Patent ID: 8195074

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming station including an image bearing member to bear an electrostatic latent image on a surface thereof, a charging device to charge the image bearing member to form the electrostatic latent image, and a developing device to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member using toner to form a toner image; a registration member to feed the recording medium in appropriate timing such that the recording medium is aligned with the toner image formed in the image forming station; a registration motor to drive the registration member; and a fixing unit to fix the toner image on the recording medium, the fixing unit including a rotary heating member to heat the recording medium; a rotary pressure member to contact and press against the rotary heating member forming a fixing nip portion where the rotary heating member and the rotary pressure member meet; and a sheet separator to eject air to separate the recording medium from the rotary heating member according to a drive signal of the registration motor, wherein the sheet separator detects an amount of a sheet margin of a leading edge of the recording medium and ejects air when the amount of the sheet margin at the leading edge of the recording medium is less than a threshold amount.