Driving mechanism for a fixing apparatus having an idle gear disengageable from a fixing roller gear by gravity

摘要

A driving mechanism for a fixing apparatus which has an idle gear disengageable from a gear rotating a fixing roller without cooperation of an opening operation of a panel provided to the fixing apparatus. A fixing gear is connected to a fixing roller. A drive gear provides a rotational force. An idle gear is provided between the drive gear and the fixing gear to transmit the rotational force from the drive gear to the fixing gear. The idle gear is always engaged with the drive gear. A pivot member is pivotable with respect to a pivot member shaft between a first position and a second position below the first position. The idle gear is engaged with the fixing gear when the pivot member is at the first position. The idle gear is moved downwardly by gravity and thereby disengaged from the fixing gear when the pivot member is at the second position. Thus, there is no need to provide a moving mechanism to disengage the idle gear from the fixing gear. The fixing roller can be manually rotated since there is no load applied by the drive gear.