IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, an intermediate transfer belt, a brush roller, a drive mechanism, a contact control mechanism, and an operation control unit. The image forming unit includes a photoconductor drum, and forms a toner image on an outer circumferential surface of the photoconductor drum. The operation control unit is configured to perform a cleaning mode including cleaning the brush roller while an image forming operation is not being performed, cause the contact control mechanism to set the photoconductor drum and the intermediate transfer belt to the non-contact phase in the cleaning mode, and cause the drive mechanism, in the non-contact phase, to drive the brush roller to rotate at a rotation speed higher than a rotation speed of the brush roller in the image forming operation, and drive the intermediate transfer belt.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
an image forming unit including a photoconductor drum, and configured to form a toner image on an outer circumferential surface of the photoconductor drum; an intermediate transfer belt disposed so as to oppose the photoconductor drum, so that when the intermediate transfer belt is in contact with the photoconductor drum the toner image is transferred from the photoconductor drum onto an outer surface of the intermediate transfer belt; a brush roller that collects toner remaining on the outer surface of the intermediate transfer belt after the toner image is transferred from the intermediate transfer belt to a recording sheet; a drive mechanism configured to drive the photoconductor drum, the intermediate transfer belt, and the brush roller; a contact control mechanism configured to switch the photoconductor drum and the intermediate transfer belt to a non-contact phase from a contact phase; and an operation control unit configured to: perform a cleaning mode including cleaning the brush roller while an image forming operation is not being performed; cause the contact control mechanism to set the photoconductor drum and the intermediate transfer belt to the non-contact phase in the cleaning mode; and cause the drive mechanism, while the photoconductor drum and the intermediate transfer belt are in the non-contact phase, to drive the brush roller to rotate at a rotation speed higher than a rotation speed of the brush roller in the image forming operation, and drive the intermediate transfer belt.