Patent ID: 7418227

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a first image carrying belt configured to carry a first toner image on a surface of the first image carrying belt; a second image carrying belt configured to carry a second toner image on a surface of the second image carrying belt; a first transfer unit configured to transfer the first toner image from the first image carrying belt to a first face of a recording medium; a second transfer unit configured to transfer the second toner image from the second image carrying belt to a second face of the recording medium; a fixing unit configured to receive the recording medium directly from the second image carrying belt and to fix the first and second toner images on the respective first and second faces of the recording medium at a fixing nip of the fixing unit utilizing at least one heat roller; and a controller configured to variably control a transport speed of the heat roller and the second image carrying belt depending on a type of the recording medium when the second image carrying belt transports the recording medium from the second transfer unit to the fixing unit, wherein the controller further controls the transport speed of the heat roller to match the transport speed of the second image carrying belt.