Patent ID: 6631249
Filing Date: 2003-10-07
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus comprising:image forming means for forming a toner image; a recording-material transporting member for bearing and transporting a recording material; cleaning means equipped with a cleaning blade abutting against a surface of the recording-material transporting member; fixing means equipped with a fixing member on which a mold release agent is coated, wherein said apparatus can form an image on a surface of the recording material, a fixing operation of which has been performed by said fixing means, the surface of the recording material being opposite a surface thereof on which the toner image is transferred, and wherein the cleaning blade is arranged so that a normal line of a surface of the cleaning blade is substantially directed in a gravity direction, said surface of the cleaning blade facing an upstream side of an abutting portion of the cleaning blade against said recording-material transporting member in a moving direction of said recording-material transporting member, and said surface of the cleaning blade facing a direction substantially opposite the gravity direction; and control means for controlling said apparatus so as to transfer a supply toner image, which is to be fed to said cleaning means, formed by said image forming means onto said recording-material transporting member directly, and to feed the supply toner image transferred onto said recording-material transporting member to said cleaning means by said recording-material transporting member, wherein a feeding operation of the supply toner image is performed at every predetermined number of times of image formation on the recording material, and wherein, in a case in which image formation on a plurality of recording materials is performed as a series of operations, when a number of times of image formation reaches the predetermined number during the series of operations, the feeding operation is performed after termination of the series of operations.