Patent ID: 8909111

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image carriers which carry toner images; an endless intermediate transfer belt onto which the toner images are primary-transferred from the image carriers and which is movable and has conductivity; a secondary transfer member which comes into contact with the outer periphery of the intermediate transfer belt, passes a current to the intermediate transfer belt, and secondary-transfers the toner images from the intermediate transfer belt onto a recording material, the image forming apparatus performing primary transfer by a current being passed from the secondary transfer member to the image carriers through the intermediate transfer belt; wherein the secondary transfer opposite member is in contact with the inner periphery of the intermediate transfer belt and faces to the secondary transfer member through the intermediate transfer belt, and a voltage-maintaining element which is connected to a secondary transfer opposite member and maintains a potential of the secondary transfer opposite member at a certain potential or higher by using a current flowing from the secondary transfer member through the intermediate transfer belt and the secondary transfer opposite member, wherein a relationship between Rv and Rs is such that Rv is larger than Rs, where Rv is resistance in a thickness direction of the intermediate transfer belt and Rs is resistance in a circumferential direction of the intermediate transfer belt over a distance between an image carrier located most upstream and an image carrier located most downstream in a movement direction of the intermediate transfer belt.