A sheet conveyance device includes a reversing conveyance portion and a conveyance guide member. A sheet from a sheet reversing portion travels into and out of the reversing conveyance portion to be switched back so that the conveyance direction of the sheet is switched. The conveyance guide member is provided in the reversing conveyance portion, and has a sheet conveyance face facing the bottom face of the sheet passing through the reversing conveyance portion. The sheet conveyance face has one or more curved portions curved in the up-down direction as viewed from the width direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the sheet, and curves the sheet along the curved portion.

An example image forming apparatus includes a simplex path for conveying printing medium passing through a fixing unit provided in a main body to a discharge port of the main body, a duplex path for turning over printing medium and conveying the printing medium to the simplex path, and a discharge unit for selectively conveying a first printing medium and a second printing medium in different directions, wherein the first printing medium includes an image formed on one surface passing through the simplex path, and the second printing medium includes an image formed on two surfaces and passing through the simplex path after passing through the duplex path.

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image formation units, an eraser drive circuit, a static elimination voltage power supply and a control unit. The image formation unit includes an image carrying member, a charging device, a development device and a static eliminator. The eraser drive circuit drives light emitting diodes included in the static eliminators. The eraser drive circuit includes a monochrome drive circuit that drives only the light emitting diode included in the static eliminator provided in the image formation unit where the toner image of black is formed and a color drive circuit that drives the light emitting diodes included in the static eliminators provided in the image formation units where the toner images of all colors including black are formed, and the eraser drive circuit includes a common constant current drive circuit as a part of the monochrome drive circuit and the color drive circuit.

A fixing device includes a rotator, an endless belt, and a nip formation pad. The endless belt contacts the rotator and rotates in a direction of rotation. The nip formation pad contacts an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt to form a fixing nip between the endless belt and the rotator that presses the endless belt against the nip formation pad. The nip formation pad includes a slide layer, a base layer, and a lubricant holding layer. The slide layer contacts the endless belt. The base layer is disposed away from the endless belt. The lubricant holding layer is interposed between the slide layer and the base layer to hold a lubricant inside the lubricant holding layer and supply the lubricant to the slide layer. The slide layer has a porous structure including a plurality of through holes in a thickness direction of the slide layer.

An image forming apparatus includes: a photoconductor; an optical writer to write a latent image on the photoconductor; an image data generator to generate image data of at least one of text and image and of a correction pattern; a light emission controller to control a light source of the optical writer; a developing device to develop the latent image into a toner image; a transfer device to transfer the toner image onto a recording medium; a fixing device to fix the toner image thereon; a detector to detect the toner image of the correction pattern formed according to the image data; and a writing position controller to control when the light source emits light based on the toner image detected. The correction pattern is formed at each of four corners inside a margin of the recording medium, and includes two edges in each of main scanning and sub-scanning directions.

An electric field sensor has a semiconductor stack, a first electrode, and a second electrode. The semiconductor stack includes a first semiconductor layer of a first conductive type and a second semiconductor layer of a conductive type opposite to the first conductive type stacked on the first semiconductor layer. The first electrode is arranged on one side of the semiconductor stack in the lamination direction. The second electrode is arranged on the other side of the semiconductor stack in the lamination direction. The electric field sensor detects the intensity of an electric field in the direction orthogonal to the lamination direction based on a current passing through the semiconductor stack.

An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes: an electrostatic latent image retainer; an intermediate transfer body; a primary transfer member to transfer toner image retained by the electrostatic latent image retainer to an imaging region of the intermediate transfer body; a secondary transfer member to transfer the transferred toner image from the intermediate transfer body to a transfer medium; a toner forcible discharger to forcibly discharge toner into a non-imaging region of the intermediate transfer body; and a controller to control a volume of the toner to be forcibly discharged. The intermediate transfer body is a multi-layer belt including a base layer and an outermost coating layer. The coating layer contains silicon dioxide. The controller reduces the volume of the toner to be forcibly discharged based on use history information of the intermediate transfer body, compared to the volume at an initial stage of use.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section, a fixing device, and circuitry. The image forming section forms an image on a recording medium. The fixing device includes a rotator including a flexible endless belt, a pressure rotator pressed against the rotator to form a nip between the rotator and the pressure rotator, a heater heating the rotator, and a movable shield. The movable shield is disposed between the heater and the rotator to shield the rotator from radiant heat generated from the heater and is movable according to a size of the recording medium. The circuitry is configured to control the image forming section to form the image on the recording medium based on an image forming condition and change at least one of an operating temperature of the movable shield or a shielding amount of the movable shield based on the image forming condition.

An image forming apparatus includes, an image former that forms an image in a plurality of colors on a sheet by an intermediate transfer method; and a hardware processor that acquires sheet attribute information indicating an attribute of the sheet, wherein, the hardware processor measures a color misregistration amount at a predetermined position in a surface of the sheet on which the image is formed by the image former; and the hardware processor performs control for correcting at least the color misregistration on the surface of the sheet, based on the acquired sheet attribute information and the measured color misregistration amount.

An image formation apparatus includes an image bearing member on which an electrostatic latent image is formed and a developing agent bearing member configured to carry a developer used to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member. The image formation apparatus forms an image by using the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member. The image formation apparatus further includes an obtaining unit configured to obtain the information about a rotation speed of the image bearing member and a rotation speed of the developing agent bearing member; a determination unit configured to determine, according to the obtained information, a color conversion table used to transfer and record the input image data; and an image formation unit configured to convert a signal of the input image data according to the determined color conversion table and form an image with the converted signal value.