Patent ID: 8369757

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image bearing members; a rotatable intermediary transfer member for carrying toner images transferred from said plurality of image bearing members in contact with said plurality of image bearing members; a plurality of primary transfer members for press-contacting to said intermediary transfer member, provided correspondingly to said plurality of image bearing members, respectively, for transferring the toner images formed on said plurality of image bearing members onto said intermediary transfer member; a secondary transfer member for press-contacting to said intermediary transfer member to form a transfer portion, at which the toner images on said intermediary transfer member are to be transferred onto a recording material, wherein the transfer portion is located downstream of a most downstream one of said plurality of image bearing members with respect to a rotation direction of said intermediary transfer member; a fixing member for fixing toner images transferred onto the recording material by said secondary transfer member; and a control portion for controlling an image forming operation, wherein said apparatus is operable in a continuous image forming mode in which images are formed on a plurality of recording materials conveyed with a preset minimum interval obtained by adjusting an interval between a trailing end of a recording material and a leading end of a subsequent recording material with respect to a recording material conveyance direction so as to be the preset minimum interval, and wherein said control portion controls the image forming operation so that, during execution of the continuous image forming mode, transfer of a toner image to be formed on a subsequent recording material from the second most downstream image bearing member is started and thereafter, the trailing end of a recording material with respect to the recording material conveyance direction passes through the transfer portion and thereafter, transfer of a toner image to be formed on a subsequent recording material from the most downstream image bearing member onto said intermediary transfer member is started.