Patent ID: 8843053

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image carrying unit on which a toner image is carried; a transfer unit that transfers a toner image carried by the image carrying unit onto a sheet at a transferring position; a sheet conveyor unit that conveys the sheet having the toner image transferred thereto by the transfer unit; a suction device that generates a suction force so as to absorb the sheet to the sheet conveyor unit while the sheet conveyor unit conveys the sheet, the suction device being changeable between a first state to absorb the sheet to the sheet conveyor unit and a second state to stop a sheet adsorbing operation, and wherein the toner image carried by the image carrying unit is transferred onto the sheet after the toner image passes through a position where the toner image faces the sheet conveyor unit; an obtaining unit that obtains information regarding a location of the toner image on the image carrying unit; and a controller configured to control the suction device based on the information regarding the location of the toner image obtained by the obtaining unit so that the suction device is changed from the first state to the second state before a leading end of the toner image carried by the image carrying unit reaches the position where the toner image faces the sheet conveyor unit and the suction device is changed from the second state to the first state after a trailing end of the toner image passes through the position where the toner image faces the sheet conveyor unit.