Patent ID: 7657208

Claim:
The image forming apparatus comprising: a rotatable image bearing member; an intermediate transfer member which makes contact with the image bearing member and bears a toner image transferred from the image bearing member; a first driving means which transmits a driving force to the intermediate transfer member; and a second driving means which transmits a driving force to the image bearing member when a rotating speed of the image bearing member is lower than a predetermined speed, wherein a rotating speed of the rotatable image bearing member is faster than the predetermined speed by receiving a rotating friction force from the intermediate transfer member, wherein the second driving means includes a motor and a driving restrictive unit for restricting transmission of a driving force from the motor to the image bearing member, and wherein a relationship between torque T(L) for restricting transmission of the driving force from the second driving means to the image bearing member and a torque T(D) necessary for rotation of the image bearing member in a state that the image bearing member is not contacted with the intermediate transfer member, satisfies the following relationship: 0< T ( L )< T ( D ).