MULTI-COLOR IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REDUCING WEAR AND TEAR OF COLOR RELATED COMPONENT IN THE APPARATUS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the unnecessary wear and tear of a rotary toner transfer device selected in a multi-color image forming apparatus. SOLUTION: The multi-color image forming apparatus 100 supporting several color related rotary toner transfer devices 125A to 125C includes the engagement release units 200A to 200C of the rotary toner transfer device. The selected color related rotary toner transfer device is selectively engaged or released by the engagement release unit according to whether the selected color related rotary toner transfer device is needed for forming an image. Also, the image forming apparatus may possess a processor 156 and a computer-readable memory device 158. The engagement release program 170 of the rotary toner transfer device can be stored in the memory device. The program is performed by the processor, and the selected color related rotary toner transfer device is selectively engaged or released by the engagement release unit of the rotary toner transfer device. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO