Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material, wherein a cartridge including at least an image bearing member on which a toner image is to be formed is detachably mountable to a main assembly of said image forming apparatus, said image forming apparatus comprising:

• a cartridge mounting portion for detachably mounting the cartridge;
• a transfer device contactable to the image bearing member to form a nip where the toner image is transferred from the image bearing member onto the recording material;
• a feeding mechanism for feeding the recording material to the nip;
• and
• a movable guiding member for guiding the recording material toward a downstream side with respect to a feeding direction of the recording material, wherein said guiding member is movable between a first position where the image bearing member and said transfer device are spaced from each other when the cartridge is in said cartridge mounting portion and a second position where when the cartridge is in said cartridge mounting portion, the image bearing member and said transfer device are permitted to contact each other and the recording material is guided toward the downstream side with respect to the feeding direction, and
• wherein when said guiding member is in the first position, said guiding member is positioned between said transfer device and the cartridge and covers said transfer device.