Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an electrostatic latent image support;
• a charger for charging the electrostatic latent image support;
• an exposure unit for generating a light beam in accordance with input image data and for exposing the electrostatic latent image support with the light beam to form an electrostatic latent image on the electrostatic latent image support;
• a development unit for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the electrostatic latent image support into a toner image;
• a sheet feeding unit for storing a stack of recording sheets and for, in an image forming operation, taking and feeding a recording sheet out of the stack of recording sheets;
• a transfer member for transferring the toner image formed by the development unit to the recording sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit;
• a fuser for fusing the toner image onto the recording sheet fed from the transfer member;
• and
• a high-voltage power supply circuit for, in an image forming operation, generating a plurality of bias voltages and applying the plurality of bias voltages at least to the charger and to the development unit,
• wherein the high-voltage power supply circuit supplies a high voltage only to the charger in an operation in an ion generation mode, which is carried out at a time other than a time of performing an image forming operation, so as to cause the charger to generate ions.