Recognition for Induction Heating Fusing Technology That Delivers Both Convenience and Energy Conservation
Recognized for the development of the induction heating (IH) fusing technology that delivers both convenience and energy conservation, five technology development engineers of Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. won the Prize for Science and Technology in the Development Category of the 2014 Commendations for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.
The recipients of the awards:
Name Title and organization
Motofumi Baba Group Manager, Global Platform Development and Program Management, Product Development Group
Ryoichi Tsuruoka Corporate Vice President and Executive General Manager of Device Development Group
Yasuhiro Uehara Senior Executive Advisor, Device Development Planning, Device Development Group
Yasutaka Naito Marking Platform Development First, Device Development Group
Kiyoshi Iwai Manager, Marking Platform Development Second, Device Development Group
Fuji Xerox's unique award winning IH fusing technology is implemented within the fusers of its digital multifunction devices. Generally, multifunction devices' or printers' fusers consume approximately 60 to 80 percent of electricity to melt the toner to fix it on the paper. Conventional fusers needed be preheated to be operated immediately from the standby mode, which also consumes electricity.
The five engineers worked to address this challenge and discovered that copper, a nonmagnetic metal used as the heating element in the fuser, can be inductively heated when the metal thinned out to the level of several micrometers.
Fuji Xerox employed this world's thinnest nonmagnetic metal with a thickness of microns (one micron=0.001millimeters) as the heating element for the IH belt, as well as a temperature-sensitive magnetic alloy to avoid any excessive rise in the belt's temperature, while also increasing heating efficiency. Thereby the fuser does not have to be preheated, achieving the world's fastestNote 1 three-second start up time.
If existing Fuji Xerox's devices incorporating conventional fusers were replaced with those using this IH fusing technology and used for five years, the estimated reduction in CO2 emissions would be approximately 378,000 tons, and estimated reduction in users' electricity costs would be 19 billion yen (calculated as 22 yen per kilowatts), thereby contributing to preventing global warming.
Fuji Xerox aims at continuously providing RealGreen—true pleasant eco technologies and services that offer both user convenience and high eco performance. The company continues to contribute to global warming prevention by developing energy-saving products and delivering them to more customers.
For the Prize for Science and Technology, MEXT commends those involved in epoch-making research and development or an invention that has been put into practical use, contributing to the further development and improvements in social economy and people's daily lives.
Note 1
Among multifunction devices in the market as of July 2009.
Note
RealGreen is a registered trademark of Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
