Patent ID: 8532547

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier that carries a toner image on a surface thereof; a transfer belt that is endless and transfers the toner image transferred from the image carrier onto a transfer medium; a secondary transfer roller that forms a nip with the transfer belt at a position where the toner image is transferred onto the transfer medium; a plurality of stretching rollers that stretches the transfer belt and includes a driving roller and a tension roller; a drive unit that transmits a rotational driving force to the driving roller; a regulating member that prevents axial movement of the transfer belt at an axial end of the tension roller by having a diameter larger than a sum of a diameter of the tension roller and a thickness of the transfer belt; a primary transfer roller that faces the image carrier via the transfer belt, the primary transfer roller being offset with respect to the image carrier; a cleaning blade to contact an outer surface of transfer belt; and an opposing roller that opposes the cleaning blade via the transfer belt and contacts an inner surface of the transfer belt, wherein the driving roller opposes the secondary transfer roller via the transfer belt, the primary transfer roller is a metal roller without a resin layer on a surface thereof, the opposing roller contacts the inner surface of the transfer belt on a downstream side from the driving roller in a moving direction of the transfer belt, and both the tension roller and the primary transfer roller contact the inner surface of the transfer belt on the downstream side from the opposing roller and on an upstream side from the driving roller in the moving direction of the transfer belt.