Color image forming apparatus with drive power transmission mechanism

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• image bearing means disposed along a conveying direction of a recording sheet;
• and
• drive power transmission means intermediate of said image bearing means and drive source means, and configured to translate movement of said drive source means to movement of said image bearing means, said drive power transmission means being divided into groups, wherein said groups are arranged in an alternating relationship and are offset relative to each other so as to provide synchronized movement of said image bearing means,
• wherein said image bearing means comprises four image bearing members and said drive power transmission means comprises:
• four drive gears wherein two of said drive gears form a first group and two of said drive gears form a second group;
• and
• two intermediate gears, wherein one of said intermediate gears corresponds to said first group and one of said intermediate gears corresponds to said second group.

A method of fabricating an image forming apparatus comprising:

• disposing image bearing means along a conveying direction of recording sheet;
• and
• positioning drive power transmission means intermediate of said image bearing means and drive source means, said drive power transmission means being configured to translate movement of said drive source means to movement of said image bearing means, said drive power transmission means being divided into groups, wherein said groups are arranged in an alternating relationship and are offset relative to each other and said drive source means so as to provide synchronized movement of said image bearing means,
• wherein said image bearing means comprises a plurality of image bearing members, said source means comprises a source gear, and said drive power transmission means is positioned such that a plurality of drive gears and a plurality of intermediate gears included in said drive power transmission means form offsetting groups, wherein a predefined number of said plurality of drive gears and at least one of said intermediate gears are included in each of said groups, and
• wherein a relationship between drive gears in each group and one of said intermediate gears is defined by a first predefined angle, and
• wherein a relationship between said intermediate gears and said source gear is defined by a second predefined angle.