A cleaning blade includes a contact part coming into contact with a member to be cleaned, the contact part being constituted by a member containing polyurethane rubber produced by polymerizing at least a polyol component and a polyisocyanate component. The ratio (M100/Re) of 100% modulus (M100 [MPa]) to rebound resilience coefficient (Re [%]) of the member is 0.25 or more. The rebound resilience coefficient (Re [%]) of the member is less than 25%. The tensile stress at 23° C. and 200% strain of the member is 15 MPa or more.

An image forming apparatus capable of forming images in mono-color and a plurality of colors includes first and second image forming units and a control unit. The image forming unit includes a rotatable image bearing member, a rotatable developing member that contacts the image bearing member to supply a developer to the surface thereof, and a developer supply member that supplies the developer to the developing member. The control unit switches between an image forming operation of forming an image on the image bearing member surface and a cleaning operation of removing an attached matter on the image bearing member surface with the developing member by controlling a voltage applied to the developing member and a voltage applied to the developer supply member.

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member, a developing unit to develop an electrostatic latent image at a developing portion, a transfer unit to transfer a developer image to a recording member at a transfer portion; and a brush provided with a plurality of fibers contacting the image bearing member at downstream of the transfer portion and upstream of the developing portion in a rotational direction of the image bearing member. An average contacting pressure of the brush per one fiber to the image bearing member is smaller than a depositing force of the developer not transferred to the recording member to the image bearing member. As the brush in a state of not in contact with the image bearing member is viewed from a free end side of the fibers, an average number of the fibers included in a circumference of a diameter of 100 μm is more than one.

A powder conveying device includes a drop conveyance passage, an intersecting conveyance passage, a conveying screw, and a floating member. Powder entering from an inflow port drops in the drop conveyance passage. The intersecting conveyance passage communicates with a lower end of the drop conveyance passage and extends in an intersecting direction that intersects the drop conveyance passage. The conveying screw is disposed in the intersecting conveyance passage and rotates in a specified direction to convey the powder in the intersecting direction. The floating member is movably installed in the drop conveyance passage and floats in the drop conveyance passage to move by contact with the conveying screw. The inflow port and the floating member interfere with each other to prevent the floating member from coming out of the inflow port of the drop conveyance passage.

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.

A cleaning device includes a cleaning blade, a supporting member, a housing, a pressing member, and a sealing member. The supporting member is a metal member extended in a longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade. The supporting member includes a first flat surface portion formed along a widthwise direction, a curved surface portion bent toward a rotatable member with respect to a thickness direction of the cleaning blade, and a second flat surface portion formed along the thickness direction of the cleaning blade. As viewed in the longitudinal direction, a swing center of the supporting member is positioned on a rotation center side of the rotatable member relative to a plane including the first flat surface portion and relative to a plane including the second flat surface portion. The sealing member is provided in contact with the curved surface portion and seals between the supporting member and the housing.

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a charging unit that charges a surface of the photosensitive member, an electrostatic image formation unit that forms an electrostatic image on the charged surface of the photosensitive member, a developing unit that includes a developer including a toner and develops the electrostatic image formed on the surface of the photosensitive member with the developer to form a toner image, an intermediate transfer body including a surface layer, the surface layer including an acrylic resin and a fluorine-containing polyether, a first transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a surface of the intermediate transfer body as first transfer, a second transfer unit that transfers the toner image transferred on the surface of the intermediate transfer body to a recording medium as second transfer, and an intermediate transfer body cleaning unit that includes a cleaning blade including a tetrahedral amorphous carbon layer disposed on a surface of a contact portion of the cleaning blade, the contact portion being arranged to contact with the intermediate transfer body, and removes a residual toner by bringing the cleaning blade into contact with the intermediate transfer body. Linear velocities of the intermediate transfer body and the photosensitive member are adjusted to satisfy a requirement (1) below: Requirement (1): 0.3≤|Linear velocity of Intermediate transfer body−Linear velocity of Photosensitive member|/Linear velocity of Intermediate transfer body×100≤1.5

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.

A cleaning rod includes a rod-like member, a slidable portion which is provided on a free end side of the rod-like member with respect to a direction in which the cleaning rod is inserted and which is slidable on a light emergent surface of a lens of an image forming apparatus, and a restricting portion configured to restrict movement of the slidable portion in a direction away from the light emergent surface with respect to an optical axis direction by contacting the holder at each of free ends of opposing wall portions of a holder of the image forming apparatus from a side opposite from a side where a photosensitive member of the image forming apparatus is provided with respect to the optical axis direction in a state in which the slidable portion contacts the light emergent surface.

An image reading device includes a reader, a transparent member, an opposing member, first and second conveyance rotators, and circuitry. The reader reads a sheet. The transparent member is disposed between the reader and the sheet. The opposing member is disposed facing the reader via the transparent member. The first conveyance rotator is disposed upstream from the reader in a conveyance direction of the sheet. The second conveyance rotator is disposed downstream from the reader in the conveyance direction. The circuitry cause the first conveyance rotator and the second conveyance rotator to convey a cleaning sheet at respective conveying speeds different from each other and bring the cleaning sheet into contact with at least one of the transparent member or the opposing member.