Patent ID: 7616912

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, including (i) one or more image carriers each of which forms an electrostatic latent image on a surface of the image carrier and (ii) one or more chargers each of which is disposed near the image carrier and charges the surface of the image carrier, said image forming apparatus comprising: gas flow generation means for carrying out intake and exhaust so as to generate a gas flow between the image carrier and the charger in a long side direction of the charger, and wind speed control means for controlling wind speed of gas flowing between the image carrier and the charger, wherein a relational expression (1) is satisfied y≦12.0e l.4x (1) where wind speed of a gas flow between the image carrier and the charger is x (m/s), and the number of images which are formed from a time when the image carrier starts to form an image to a time when an image is judged to be influenced by charge defect is y (1000).