Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• an image forming part that forms a developer image on a developer carrier that is rotatable,
• a transfer member that is rotatable and in contact with the developer carrier at a primary transfer position and to which the developer image is transferred from the image forming part,
• a carrying part that is in contact with the transfer member at a secondary transfer position and carries a recording medium to which the developer image, which was transferred to the transfer member, is further transferred,
• a control part that
• controls the image forming part, the transfer member and the carrying part, and
• controls an image forming operation through which the developer image is transferred onto a prescribed portion of the recording medium at the secondary transfer position,
• a contact/separation part that performs two operations at the secondary transfer position at operation timings wherein these operations are:
• a separation operation through which the transfer member and the developer carrier become relatively separated, the separation operation being performed at a separation timing, which is one of the operation timings, and
• a contact operation through which the transfer member and the developer carrier, which are separated, become in contact each other at a contact timing, which is the other of the operation timings, and
• a contact/separation timing control part that controls the operation timings performed by the contact/separation part, wherein
• before the control part finishes transferring the developer image to the recording medium at the secondary transfer position, the contract/separation timing control part sets the separation timing, and the contact/separation performs the separation operation at the separation timing.