IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND SHEET STRAIGHTENING DEVICE USED THEREFOR

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively straighten curl while surely avoiding failure associated with mechanical straightening of the curl, that is, a defect in traveling property relative to a sheet such as a cardboard and damage to a sheet and an image. SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus includes a fixing device 1 for fixing the image G on the sheet 2 by utilizing at least heat, and the sheet straightening device 3 provided on the downstream side of the fixing device 1 in a sheet conveying direction and straightening the curl of the sheet 2. The sheet straightening device 3 includes a dehumidification accelerating means 4 for accelerating dehumidification from one side of the sheet 2 on which the image has been fixed by the fixing device 1. The dehumidification accelerating means 4 is the one obtained by arranging a heating means 5 on the image non-holding surface side of the sheet 2 ejected from the fixing device 1 or the one obtained by arranging an air blowing means 6 capable of making the air blow near the image non-holding surface side of the sheet 2 ejected from the fixing device 1, wherein air to which characteristic contributing to the acceleration of the dehumidification is imparted is used as the air. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT