Patent ID: 8290385

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of image forming stations, each of which includes: an image bearing member that bears a toner image on a surface thereof, with toner charged in a normal polarity, and a container; a movable intermediate transfer member which forms primary transfer portions with each image bearing member of said plurality of image forming stations, respectively, wherein respective toner images are primarily transferred from each image bearing member at each of the primary transfer portions; a secondary transfer member that forms a secondary transfer portion with said intermediate transfer member, wherein a toner image, formed from the respective toner images, is secondarily transferred onto a transfer material from said intermediate transfer member at the secondary transfer portion; and a toner charge member that is provided on an upstream side of the primary transfer portions and a downstream side of the secondary transfer portion in a moving direction of said intermediate transfer member, wherein said toner charge member charges residual toner remaining on said intermediate transfer member after the secondary transfer portion to an opposite polarity, which is opposite to the normal polarity, wherein said image forming apparatus moves the residual toner on said intermediate transfer member charged by said toner charge member from said intermediate transfer member to the image bearing member of one of said plurality of image forming stations, and collects the residual toner in the corresponding container, wherein at least one of said plurality of image forming stations is an image forming station in which a first status is shifted to a second status, in a case where the residual toner charged by said toner charge member is moved from said intermediate transfer member to the image bearing member of said at least one image forming station while continuously forming toner images on a plurality of transfer materials, and wherein residual toner charged by said toner charge member before a trailing edge of a last transfer material passes through the secondary transfer portion is moved from said intermediate transfer member to the image bearing member in the first status, and is not moved from said intermediate transfer member to the image bearing member in the second status.