Patent ID: 7953344

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier that holds and carries a toner image; a transfer member that nips and carries a sheet in cooperation with the image carrier at a predetermined transfer position and transfers the toner image carried on the image carrier onto the sheet; a cleaning member that is abutted to a transfer surface of the transfer member, and removes the toner adhering to the transfer surface; a lubricant supply unit arranged downstream from the cleaning member and upstream from the predetermined transfer position in a moving direction of the transfer surface of the transfer member, and configured to supply a lubricant to the transfer surface of the transfer member; an information acquiring unit configured to acquire reaching failure information indicating that the sheet to which the toner image should be transferred does not reach the predetermined transfer position in timing when the toner image carried on the image carrier reaches the predetermined transfer position; and an electric field control unit configured to generate an electric field that is opposite to an electric field generated when transferring the toner image on the image carrier to the sheet, between the image carrier and the transfer member in the case where the reaching failure information is acquired by the information acquiring unit, wherein in the case where the reaching failure information is acquired by the information acquiring unit, the electric field control unit generates an electric field in a direction in which the toner shifts from the side of the lubricant supply unit toward the image carrier wherein a voltage having same polarity of charged toner is applied to the lubricant supply unit by the electric field control unit.