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.

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a developer bearing member, a driving unit, a latent image forming unit that forms an electrostatic image having light area potential and a dark area potential, and an application unit that applies a developing bias. The driving unit drives the image bearing member and the developer bearing member in a first peripheral speed ratio and a second peripheral speed ratio larger than the first peripheral speed ratio. The image forming apparatus further includes an acquiring unit acquiring information related to a change in an electrostatic capacitance of the image bearing member and a determining unit determining a developing contrast according to the electrostatic capacitance. The determining unit determines the developing contrast based on the acquired information when the driving unit drives the image bearing member and the developer bearing member in the second peripheral speed ratio.

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a developer bearing member, a driving unit, a latent image forming unit that forms an electrostatic image having light area potential and a dark area potential, and an application unit that applies a developing bias. The driving unit drives the image bearing member and the developer bearing member in a first peripheral speed ratio and a second peripheral speed ratio larger than the first peripheral speed ratio. The image forming apparatus further includes an acquiring unit acquiring information related to a change in an electrostatic capacitance of the image bearing member and a determining unit determining a developing contrast according to the electrostatic capacitance. The determining unit determines the developing contrast based on the acquired information when the driving unit drives the image bearing member and the developer bearing member in the second peripheral speed ratio.

A protruding portion protruding in a rotation axis direction of an image bearing member is provided at a position between the tip of a separation claw and an apex of the separation claw, when the apex of the separation claw is disposed at a position farthest from the surface of the image bearing member in a direction perpendicular to a straight line connecting the tip and the rotation center of a shaft portion of the separation claw.

A cleaning device includes a thin plate-shaped first blade that cleans a surface of a toner carrying body by making a tip portion come in contact with the toner carrying body to carry toner. The first blade includes a substrate and a coat layer covering a surface of the substrate. In the first blade, a cross-sectional shape, in a thickness direction, of the tip portion is a convex shape, or a protruding shape in which a center side protrudes more than an end portion of a contact side.

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 forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, an LED unit, and a housing. The LED unit is configured to expose the photosensitive drum. The LED unit has a light emitting surface. The housing includes a discharge portion and a discharge tray. The discharge portion has a discharge opening configured to discharge a sheet. The sheet discharged from the discharge opening is placed on the discharge tray. The discharge tray has a cleaning opening for cleaning the light emitting surface of the LED unit. The LED unit is configured to move between: a first position at which the LED unit exposes the photosensitive drum; and a second position at which the light emitting surface is closer to the cleaning opening than a state where the LED unit is located at the first position.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier configured to carry an image; a transfer unit configured to transfer the image to a medium; and a cleaner configured to remove deposits on a surface of the image carrier after passing through a position of the transfer unit, in which when a type of a medium to be used is a first medium, the cleaner improves an ability to remove the deposits from the image carrier as compared with a case where the medium to be used is a second medium having a lower transfer sensitivity than the first medium.

A device for removing toner attached to a transfer roller in an image forming apparatus is disclosed. The device includes a bar brush to contact an outer circumferential surface of the transfer roller, where the bar brush extends along a part of a longitudinal length of the transfer roller. The device includes an elongated cleaning member to contact the outer circumferential surface of the transfer roller, where the elongated cleaning member extends along the longitudinal length, entirely, of the transfer roller.

An image forming apparatus configured to control the timing of the next cleaning such that, if there is a plurality of image forming jobs and a cumulative number of image-formed recording media is equal to or greater than a set number of sheets for cleaning, an image forming apparatus executes cleaning processing when the plurality of image forming jobs is completed.