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;
• and
• a lubricant holding member that elastically holds the solid lubricant, wherein
• the lubricant is supplied to the secondary transfer roller according to a material of the lubricant, a pressing amount of the lubricant against the secondary transfer roller, a configuration of the secondary transfer roller, a configuration of the fur brush, and a relation among fur brush circumferential speed, secondary transfer roller circumferential speed, a pressing amount of a blade against the secondary transfer roller, and a blade material.

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, 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,

• the method comprising supplying a proper amount of the lubricant to the secondary transfer roller according to a material of the lubricant, a pressing amount of the lubricant against the secondary transfer roller, a configuration of the secondary transfer roller, a configuration of the fur brush, and a relation among fur brush circumferential speed, secondary transfer roller circumferential speed, a pressing amount of a blade against the secondary transfer roller, and a blade material.