Patent ID: 8135326

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier that holds a developer; a lubricant supply brush that rotates when in contact with the image carrier, and that supplies a lubricant to a surface of the image carrier; the lubricant is in contact with the lubricant supply brush; a first voltage supply unit that supplies an AC voltage on which a DC voltage is superimposed to the lubricant supply brush; a determination unit that determines whether or not a usage state of the image carrier is a state at an initial stage; and a controller that controls the first voltage supply unit to supply the AC voltage on which the DC voltage is superimposed to the lubricant supply brush, prior to start of execution of an image forming operation if the determination unit determines that the usage state of the image carrier is the state at the initial stage, and wherein, if the determination unit determines that the usage state of the image carrier at the initial stare passes, the controller controls the first voltage supply unit to repeat supply of the AC voltage on which the DC voltage is superimposed to the lubricant supply brush and stop of the supply of the AC voltage to the lubricant supply brush synchronously with repetition of an image forming state and a non-image forming state, the image forming state being a state in which the image carrier is holding the developer, the non-image forming state being a state in which the image carrier is operating and not holding the developer.