Patent ID: 7546074

Claim:
An image forming apparatus including: at least one image forming unit, comprising, an image carrier to which toner is applied to form a toner image, and a primary transfer bias applicator to apply a bias voltage, which has an opposite polarity to a normal charge polarity of the toner, to a primary transfer belt to transfer the toner image from the image carrier to the primary transfer belt; wherein the primary transfer belt is configured to form a primary transfer nip with the image carrier; and a secondary transferer comprising, a secondary transfer nip configured to contact the toner image on the primary transfer belt via a recording medium, a secondary transfer bias applicator to form a secondary transfer electric field to transfer the toner image on the primary transfer belt on to the recording medium, and a facing member to face the second transfer bias applicator; wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises: a bias applicator to apply a bias voltage having a same polarity as the normal charge polarity of the toner to the primary transfer belt, in a position downstream of the primary transfer bias applicator in a rotation direction of the primary transfer belt, a contact start site at which the recording medium starts to contact the toner image, located upstream of the secondary transfer nip in the rotation direction of the primary transfer belt, and an electrode to form an electric field at the contact start site to increase an electrostatic attraction between the primary transfer belt and the toner having the normal charge polarity.