An image forming apparatus includes a housing; a partition wall which is provided in the housing along a substantially vertical direction, the partition wall partitioning an inner space of the housing into a first space and a second space; developing units which are disposed in parallel along the substantially vertical direction in the first space, each of the developing units comprising a first reception opening and a return opening; and developer cartridges which correspond to the plurality of developing units, the developer cartridges being disposed in parallel along the substantially vertical direction in the second space, each of developer cartridges comprising a supply opening and a second reception opening. The first reception openings of the developing units communicate with the supply openings of respective ones of the developer cartridges, and the return openings of the developer units communicate with the second reception openings of respective ones of the developer cartridges.

A sheet feeder device that stores and sends out a transfer medium includes: a sheet feeder device main unit having an opening formed at an upper portion and including an upstream partial lid located on an upstream side and a downstream partial lid located on a downstream side, the upstream partial lid and the downstream partial lid covering at least part of the opening; a sheet feed tray provided in the sheet feeder device main unit, the transfer medium being loaded onto the sheet feed tray; an elevating unit configured to lift up and down the sheet feed tray; and a control unit configured to control the lifting up and down of the sheet feed tray, wherein the control unit senses opening and closing of the upstream partial lid and the downstream partial lid, and controls the lifting up and down being performed by the elevating unit.

An image formation apparatus includes a conveyor configured to convey a moving element on which an image is formed, a generator configured to generate a first image and a second image by shooting the conveyed moving element at different timing, a detector configured to sense a first distance between the generator and the moving element at the time of shooting of the first image and sense a second distance between the generator and the moving element at the time of shooting of the second image, and a hardware processor configured to calculate a speed of conveyance of the moving element based on the first image, the second image, the first distance, and the second distance, and output the speed of conveyance.

An image formation apparatus comprising: a belt member suspended by a plurality of supporting rotating bodies and thus rotating; a cleaning member removing toner adhering to the belt member; a tray receiving waste toner removed from the belt member by the cleaning member; a vibration mechanism vibrating the tray to move the waste toner toward a lower side of the tray; a steering control mechanism to perform movement control to move the belt member in an axial direction of the supporting rotating bodies while the belt member rotates; and a vibration adjustment mechanism to change a manner of vibration of the vibration mechanism, based on the movement control by the steering control mechanism.

A transfer apparatus includes an image bearing member, a transfer member, a cleaning-bias output section, a first resistance-state detector, a second resistance-state detector, and a controller configured to control the cleaning-bias output section based on the first resistance state and the second resistance state, so as to change timing of ending outputting of a cleaning bias.

An image forming device includes: an image forming unit configured to form a plurality of images on continuous paper based on a job; an image pattern creation unit configured to interrupt execution of the job and create an image pattern for consuming toner; a determination unit configured to determine necessity of creating the image pattern based on coverages of the images included in the job; and a calculation unit configured to, when the determination unit determines that it is necessary to create the image pattern, calculate a conveyance distance or a conveyance time of the continuous paper until creation of the image pattern, as interruption timing.

A fixing apparatus includes the following. A heating unit includes an outer surface driven to rotate and heats a sheet on which color material is transferred. A reflecting unit reflects heat emitted from the heating unit. The reflecting unit further includes, a covering unit which covers at least a portion of the outer surface of the heating unit so that there is a predetermined space; and a movable unit which is provided in the covering unit and which can be switched between a first position and a second position in which air in the space can flow more easily than the first position. The fixing apparatus also includes, a switching unit which switches the movable unit between the first position and the second position; and a controller which controls the switching unit.

A sheet humidification apparatus includes a detect sensor that detects a position of a sheet which is being conveyed; a humidifier that changes a humidification amount and humidifies the sheet; and a controller that controls the humidifier such that a first region on a front end side of the sheet in a conveyance direction is humidified with a first humidification amount, and a second region of the sheet other than the first region is humidified with a second humidification amount larger than the first humidification amount in accordance with a position of the sheet detected by the detect sensor.

An image forming apparatus includes: a pair of rollers for conveying paper; a rocking mechanism for rocking the pair of rollers in a second direction orthogonal to a first direction., the first direction being a paper conveying direction; an upstream pair of rollers provided upstream of the pair of rollers in the paper conveying direction for conveying the paper; an upstream rocking mechanism corresponding to the upstream pair of rollers for rocking the upstream pair of rollers in the second direction; a first paper detector for detecting an end position of the paper in the second direction; and a controller controlling the rocking mechanism based on the paper end position to effect first rocking correction in which the pair of rollers is rocked, wherein the controller controls the upstream rocking mechanism to effect second rocking correction in which only the upstream pair of rollers is rocked.

An intermediate transfer belt includes a base layer, an elastic layer, and a surface layer. The elastic layer is composed of an elastomer composition containing an elastomer and metal oxide particles. At least a portion of a surface of the metal oxide particles is positioned at a surface of the elastic layer. At least the portion is coupling-treated with a metal coupling agent. A radical polymerizable functional group of the metal coupling agent is bonded to a radical polymerizable compound composing the surface layer via radical polymerization.