Patent ID: 6941085

Claim:
A transfer member cleaning method for an image forming apparatus, which forms an image by charging a surface of a photosensitive body being driven and then exposing the surface to light to form an electrostatic latent image, developing the electrostatic latent image with toner having same polarity as a charge polarity of the surface of the photosensitive body to form a toner image, and transferring the toner image from the photosensitive body to a transfer material by driving the photosensitive body and a roller or belt-shaped transfer member while pressing the transfer material, comprising: a first step of applying a first voltage having same polarity as an electric potential to which the surface of the photosensitive body is charged and an absolute value larger than the electric potential to the transfer member for a first period of time in a time interval when image formation is not performed; and a second step of applying a second voltage having an absolute value smaller than the absolute value of the electric potential to which the surface of the photosensitive body is charged to the transfer member for a second period of time, in said time interval when image formation is not performed; wherein the first step and the second step are repeated alternately a plurality of times during said time interval.