Patent ID: 7418223

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image forming stations each including an image bearing member on which an electrostatic image is formed, a developing device, which collects a untransferred toner on said image bearing member and at the same time, developing the electrostatic image with a toner, and a transfer device, which transfers the toner image on said image bearing member to a transfer material, said plurality of image forming stations being disposed along a movement direction of the transfer material, and control means for controlling in such a manner that, when during a non-image forming operation, a toner discharging operation of discharging the toner from each of said developing devices to each of said image bearing member is performed in a first station and a second station downstream of said first station with respect to the movement direction of said transfer material, of said plurality of image forming stations, a toner discharging amount in said second station is greater than a toner discharging amount in said first station.