Patent ID: 7941063

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming portion that forms a toner image on a recording material; a fixing unit that fixes the toner image formed on the recording material onto the recording material, said fixing unit having a roller for conveying the recording material; a motor that drives the roller; a loop detection portion disposed between the image forming portion and the fixing unit, said loop detection portion detecting a loop of the recording material; a control portion that controls said motor, the control portion selects a rotation speed Vh of said motor for decreasing the loop of the recording material or a rotation speed Vl of said motor for increasing the loop of the recording material in accordance with an output of the loop detection portion so that a loop amount of the recording material falls in a predetermined range; a fixing unit used amount detection portion for detecting a used amount of the fixing unit; and a storage portion that stores an accumulative-used amount of the fixing unit, wherein the control portion sets the speed Vh and the speed Vl in accordance with information of the accumulative-used amount of the fixing unit, and the larger the accumulative-used amount of the fixing unit is, the greater a difference (Vh−Vl) between the speed Vh and the speed Vl becomes.