Patent ID: 11953846
Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 9:
10. An image forming apparatus comprising:
an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image;
a transfer roller configured to form a transfer nip between said image bearing member and said transfer roller to transfer the toner image;
a first position changing mechanism configured to change a position of the transfer nip with respect to a rotational direction of said image bearing member;
a second position changing mechanism configured to change the position of said transfer roller between a first position where said transfer roller presses said image bearing member to form the transfer nip and a second position where said transfer roller does not press said image bearing member; and
a controller configured to control said first position changing mechanism and said second position changing mechanism,
wherein in a case that an operation, in which the position of said transfer nip with respect to the rotational direction of said image bearing member is changed in a period after a trailing edge of a first image area reaches the transfer nip and before a leading edge of a second image area subsequent to the first image reaches the transfer nip during execution of a continuous image forming job for forming and outputting images on a plurality of recording materials, is executed, in the period, said controller:
(i) controls said first position changing mechanism and said second position changing mechanism to change the position of the transfer nip with respect to the rotational direction of said image bearing member in a state in which said transfer roller presses said image bearing member, and then
(ii) controls an image forming operation so that a formation of a latent image for the second image area is started after change of the position of the transfer nip is completed.