Patent ID: 7085524

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of movable image carriers, said image carriers bearing latent images upon exposure at respective exposing positions to form a toner image from the latent images; a movable intermediate transfer body, to which the toner image is transferred from said image carriers, for carrying the toner image; and a contacting member separably contacting said intermediate transfer body at a contacting position for transforming the toner image from said intermediate transfer body to a transfer material, wherein an image carrier located most closely to the contacting position in a direction extending along said intermediate transfer body on a downstream side in a moving direction of said intermediate transfer body with respect to the contacting position, constitutes a first image carrier where a position for transfer between said first image carrier and said intermediate transfer body constitutes a first transfer position, wherein said image carrier located most closely to the contacting position in a direction extending along said intermediate transfer body on an upstream side in a moving direction of said intermediate transfer body with respect to the contacting position, constitutes a second image carrier where a position for transfer between said second image carrier and said intermediate transfer body constitutes a second transfer position, wherein a toner image formed on said intermediate transfer body is transferred onto the transfer material after passing through the first transfer position and the second transfer position again, wherein a relationship La−Sa≧Lm is satisfied where a distance from the contacting position to the first transfer position along the moving direction of said intermediate transfer body is set as La, where a distance from the exposing position on the first image carrier to said first transfer position along the moving direction of said first image carrier is set as Sa, and where an image length formed on said intermediate transfer body is set as Lm, and wherein a latent image formation on said first image carrier is performed at a time different from a contacting operation of said contacting member.