Patent ID: 8228523

Claim:
An image forming apparatus having multiple image forming units each including an image carrier for forming a developer image, the image carriers being arranged along a prescribed medium feeding path in a manner to face and rotationally contact a belt component, the image forming apparatus comprising: an image formation driving unit for driving the multiple image forming units; a belt component driving unit for driving the belt component; and a drive control unit for supplying a drive command to the belt component driving unit and the image formation driving unit, so as to initiate driving of the belt component drive unit, and, after the belt component drive unit is started to drive, subsequently initiate driving of the image forming units to sequentially rotate the image carriers, from a most downstream one to a most upstream one with respect to a medium feeding direction along the medium feeding path, each of the image carriers, except for the most downstream one, being initiated to rotate after a prescribed period has passed since its immediate preceding image carrier is initiated to rotate, the drive control unit controlling the image carrier to start to rotate after a maximum time difference, or a time longer than the maximum time difference, has passed since the immediate preceding image carrier starts to rotate, and before the immediate preceding image carrier reaches a substantially constant prescribed speed, wherein the maximum time difference is a maximum value of a difference of time that each image carrier requires to reach a prescribed speed.