US Patent 7761020 Image forming apparatus utilizing cylindrical toner particles

In an image forming apparatus in which a visual image on a photosensitive drum is developed with columnar toner, and the developed toner image is transferred from the photosensitive drum to an intermediate transfer belt, a moving speed of the photosensitive drum and a moving speed of the intermediate transfer belt are different at a contact position (transfer nip section) where the photosensitive drum and the intermediate transfer belt are in contact. With this arrangement, toner scattering, nonuniform image etc. can be reduced in the image forming apparatus, in which the development is carried out with columnar toner.