Image forming apparatus including first and second ducts

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a reading unit including a reading portion configured to read an image of a document;
• an image forming unit disposed below the reading unit and configured to form a discharging space between the reading unit and the image forming unit, the image forming unit including:
• an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image to be transferred to a sheet;
• a fixing portion configured to fix the toner image to the sheet by applying heat and pressure to the sheet;
• and
• a discharging portion configured to discharge the sheet, that has passed through the fixing portion, toward the discharging space in a sheet discharging direction;
• and
• a first duct extending in a first direction and configured to communicate an outside surface of the image forming unit to the discharging space, the first direction being along the sheet discharging direction and orthogonal to a rotation-axis direction of the image bearing member, the outside surface being formed on an upstream side of the image forming unit in the sheet discharging direction,
• wherein the image forming unit includes a second duct which extends in the rotation-axis direction, and through which an air flow cooling the sheet discharged by the discharging portion passes,
• wherein at least a portion of the first duct is disposed so as to be located at the same position as the second duct in a second direction orthogonal to both of the first direction and the rotation-axis direction,
• wherein the image forming unit includes:
• a stacking surface on which the sheet discharged by the discharging portion is stacked;
• a rising surface in which a sheet discharge port is formed, and which extends in both of the rotation-axis direction and the second direction, the sheet discharge port being a port through which the sheet discharged by the discharging portion passes;
• a first side-surface formed on a first side of the stacking surface in the rotation-axis direction;
• and
• a second side-surface formed on a second side of the stacking surface in the rotation-axis direction,
• wherein the discharging space is formed by the stacking surface, the rising surface, the first side-surface, the second side-surface, and a bottom surface of the reading unit,
• wherein a width of the first duct is smaller than a width of the stacking surface in the rotation-axis direction, and
• wherein the first duct is disposed at a position closer to the second side-surface than the first side-surface in the rotation-axis direction.