Patent ID: 9280138
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: G03G

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a photoconductive drum; a charger charging a surface of the photoconductive drum; an exposing device exposing the surface of the photoconductive drum to form an electrostatic latent image thereon; a developing device developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductive drum by a toner to thereby obtain a toner image; a transfer member transferring the toner image onto a transfer object at a time of image formation; a heat generator for heating and drying the surface of the photoconductive drum; a heating control section controlling operation of the heat generator; a slidingly-rubbing roller abutting the surface of the photoconductive drum; a temperature detection section detecting an atmospheric temperature; and a humidity detection section detecting atmospheric humidity, wherein, in a case when the humidity detected by the humidity detection section is equal to or higher than a first threshold humidity and also when the temperature detected by the temperature detection section is equal to or higher than a threshold temperature, the heating control section executes heat-generation heating control to heat and dry the surface of the photoconductive drum, while in a case when the humidity detected by the humidity detection section is equal to or higher than the first threshold humidity and also when the temperature detected by the temperature detection section is less than the threshold temperature, the heating control section executes slidingly-rubbing heating control in which a developing operation is performed by the developing device to cause toner adhesion to the surface of the photoconductive drum, and by supplying the adhering toner to an abutting part between the slidingly-rubbing roller and the photoconductive drum without transferring the toner to the transfer object by the transfer member and also simultaneously driving the slidingly-rubbing roller, and the surface of the photoconductive drum is heated and dried by frictional heat generated by a polishing of the surface of the photoconductive drum at the abutting part.