The present invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus which forms an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive device to form a toner image which is in turn transferred onto a transfer member.
An electrophotographic apparatus bases the electrophotographic process technique and is generally of the type using a dry toner and is put into practice as copying apparatus or laser printers. The color electrophotographic apparatus basically comprises a photosensitive device for forming an electrostatic latent image by applying light thereto to form a toner image corresponding to the formed electrostatic latent image. Further, in a color electrophotographic apparatus, included is an intermediate transfer device for formation of a color composite toner image. The quality of image to be outputted greatly depends upon the coincidence in relative driving speed between the photosensitive device and the intermediate transfer device. However, as will be described hereinafter, a conventional color electrophotographic apparatus is arranged such that the photosensitive device and the intermediate transfer device are driven by different drive motors, and a cleaning device and a transfer roller are brought into contact with and separated from the intermediate transfer device and hence the load to be applied to the drive motor for the intermediate transfer device varies so that the driving speed of the intermediate transfer device varies. When the driving speed of one of the different motors varies, the difference in speed between the photosensitive device and the intermediate transfer device occurs to thereby deteriorate the image quality.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds