Patent ID: 8035674
Filing Date: 2011-10-11
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image carriers arranged in a line along a direction of conveying a recording medium; a plurality of charging units that apply a static electric charge on the image carriers; an exposing unit that forms latent images on the image carriers by exposing the image carriers; a plurality of developing units that develop the latent images with toners of different colors for each of the image carriers to form toner images on the image carriers; a conveying unit that conveys the recording medium from one image carrier to a subsequent image carrier; a transfer unit that transfers the toner images onto the recording medium to form a color image; a color-shift-correction-image forming unit that forms color-shift correction images with different colors onto the recording medium by controlling the image carriers, the charging units, the exposing unit, the developing units, and the transfer unit; a detecting unit that optically detects the color-shift correction images on the recording medium; and a color-shift correcting unit that corrects a color shift caused by a displacement between the color-shift correction images transferred onto the recording medium, by controlling the exposing unit based on a relative positional relation between the color-shift correction images, wherein when a color-shift correction succeeds consecutively predetermined times, the color-shift correcting unit decreases a density of the color-shift correction images in a next color-shift correction.