Image forming apparatus and translation control method
An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing unit that heats and presses a recording sheet having a toner image formed thereon, by means of a fixing nip portion to thereby fix the toner image to the recording sheet; a translation section that translates the fixing unit in a direction that is orthogonal to a conveying direction of the recording sheet; and a controlling section that controls the translation section so that the fixing unit is translated by a translation amount that is one-half of a value obtained by subtracting an image width of the toner image from a sheet width of the recording sheet.
1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
a fixing unit that heats and presses a recording sheet having a toner image formed thereon, by means of a fixing nip portion to thereby fix the toner image onto the recording sheet;
a translation section that translates the fixing unit in a direction that is orthogonal to a conveying direction of the recording sheet; and
a controlling section that controls the translation section so that the fixing unit is translated by a translation amount that is equal to or less than one-half of a value obtained by subtracting an image width of the toner image from a sheet width of the recording sheet.
2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controlling section controls the translation section so that the translation amount becomes one-half of a value obtained by subtracting the image width of the toner image from the sheet width of the recording sheet.
3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image width is an image guarantee area width that defines a maximum width that guarantees a quality of a toner image to be formed on the recording sheet.
4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image width is an actual image area width that defines a maximum width of an actual image area in which a toner image is to be formed on the recording sheet.
5. A translation control method for an image forming apparatus comprising a fixing unit that heats and presses a recording sheet having a toner image formed thereon, by means of a fixing nip portion to thereby fix the toner image onto the recording sheet, the method comprising:
a first step of calculating a value that is one-half of a value obtained by subtracting an image width of the toner image from a sheet width of the recording sheet as a translation amount of the fixing unit; and
a second step of controlling so that the fixing unit is translated in a direction that is orthogonal to a conveying direction of the recording sheet with a translation amount that is equal to or less than the translation amount calculated in the first step.
6. The translation control method according to claim 5 , wherein the second step is a step of controlling so that the fixing unit is translated in a direction that is orthogonal to a conveying direction of the recording sheet with the translation amount calculated in the first step.
7. The translation control method according to claim 5 , wherein the image width is an image guarantee area width that defines a maximum width that guarantees a quality of a toner image to be formed on the recording sheet.
8. The translation control method according to claim 5 , wherein the image width is an actual image area width that defines a maximum width of an actual image area in which a toner image is to be formed on the recording sheet.