An optical scanning device includes a housing having light emitting ports extending in a predetermined direction, a transparent cover that closes the light emitting ports, a screw shaft arranged so as to extend in the predetermined direction along the transparent cover, a holding member having an engaging part engaged with the screw shaft, and a cleaning member held to the holing member. An abutting fulcrum is provided at an end of a movement path of the holing member, abuts a predetermined place of a surface of a front side in a progress direction of the holing member, allows the holing member to rotate by employing an abutting part of the holding member with the abutting fulcrum as a fulcrum, and reduces a position shift amount between the one side end portion and the other side end portion of the holing member in the progress direction.

According to an aspect of the invention, a developing device includes a developing container that accommodates a two-component developer, a toner concentration detecting unit that detects a toner concentration of the developer by a detecting unit exposed to an inner wall of the developing container, a transport member that is disposed within the developing container and stirs and transport the developer with a transport blade having a pitch that is equal to or less than a size of the detecting unit of the toner concentration detecting unit, and a plurality of gap holding members that is provided at a position facing the toner concentration detecting unit of the transport member and holds a gap such that a tip thereof is abutted against the inner wall of the developing container.

Provided is a cleaning blade disposed to be in contact with an image carrying belt having an elastic layer for removing foreign material from a surface of the image carrying belt, including: a base; and an amorphous coating layer on the base, the coating layer including a contact portion disposed to be in contact with the image carrying belt, wherein the contact portion is curved to have a predetermined curvature with respect to a direction of a movement of the image carrying belt.

A cleaning blade (1) having an elastic body (11) molded from a rubber base material, and having at least a surface treatment layer (12) on the area of the elastic body (11) that is brought into contact with a body to be contacted, wherein the surface treatment layer (12) is formed by impregnating the surface layer portion of the elastic body (11) with a surface treatment liquid containing an isocyanate compound and an organic solvent and hardening the liquid. The elasticity modulus of the surface treatment layer (12) is 40 MPa or less, the elasticity modulus of the elastic body (11) is 3-20 MPa, and the difference between the elasticity modulus of the surface treatment layer (12) and the elasticity modulus of the elastic body (11) is 1 MPa or more.

A cleaning unit includes a cleaning member that removes a developer from a surface of an image holding member; an accommodating portion that accommodates the removed developer; and a transport member that transports the developer removed by the cleaning member to the accommodating portion, wherein the transport member includes a transport unit that extends in a direction intersecting with a developer transport direction, has a surface formed to be inclined in a direction approaching the cleaning member towards an upstream side, and transports the developer while contacting with the developer.

A cartridge includes a rotating body, a blade that extends in an axial direction of the rotating body and is disposed on the rotating body, a supporting member that is fixed to the blade and configured to support the blade in such a manner that the blade protrudes toward the rotating body in a shorter direction crossing the axial direction, a frame body including a placing surface that supports the supporting member, and a fixed portion that is disposed on the placing surface via the supporting member and fixed to the frame body. The supporting member includes a cut portion extending in the axial direction. The fixed portion includes a deformed portion deformed by given energy, and the deformed portion engages with the cut portion so that movement of the supporting member with respect to the frame body is restricted.

An image forming apparatus resets a count value retained by a counter if a cleaning sequence is executed based on an execution instruction accepted from an operator via an operation unit or when the count value for counting the number of image-formed sheets reaches a predetermined value.

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a cleaning member, a determination unit, and a control unit. The image carrier carries a developer image. The cleaning member removes a developer adhering to a surface of the image carrier by a frictional force when the image carrier is rotated in a first direction. The determination unit determines an image forming amount in a plurality of continuous image forming jobs. The control unit rotates the image carrier in the first direction during the image forming period and in a second direction opposite to the first direction at reverse rotation timing, and changes a condition for rotation in the second direction according to the determination result.

An image forming apparatus includes a charging unit that charges an image bearing member, a developing unit that forms a toner image on an latent image formed on the image bearing member, a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a transfer material, a charge neutralizer that neutralizes a charge of the image bearing member downstream of a transfer portion and upstream of a charging portion in a rotating direction of the image bearing member, a conductive collecting unit that collects a material adhering on the image bearing member downstream of the transfer portion and upstream of the charging portion, wherein the developing unit collects residual toner on the image bearing member, an voltage application unit sets a potential difference between the voltage applied to the collecting unit and the surface electric potential of the image bearing member not more than a discharge threshold.

In an image forming apparatus, a cleaning blade, disposed on a downstream side of a transfer roller in a rotation direction of an image carrier, removes toner remaining on the image carrier after transfer of a toner image to an intermediate transfer member. After completion of an image forming operation, a controller causes the transfer roller to separate from the intermediate transfer member, cause the developing device to form on the image carrier a toner band to be supplied to the cleaning blade, and cause rotation of the image carrier to stop such that at least a part of the toner band formed on the image carrier stops within a section from a first position facing the transfer roller to a second position facing the cleaning blade in the rotation direction.