Patent ID: 7715750

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image carrier; a charging section for charging the image carrier, wherein the charging section includes: a contact charging member which conies into contact with the image carrier so as to charge the image carrier, a cleaning member which comes into contact with a surface of the contact charging member so as to clean the surface of the contact charging member, and a first contact/separation section for switching a position of the cleaning member between a position where the cleaning member comes into contact with the contact charging member and a position where the cleaning member is separated away from the contact charging member; a latent image forming section for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier that has been charged; a developing section for developing the electrostatic latent image, formed on the image carrier, with a developer; a transfer section for transferring an image, obtained by developing the electrostatic latent image on the image carrier, onto a transfer medium; a cleaning section for cleaning a surface of the image carrier after transferring the image; and a lubricant applying section for applying a lubricant to the surface of the image carrier, wherein the lubricant applying section applies the lubricant to the surface of the image carrier which has been cleaned and has not been charged, and wherein the lubricant applying section comprises: a lubricant holding section for holding a solid phase lubricant, an applying member for transferring lubricant from the lubricant holding section to the surface of the image carrier, and a second contact/separation section for switching a position of the lubricant held by the lubricant holding section between a position where the lubricant comes into contact with the applying member and a position where the lubricant is separated from the applying member, wherein the first contact/separation section causes the cleaning member to come into contact with the contact charging member during periods when the second contact/separation section is causing the lubricant to come into contact with the applying member so that lubricant is being applied to the image carrier.