Patent ID: 7742714

Claim:
An image forming apparatus for an electrophotographic process, comprising: an image forming mechanism to form a toner image onto an recording medium; an image fixing apparatus that fixes the toner image onto the recording medium, including: a fixing member to heat the toner image, and a pressing member to press the fixing member to form a nip press region through which the recording medium passes so that the toner image is fixed onto the recording medium by heat and pressure; a conveying mechanism to convey the recording medium into the image fixing apparatus; a controller to control a gap between the conveyed recording mediums in a feeding direction when a narrower recording medium, narrower than a maximum allowable size, is continuously fed into the image fixing apparatus, the controller further to control the gap between the conveyed recording mediums in a first control operation to be longer than a default gap when the narrower recording medium, narrower than the maximum allowable size, is continuously fed, the controller further to suspend feeding the recording medium in a second control operation; and a selector to select the first control operation or the second control operation, wherein the fixing member and the pressing member are driven to rotate in a free time when the second control operation is selected by the selector.