Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member;
• a conveyance unit including a pair of rotatable members and configured to convey a recording material by a conveyance nip portion formed by the pair of rotatable members;
• a transfer unit forming a transfer nip portion with the image bearing member and configured to transfer a toner image onto the recording material, conveyed by the conveyance unit, in the transfer nip portion;
• a fixing unit including a rotatable heating member and a rotatable pressing member forming a fixing nip portion with the rotatable heating member and configured to fix the toner image transferred to the recording material by the transfer unit in the fixing nip portion;
• and
• a control unit configured to control conveyance of the recording material,
• wherein in a case of performing a continuous print in which a first recording material and a second recording material following the first recording material are conveyed and image formation is executed thereon, the control unit executes following operations of:
• acquiring information on an image to be formed on the second recording material and a length of the second recording material in a conveyance direction;
• calculating, based on the acquired length of the second recording material in the conveyance direction before feeding the second recording material, a loosening amount which is an amount of loosening of the second recording material between the conveyance nip portion and the transfer nip portion in a case in which the second recording material is nipped in the conveyance nip portion and the transfer nip portion;
• determining, based on the acquired information on the image, whether an image exists in a region where an image defect would be generated in the image to be transferred to the second recording material due to an impact that occurrs when a trailing end of the second recording material with respect to the conveyance direction passes through the conveyance nip portion;
• and
• performing extension control in which a conveyance interval between the first recording material and the second recording material is extended in a case in which it is determined that the loosening amount is a predetermined value or more and the image exists in the region.