Patent ID: 8867958

Claim:
A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming a color image on a recording material, comprising: a plurality of cartridge mounting portions for demountably mounting cartridges, the cartridges being independently removable and mountable; a moving unit including said cartridge mounting portions, wherein said moving unit is movable between an image forming position for forming the image using the cartridges and a mounting and demounting position for mounting and demounting any one or more of a plurality of the cartridges relative to the corresponding one of said plurality of cartridge mounting portions; and a mounting and demounting position locking member for locking said moving unit in the mounting and demounting position to prevent movement relative to a main assembly of said color electrophotographic image forming apparatus to the image forming position when at least one of the plurality of cartridges is not mounted in the corresponding one of said plurality of cartridge mounting portions, wherein said mounting and demounting position locking member is movable from an unlocking position to a locking position in interrelation with demounting of any one of the cartridges from its corresponding cartridge mounting portion, and wherein said mounting and demounting position locking member is moved to the unlocking position when all of the plurality of cartridges are mounted in their corresponding plurality of cartridge mounting portions.