Patent ID: 7286784

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a main body of the apparatus; an image carrier mounted in the main body of the apparatus; an image forming portion to form a toner image on the image carrier; a transfer unit to transfer the toner image formed on the image carrier to transfer material; a toner recovery unit to recover residual toner on the image carrier after passing the transfer unit; a fixing unit to fix the toner image on the transfer material provided above the image forming unit and the toner recovery unit, wherein at least the image carrier and the toner recovery unit are housed integrally in a unit frame; a blowing member to generate the airflow; and a junction duct provided between the toner recovery and the fixing unit and flow the airflow from the inlet port to the exhaust port of the main body, wherein the junction duct comprises the unit frame, and wherein the junction duct also serves as a pouched reinforced portion of the upper part of the unit frame.