An image forming apparatus has a printing section, a cooling mechanism, a suction adjustment mechanism, and a controller. The printing section includes a fixing unit for heating a sheet having a toner image put on it, and discharges the sheet after fixing. The cooling mechanism includes a suction port, a blower motor for rotating a fan, and a blowing duct for blowing air onto the sheet. The suction adjustment mechanism moves a suction adjustor between an open position where the suction port is open and a shut position where the suction port is closed. The controller moves the suction adjustor the closer to the shut position the smaller the set thickness of the sheet.

A reciprocating mechanism reciprocates by drive force from a drive source and to press a chute to move from a first position to a second position. In response to determining that a parameter is greater than a threshold for the parameter, a controller executes a first mode of actuating the drive source when conveying one sheet. The parameter decreases as a conveyance speed of the sheet at the fixing nip increases. The threshold is such a value that, when the parameter is greater than the threshold, a difference between a conveyance speed of the sheet at a transfer nip and the conveyance speed of the sheet at the fixing nip is greater than a particular level. In response to determining that the parameter is smaller than or equal to the threshold, the controller executes a second mode of not actuating the drive source when conveying one sheet.

A polymer film includes at least one type of polymer selected from the group consisting of a resin and rubber and fillers dispersed in the polymer; in which in a case where the polymer film is three-dimensionally analyzed with FIB-SEM, a film thickness of the polymer film is denoted by Tm, and a length of the filler in a film thickness direction of the polymer film is denoted by Lf, a proportion of the number of fillers having Lf/Tm of 0.01 or more and less than 1.0 to the number of all the fillers is more than 40% and less than 100%.

An image forming apparatus includes: a pair of transport rollers that nip and transport a recording medium; an image forming device that is disposed on the downstream side of the pair of transport rollers in a recording-medium transport direction and forms an image on the recording medium; a pair of fixing members that are disposed on the downstream side of the image forming device in the recording-medium transport direction and fix the image formed on the recording medium while nipping and transporting the recording medium; a single driving source that rotationally drives both the pair of transport rollers and the pair of fixing members; and a releasing device that stops rotational driving of the pair of transport rollers by the driving source at a timing when the recording medium is transported while being nipped both between the pair of transport rollers and between the pair of fixing members.

In accordance with one embodiment, a color erasing apparatus comprises a conveyance path, a color erasing section and a control section. The conveyance path conveys a sheet. The color erasing section erases the color of an image formed with color erasable recording agent serving as recording agent containing coloring agent the color of which can be erased by heating. The control section carries out a control, in a case where the image formed on the sheet is not an image formed with the color erasable recording agent, so that the sheet is not subjected to a color erasing processing by the color erasing section.

An image forming apparatus includes a conveyer roller exposed to an attachment space and a drive force transmission mechanism for transmitting a drive force from a drive source. The drive force transmission mechanism includes a plate driving gear exposed to the attachment space, a transmission gear train transmitting a drive force to the conveyer roller and to the plate driving gear, and a switching mechanism. The switching mechanism includes a driven gear transmitting the drive force to the transmission gear train, a pendulum gear revolvable between a coupled position in which the pendulum gear is engaged with the driven gear and an uncoupled position in which the pendulum gear is separated from the driven gear, and a transmission switch movable between a first position for holding the pendulum gear in the uncoupled position and a second position for allowing the pendulum gear to revolve between the coupled and uncoupled positions.

An image forming apparatus includes a transfer unit, a fixing unit, a conveyance unit, and a control unit. The control unit selectively performs a plurality of modes including a first mode and a second mode. The first mode is a mode in which, when a grammage of a sheet is a first grammage, if a leading edge of the sheet has reached the fixing unit, the control unit controls the first suction unit such that suction force of the first suction unit becomes first suction force. The second mode is a mode in which, when the grammage of the sheet is a second grammage smaller than the first grammage, if a leading edge of the sheet has reached the fixing unit, the control unit controls the first suction unit such that the suction force of the first suction unit becomes second suction force smaller than the first suction force.

In accordance with one embodiment, a color erasing apparatus comprises a conveyance path, a color erasing section and a control section. The conveyance path conveys a sheet. The color erasing section erases the color of an image formed with color erasable recording agent serving as recording agent containing coloring agent the color of which can be erased by heating. The control section carries out a control, in a case where the image formed on the sheet is not an image formed with the color erasable recording agent, so that the sheet is not subjected to a color erasing processing by the color erasing section.

An image forming apparatus includes a conveyer roller exposed to an attachment space and a drive force transmission mechanism for transmitting a drive force from a drive source. The drive force transmission mechanism includes a plate driving gear exposed to the attachment space, a transmission gear train transmitting a drive force to the conveyer roller and to the plate driving gear, and a switching mechanism. The switching mechanism includes a driven gear transmitting the drive force to the transmission gear train, a pendulum gear revolvable between a coupled position in which the pendulum gear is engaged with the driven gear and an uncoupled position in which the pendulum gear is separated from the driven gear, and a transmission switch movable between a first position for holding the pendulum gear in the uncoupled position and a second position for allowing the pendulum gear to revolve between the coupled and uncoupled positions.

An image forming apparatus includes a transfer roller, a fuser, a chute, a drive source, a reciprocating mechanism, and a controller. The transfer roller transfers toner to a sheet. The fuser fixes toner on the sheet. The chute is located upstream from the fuser in a sheet conveying direction. The chute is configured to convey the sheet toward the fuser. The chute is movable between a first position and a second position. The reciprocating mechanism reciprocates by drive force from the drive source and moves the chute between the first position and the second position. The controller executes: a first mode of actuating the drive source when conveying one sheet; and a second mode of not actuating the drive source when conveying one sheet. The controller switches between the first mode and the second mode in a middle of a print job.