Image forming apparatus having a changeable adjustment toner image positioning feature

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member;
• an image forming unit for forming a toner image on the image bearing member, the image forming unit allowing formation of a waste toner image which is not transferred to a recording material and is forcibly disposed;
• a transfer unit for transferring the toner image formed on the image bearing member to the recording material;
• a removing unit for removing the waste toner image;
• a judgment unit for judging whether formation of the waste toner image is necessary;
• a control unit configured to execute a first mode for controlling image forming timing so as to form the waste toner image when the formation of the waste toner image was judged necessary in the judgment unit and to form a normal image after the formation of the waste toner image is completed during a period from reception of an image forming start signal to completion of image forming, and a second mode for controlling image forming timing so as to form the waste toner image in parallel with the normal image;
• and
• a selection unit which can select a first mode when a size of the recording material in a width direction orthogonal to a direction of conveyance of the recording material to which an image is transferred after the formation of the waste toner image is judged necessary, is larger than a predetermined threshold value, and a second mode when the size is smaller than the predetermined threshold value.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member;
• an image forming unit for forming a toner image on the image bearing member;
• a transfer unit for transferring the toner image formed on the image bearing member to a recording material;
• a detection unit for detecting an adjustment toner image formed by the image forming unit;
• an adjustment unit for adjusting the image forming condition of the image forming unit based on the detected result of the detection unit;
• wherein the image forming unit forms the adjusting toner image and the ordinary images in parallel in a direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction of the image bearing member so that at least a part of the adjusting toner is superimposed on the ordinary image in the moving direction of the image bearing member, when ordinary images are continuously formed on a plurality of recording materials that are equal to or less than the predetermined width;
• and
• wherein the image forming unit forms the adjusting toner image inbetween before and after the ordinary images in a moving direction of the image bearing member, when ordinary images are continuously formed on a plurality of recording materials which are wider than the predetermined width.
• a control unit configured to execute a first mode for forming the adjustment toner image between the image forming areas of the first recording material and the second recording material by widening the conveyance interval between the first recording material and the subsequent second recording material when the adjustment toner image is formed after the image forming corresponding to the first recording material is made, and a second mode for controlling so as to form the adjustment toner image in parallel with the image forming of the second recording material during a job for continuously forming the image on a plurality of the recording materials;
• and
• a selection unit which can select a first mode when a width size of the second recording material orthogonal to a direction of conveyance of the second recording material is larger than a predetermined threshold value, and a second mode when a width size of the second recording material orthogonal to a direction of conveyance of the second recording material is smaller than the predetermined threshold value.