Image forming apparatus with a predetermined potential difference between regions of an image bearing member

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a charging member for being supplied with a charging voltage which is a DC voltage not having an AC voltage component and for contacting the bearing member to electrically charge a surface of the bearing member using an electric discharge; a transfer member for transferring onto a transfer material a toner image formed on the surface of the bearing member by developing the electrostatic latent image, at a transfer position; wherein the charging potential of the charging member is different between when the charging member provides a first region with a potential and when the charging member provides a second region with a potential, thus providing a predetermined potential difference between the first region and the second region, and wherein the transfer member is not supplied with a voltage when the second region is at the transfer position, where the first region is a region on the image bearing member which has been charged by the charging member and which is to be an image forming region, and the second region is a region of the image bearing member which is a non-image-forming region in an immediately previous rotation of the image bearing member and which corresponds to the first region on the bearing member.