To provide an image forming apparatus capable of highly precisely detecting the service life of a component such as a sliding load reduction member, surely preventing image defect and paper deformation such as paper wrinkles, and eliminating non-operable period of the image forming apparatus to the utmost, thereby enhancing the productivity.
The image forming apparatus includes: a load detecting means for detecting the sliding load of an endless belt; a cumulative recording medium detecting means for detecting the cumulative number of sheets of the recording medium on which fixation is performed by a fixing means; and a service life predicting means for predicting the service life of the sliding load reduction member by comparing the sliding load of the endless belt detected by the load detecting means with the defined value of the sliding resistance previously defined in accordance with the cumulative number of sheets of the recording medium detected by the cumulative recording medium detecting means.
MAMIYA MITSUNOBU
Katsuo Naruse
Masahiro Koizumi
Aoya Kazuo
Masashi Torino
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