Image forming apparatus

摘要

According to an embodiment, an image forming apparatus has a fixing unit which heats an image formed on a recording medium at a fixing temperature, to fix the image on the recording medium. When a heating temperature of the fixing unit becomes a temperature higher than the fixing temperature, the image forming apparatus switches image forming, from image forming by a first mode using a discolorable coloring material, to image forming by a second mode using a non-discolorable coloring material.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image forming unit configured to form an image on a recording medium using a discolorable coloring material which discolors by heating or a non-discolorable coloring material; a heating unit configured to heat the image formed on the recording medium at a fixing temperature lower than a discoloring temperature at which the discolorable coloring material discolors, to fix the image on the recording medium or heat the image formed on the recording medium at the discoloring temperature to discolor the image; a feed cassette configured to house a recording medium for image forming by the image forming unit; a first conveying path configured to convey the recording medium for image forming from the feed cassette to the heating unit through the image forming unit, the first conveying path has a first conveying unit to convey the recording medium for image forming; a feed tray configured to hold a recording medium for image discoloring by the heating unit; a second conveying path configured to join the first conveying path at a position between the image forming unit and the heating unit and convey the recording medium for image discoloring from the feed tray to the heating unit the second conveying path has a second conveying unit to convey the recording medium for image discoloring; a temperature control unit configured to control a heating temperature of the heating unit to the fixing temperature or the discoloring temperature; and a driving unit configured to drive the image forming unit, the heating unit, the first conveying unit and the second conveying unit, wherein the driving unit drives the heating unit and the second conveying unit and stops driving of the image forming unit and the first conveying unit, in a case that the heating unit heats the image formed on the recording medium to discolor the image.