Patent ID: 8095059

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image-bearing member; a toner removal unit configured to remove a toner remained on the image-bearing member; a coating unit configured to coat a surface of the image-bearing member with a lubricity imparting agent; a unit configured to change a coated state of the lubricity imparting agent which has been applied to the image-bearing member by the coating unit; and a controlling unit configured to control the coating unit so as to operate a coating mode for at least the period when the image-bearing member is rotated once or more in the course of image formation, wherein the coating mode is a mode in which an amount of the lubricity imparting agent applied onto the image-bearing member is increased compared to an applied amount of the lubricity imparting agent during an ordinal operation for image formation, the timing for operating the coating mode is set at a time when an accumulative feeding number of a sheet for transfer is reached a certain number, and the accumulative feeding number is calculated with a feeding number when the sheet has a length of 216 mm or less in the feeding direction of the sheet, and a doubled feeding number when the sheet has a length of more than 216 mm, a feeding job has the accumulative feeding number of 251 or more as the certain number, and the coating mode is operated once per the feeding number of 250 or less.