Provided is an image forming apparatus including a secondary transfer portion which transfers a toner image onto a recording material; a fixing device which fixes the toner image onto the recording material, and a belt conveying portion which adsorbs the recording material between the secondary transfer portion and the fixing device, and conveys the recording material, in which the belt conveying portion includes a first velocity at the time of receiving a front end portion of the recording material in a traveling direction from the secondary transfer portion, and a second velocity before a rear end portion of the recording material in the traveling direction leaves the secondary transfer portion at the time of delivering the front end portion of the recording material in the traveling direction to the fixing device, and the second velocity is faster than the first velocity.

A transfer device includes: a transfer drum that has a groove-like recess extending in an axial direction in an outer circumferential portion thereof, rotates about an axis thereof, and comes into contact with a medium being transported at a portion thereof on an upstream side of the recess in a rotation direction; a nip member, the nip member and the transfer drum forming therebetween a nip part where the medium is nipped; an application member that applies a voltage to the nip part where the medium is nipped, so that an image is transferred to the medium; and a contact mechanism that causes the nip member to come into contact only with a portion on the upstream side of the recess in the transfer drum in the rotation direction at a transfer-start time when the transfer of the image to the medium starts.

A fixing device includes an endless belt, a drive rotator, a driven rotator, a rotation detector, and circuitry. The drive rotator contacts and rotates the endless belt. The driven rotator contacts an inner circumferential surface of the endless belt. The rotation detector detects a rotational speed of the driven rotator. The circuitry is operatively connected to the rotation detector to control a rotational speed of the drive rotator based on the rotational speed of the driven rotator detected by the rotational detector. The circuitry changes the rotational speed of the drive rotator when a recording medium bearing a toner image is not conveyed over the endless belt.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image former that forms an image on a continuous paper; a fixing unit that includes a pair of rotatable members and that nips the continuous paper between the rotatable members to convey the paper and fix the image formed on the paper by the image former; a conveying member different from the rotatable members; and a hardware processor. The image forming apparatus performs a paper conveying mode in which the image former does not form an image and at least the conveying member conveys the continuous paper. In the paper conveying mode, the hardware processor determines to press the rotatable members against each other or to separate the rotatable members from each other according to a predetermined criterion and, based on the determination, conveys the continuous paper while keeping the rotatable members pressed against each other or separated from each other.

A snap ring is set to a set portion of a shaft of a rotator from a direction orthogonal to an axial direction of the shaft. The snap ring includes a first arcuate portion and a second arcuate portion facing each other, being elastically deformable in directions away from each other, holding the set portion by elastic deformation restoring force. One ends of the first and second arcuate portions are away from each other to form an insertion portion to insert the set portion. When the snap ring is not used, the first arcuate portion has a same radius of curvature as the second arcuate portion and the set portion, and a center of curvature closer to the second arcuate portion than the first arcuate portion, and the second arcuate portion has a center of curvature closer to the first arcuate portion than the second arcuate portion.

An image forming apparatus includes a control unit configured to execute a sheet discharge mode. If a case where a distance between the leading edge and the nip portion is a first distance is a first case, and a case where a distance between the leading edge of the sheet and the nip portion is a second distance shorter than the first distance and the temperature detected by the temperature detection unit is the same as that in the first case is a second case, the control unit is configured to set a conveyance speed of the sheet in discharging the sheet toward the nip portion in the second case to be slower than that in the first case, in the sheet discharge mode.

A fixing device is configured to fix a toner image to a sheet by heat and includes: a heating rotator; a pressurizing roller contacting with the heating rotator; a heater configured to heat the heating rotator such that the heat is transferred to the sheet passing through a contact portion between the heating rotator and the pressurizing roller; a plurality of separation claws configured to separate the sheet from the heating rotator such that the sheet passing through the contact portion is not caught in the heating rotator, the separation claws being provided opposite to the heating rotator; and an adjustor configured to adjust positions of the separation claws relative to the heating rotator such that distances between the separation claws and the heating rotator are equal to each other.

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.

An image formation apparatus according to an embodiment may include: an image carrier; a transfer part facing the image carrier; a transfer belt that passes between the image carrier and the transfer part, includes a conveyance surface, and configured to convey a medium on the conveyance surface; plural rollers to which the transfer belt is stretched, the plural rollers including a downstream roller provided on a downstream side in the medium conveyance direction among the plural rollers; and a separating member facing the downstream roller and configured to separate the medium from the transfer belt. The separating member includes a guide surface to guide the medium, wherein the guide surface is arranged at an angle such that a distance from the guide surface to a conveyance reference plane becomes shorter as proceeding in the medium conveyance direction, the conveyance reference plane being a virtual plane extending the conveyance surface.

An image formation apparatus according to an embodiment may include: an image carrier; a transfer part facing the image carrier; a transfer belt that passes between the image carrier and the transfer part, includes a conveyance surface, and configured to convey a medium on the conveyance surface; plural rollers to which the transfer belt is stretched, the plural rollers including a downstream roller provided on a downstream side in the medium conveyance direction among the plural rollers; and a separating member facing the downstream roller and configured to separate the medium from the transfer belt. The separating member includes a guide surface to guide the medium, wherein the guide surface is arranged at an angle such that a distance from the guide surface to a conveyance reference plane becomes shorter as proceeding in the medium conveyance direction, the conveyance reference plane being a virtual plane extending the conveyance surface.