Patent ID: 7313355

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming section to form an image on a transfer material through a fixing operation in which a toner image is fixed onto said transfer material by applying heat and pressure onto said toner image; a conveyance section to convey said transfer material along a conveying path; a cooling device that is disposed along said conveying path to cool said transfer material just after said toner image is fixed with heat; a controller to control said image forming section, said conveyance section and said cooling device; and a first transfer-material detecting device that is disposed at a position adjacent to and upstream from said cooling device in a conveying direction of said transfer material, in order to detect said transfer material coming into said conveying path; wherein, when said first transfer-material detecting device detects said transfer material coming into said conveying path, said controller controls said conveyance section to decelerate a conveyance velocity of said transfer material to a decelerated velocity lower than a normal conveyance velocity, so that said transfer material passes through said conveying path, equipped with said cooling device, at said decelerated velocity.