Patent ID: 8554126

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming device configured to form a toner image on a sheet; a fixing device configured to fix the toner image formed by the image forming device to the sheet by heat; a discharge tray onto which the sheet to which the toner image has been fixed by the fixing device is discharged; a discharge device configured to convey the sheet to discharge the sheet onto the discharge tray using a sheet conveyance torque, wherein the sheet conveyance torque includes at least a first sheet conveyance torque and a second sheet conveyance torque; and a controller configured to stop the sheet by temporarily stopping the discharge device conveying the sheet while the sheet is being discharged by the discharge device and to resume conveying the sheet after temporarily stopping the discharge device conveying the sheet by resuming the discharge device conveying the sheet after a predetermined stop time has elapsed, wherein the controller controls the discharge device to convey the sheet such that the second sheet conveyance torque used to convey the sheet after resuming the discharge device conveying the sheet (i) is larger than the first sheet conveyance torque used while conveying the sheet before temporarily stopping the discharge device conveying the sheet and (ii) is applied to convey the sheet for a predetermined period of time to reduce a possibility of a leading edge of the sheet from being caught by a sheet in the discharge tray.