Patent ID: 7865127

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image former for performing an image formation by transferring a toner image onto a sheet; a fixing unit for performing a fixing operation with respect to the sheet having the transferred toner image by heating; a discharge tray for successively stacking the sheet to be discharged after the fixing operation; and a curl correcting mechanism for correcting a curl of the sheet to be discharged onto the discharge tray after the fixing operation, the curl correcting mechanism including a sheet presser which is operated in such a manner that a sheet pressing position thereof is moved upward in accordance with an increase in the number of sheets to be discharged onto the discharge tray, while suppressing the curl of the sheet on the discharge tray; a detector for detecting a sheet pressing position of the sheet presser; a controller for controlling the image former to reduce the number of sheets to be processed by the image former per unit time if the detector detects that the sheet pressing position has exceeded a predetermined reference height level, and suspends a sheet discharging operation if the detector detects that the sheet pressing position has reached a predetermined maximally loadable level corresponding to a maximum height level of the sheets loadable on the discharge tray.