CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-033188, filed on Feb. 28, 2020 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-087546, filed on May 19, 2020. The contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

As a heating device mounted on an image forming apparatus, such as a copier and a printer, a fixing device that fixes toner on a sheet by heat, a drying device that dries ink on a sheet, and the like are known.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-62024, for example, discloses a fixing device including a heating member (heater) provided with heating elements, an electrical contact, and a conductive pattern that electrically couples them on a rectangular substrate.

In the heating member provided with the conductive pattern on the substrate, the conductive pattern also slightly generates heat by being energized when causing the heating element to generate heat. Technically, the heat generation distribution of the entire heating member is affected by the heat generated by the conductive pattern.

The temperature distribution of the heating member may possibly be uneven due to the heat generation distribution of the conductive pattern. Consequently, the heating device including such a heating member requires measures to suppress unevenness in temperature and uneven heating of the heating device due to temperature deviation between a first side and a second side of the heating member in a direction intersecting the conveying direction of a recording medium.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An image forming apparatus is capable of forming an image on a plurality of recording media having different lengths in a direction intersecting a conveying direction of the plurality of recording media. The image forming apparatus includes a heating device including a rotator member, a heating member, and an opposed member. The heating member is configured to heat the rotator member. The opposed member is configured to contact with the rotator member to form a nip. The heating member is switchable between a first heat generation state in which an amount of heat generated on a first side is larger than an amount of heat generated on a second side in the intersection direction and a second heat generation state in which the amount of heat generated on the second side is larger than the amount of heat generated on the first side. The image forming apparatus is configured to switch between the first heat generation state and the second heat generation state while executing a job of continuously forming an image on a plurality of recording media having a same length in the intersecting direction.

