Patent ID: 7848680

Claim:
An image forming apparatus of a cleanerless process in which a toner image is formed on an image bearing body by a developing device and a toner remaining on the image bearing body is collected by the developing device, the image forming apparatus comprising: a development unit to rotatably hold plural developing devices including a first developing device and a second developing device to form images with toners of colors different from each other and to move a desired developing device to a specified development position opposite to the image bearing body by the rotational movement; a change unit configured to change a mode between a collection mode of collecting the toner remaining on the image bearing body at a specified collection position of the image bearing body and a non-collection mode of not performing toner collection from the image bearing body; and a control unit to set, when the first developing device is changed to the second developing device in the development unit, the collection unit into the collection mode only in a specified period within a period from a second timing earlier than a first timing when the first developing device is changed to the second developing device by a time required for an image bearing surface of the image bearing body to move from the specified collection position to the specified development position to a third timing when a rear end of an area where the toner image is formed by the first developing device before the second developing device on the image bearing body reaches the specified collection position.