG. 6) of the planar heater 5.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the connector 13 includes a housing member 15 having a U-shaped cross section and a contact terminal 14 having a U-shaped cross section that is movably accommodated in the housing member 15. . The contact terminal 14 is made of conductive stainless steel, titanium alloy, or the like, and has a surface plated.

  In addition, a pair of spring contact portions 16 a and 16 b are brought into pressure contact with the electrode portions 10 provided on the front and back surfaces of the sheet heater 5 from the front and back surfaces of the sheet heater 5 with a predetermined pressure contact force. The spring contact portions 16a and 16b are configured in a vertically symmetrical shape in FIG. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, when the planar heater 5 is not inserted into the concave portion 14 b (in the concave portion) having a U-shaped cross section of the contact terminal 14, the pair of spring contact portions 16 a, A predetermined gap 16c is formed between 16b.

  A housing 15 of the connector 13 is provided with a U-shaped space 15b into which the contact terminal 14 is inserted so as to be movable in the front and back direction (vertical direction in FIG. 6) of the planar heater 5.

  The contact terminal 14 is inserted from an opening (not shown) provided on the opposite side (right side in FIG. 6) of the recess 15a having a U-shaped cross section of the housing member 15. On the inner wall surface of the housing member 15, there is provided a retaining portion 17 that slidably locks the column portion 14c of the contact terminal 14 when the contact terminal 14 is inserted to a predetermined position shown in FIG. Has been. The retaining portion 17 is configured so that the contact heater 14 is inserted into the housing member 15 in the direction (left-right direction in FIG. 6) in which the planar heater 5 is inserted into the recess 14 b (inside the recess) of the contact terminal 14. It is comprised as a position control means to position-control.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the contact terminals 14 are provided with clearances A with respect to the housing member 15 in the front and back direction of the sheet heater 5 (vertical direction in FIGS. 6 to 8). The retaining portion 17 protruding from the inner wall surface of the housing member 15 is held so that the contact terminal 14 can move freely in the vertical direction of FIGS. In this embodiment, two locations are provided. As a result, the position of the column portion 14c of the contact terminal 14 is restricted between the column portion 15c on the concave portion 15a side of the housing member 15 and the retaining portion 17, and is held movably in the vertical direction of FIGS.

  The spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 are arranged to face each other in the vertical direction in FIGS. In the state where the spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 are not attached to the heater support member 6 which supports the sheet heater 5 in order to prevent the plating of the surface from being peeled off, a predetermined gap 16c is formed as shown in FIG. Formed and not in contact.

  7 and 8 show a cross section of the connector 13 when the connector 13 is attached to the heater support member 6 that supports the sheet heater 5. FIG. FIG. 7 shows a case where the sheet heater 5 is positioned at the approximate center in the vertical direction of FIG. 7 in the spring contact portions 16a, 16b facing the contact terminal 14. FIG. 8 shows a case where the sheet heater 5 is positioned below the position shown in FIG.

  The electrode portion 10 of the sheet heater 5 supported by the heater support member 6 is inserted into a recess 15a (inside the recess) having a U-shaped cross section of the housing member 15 of the connector 13, and the housing member 15 is connected to the heater support member 6. Is inserted. The pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 are in electrical contact with the electrode portion 10 of the planar heater 5 to supply power to the heating elements 8a and 8b.

  At this time, the heater support member 6 that supports the sheet heater 5 is fitted in the recess 15a (inside the recess) having a U-shaped cross section of the housing member 15, and the contact terminal 14 is formed by only a pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b. It contacts the electrode portions 10 provided on the front and back surfaces of the sheet heater 5. The pressures of the pair of spring contact portions 16 a and 16 b of the contact terminal 14 are set to be approximately equal, and the contact terminal 14 is held movably with respect to the housing member 15.

  When the connector 13 is attached to the heater support member 6 that supports the sheet heater 5, the housing member 15 is attached to the heater support member 6. The spring contact portions 16a and 16b are in contact with the electrode portions 10 on both the front and back surfaces of the sheet heater 5 with a predetermined contact pressure set equally.

  Consider the case where the dimensional accuracy of each component fluctuates as shown in FIG. For example, in the present embodiment, the dimension B2 between the bottom surface of the groove 6a and the support surface 6c shown in FIG. 8 is larger than the dimension B1 between the bottom surface of the groove 6a and the support surface 6c shown in FIG. Consider a case where a dimensional error occurs.

  In this case, as shown in FIG. 8, the position of the sheet heater 5 in the vertical direction in FIG. However, in this embodiment, the contact terminal 14 is held in the space 15b of the housing member 15 so as to be movable in the vertical direction of FIG. Further, the pressure in the vertical direction in FIG. 8 of the pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 is set to be approximately equal.

  Thereby, the center position of the contact terminal 14 in the vertical direction in FIG. 8 follows the center position of the planar heater 5 in the vertical direction in FIG. Since the pressure in the vertical direction of the pair of spring contact portions 16a and 16b of the contact terminal 14 is maintained substantially equal, the spring contact portion does not apply stress to the sheet heater 5 and does not require high component dimensional accuracy. 16a and 16b and the electrode part 10 contact reliably. Thereby, fixing failure of the toner image by the fixing device 1 does not occur, so that the mass production yield does not decrease.

5 ... sheet heater (connector member; heater)
6b ... opening
10, 10a to 10d ... Electrode part (electrical contact)
14 Contact terminal
15… Housing member
15b ... space
16a, 16b ... Spring contact

Claims (8)

A contact terminal having a U-shaped cross section having a pair of spring contact portions that are brought into pressure contact with the electrical contacts provided on the front and back surfaces of the connector member from the front and back surfaces of the connector member with a predetermined pressing force;
A space having a U-shaped cross-section in which the contact terminal is movably inserted in the front and back direction of the connector member, and the spring contact portion can be brought into contact with electrical contacts provided on both the front and back surfaces of the connector member. A housing member having a U-shaped cross section for receiving the contact terminal;
A connector comprising:   The connector member or a support member that supports the connector member is fitted into a U-shaped recess in the housing member, and the contact terminals are provided on both the front and back surfaces of the connector member only by the pair of spring contact portions. The connector according to claim 1, wherein the connector is in contact with the provided electrical contact.   2. The position restricting means for restricting the position of the contact terminal with respect to the housing member in a direction in which the connector member is inserted into a recess having a U-shaped cross section of the contact terminal. 2. The connector according to 2.   The pair of spring contact portions that are brought into pressure contact with the electrical contacts provided on the front and back surfaces of the connector member from the front and back surfaces of the connector member with a predetermined pressing force are configured in a symmetric shape. The connector of any one of Claims 1-3.   A predetermined gap is formed between a pair of spring contact portions of the contact terminal in a state where the connector member is not inserted into a concave portion having a U-shaped cross section of the contact terminal. Item 5. The connector according to any one of Items 1 to 4. An insulating substrate;
A pair of heating elements provided on the front and back sides of the substrate;
Electrode portions provided on both ends of the substrate in the longitudinal direction and on both the front and back surfaces of the substrate and electrically connected to the pair of heating elements,
A heater having
A heater support member for supporting the heater;
A cylindrical film member provided on the outer periphery of the heater support member so as to be slidably rotatable;
A pressure member in pressure contact with the film member;
In a fixing device having
A pair of spring contact portions of the contact terminal of the connector according to any one of claims 1 to 5 are in electrical contact with electrode portions provided on both front and back surfaces of the substrate to supply power to the heating element. A fixing device. The electrode portion is inserted into a U-shaped recess of the housing member of the connector so that the housing member sandwiches the heater support member, and a pair of spring contact portions of the contact terminals are electrically connected to the electrode portion. Supply power to the heating element in contact,
The fixing device according to claim 6, wherein pressures of the pair of spring contact portions are set to be substantially equal, and the contact terminal is held movably with respect to the housing member. Image forming means for forming a toner image on a recording material;
The fixing device according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the toner image formed on the recording material by the image forming unit is fixed.
An image forming apparatus comprising:

Images