Image forming apparatus

A secondary transfer unit comprising:

• a secondary-transfer-unit supporting unit;
• a secondary transfer roller that is supported by the secondary-transfer-unit supporting unit and comes into contact with an image bearing member and transfers a toner image onto a recording medium;
• a secondary-transfer-roller housing unit that houses the secondary transfer roller;
• a lubricant applying brush that comes into contact with the secondary transfer roller and applies a lubricant to the secondary transfer roller;
• a lubricant-applying-brush housing unit that houses the lubricant applying brush;
• a solid lubricant that is housed in the lubricant-applying-brush housing unit and supplies the lubricant to the lubricant applying brush;
• a lubricant holding member that elastically holds the solid lubricant;
• a driving gear that transmits rotational force from the outside to the lubricant applying brush;
• and
• a lubricant unit that supports at least the lubricant applying brush, the lubricant-applying-blush housing unit, the solid lubricant, the lubricant holding member, and the driving gear in an integral state and is formed to be detachably attachable to the secondary-transfer-unit supporting unit.

An image forming method for an image forming apparatus including an image transfer unit that transfers a reversal image based on a scanned document image onto an image bearing member as a toner image, a secondary-transfer-unit supporting unit, a secondary transfer roller that is supported by the secondary-transfer-unit supporting unit and comes into contact with the image bearing member and transfers the toner image onto a recording medium, a secondary-transfer-roller housing unit that houses the secondary transfer roller, a lubricant applying brush that comes into contact with the secondary transfer roller and applies a lubricant to the secondary transfer roller, a lubricant-applying-brush housing unit that houses the lubricant applying brush, a solid lubricant that is housed in the lubricant-applying-brush housing unit and supplies the lubricant to the lubricant applying brush, a lubricant holding member that elastically holds the solid lubricant, a driving gear that transmits rotational force from the outside to the lubricant applying brush, and a contact and separation unit that brings the secondary transfer roller into contact with and separates the secondary transfer roller from the image bearing member, wherein

• at least the lubricant applying brush, the lubricant-applying-blush housing unit, the solid lubricant, the lubricant holding member, and the driving gear are supported by a lubricant unit in an integral state and are detachably attached to the secondary-transfer-unit supporting unit.