A charging device includes: a charging roller to charge a surface of the image carrier by rotating in contact with an image carrier; a cleaning roller to clean a surface of the charging roller by rotating in contact with the charging roller; a bearing to hold the charging roller and the cleaning roller so that a distance between an axis of the charging roller and an axis of the cleaning roller is constant; and a biaser to apply a biasing force to the bearing in a direction to bring the charging roller into press contact with the image carrier, wherein the bearing has a first bearing to support the axis of the cleaning roller and a second bearing to support the axis of the charging roller, and the first bearing is disposed inward from the second bearing in a roller axial direction of the cleaning roller and the charging roller.

A cleaning device cleans a discharge wire that discharges electric charge onto a discharge target. The cleaning device moves in a longitudinal direction oldie discharge wire. The cleaning device includes a first contact portion that contacts and cleans the discharge wire and a second contact portion that contacts and cleans the discharge wire. When the first contact portion and the second contact portion clean the discharge wire, the first contact portion and the second contact portion sandwich the discharge wire in a discharge direction in which the discharge wire discharges the electric charge onto the discharge target. The discharge direction is parallel to a radial direction of the discharge wire.

A second duct 50 for guiding air outside an image forming apparatus A to a charging device 2 includes: a first flow passage 50c; a second flow passage 50d bent from the first flow passage 50c and extending in a direction orthogonal to a rotational direction and a rotational axis direction of a photosensitive drum, the second flow passage 50d being provided with an outlet 50b; and a plurality of flow dividing plates 60 provided in the second flow passage 50d, the plurality of flow dividing plates 60 being disposed in parallel along the rotational axis direction and forming a third flow passage between the flow dividing plates 60 adjacent to each other, in which a relationship between a length in the orthogonal direction and a length in the rotational axis direction of the third flow passage is a predetermined relationship.

Toner contains toner base particles and an organosilicon polymer on the surface of the toner base particles. After a toner image is transferred from an intermediate transfer belt to a transfer material, residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt is collected into a belt cleaning device by a blade. A CPU executes supply control of supplying toner from a developing device toward the blade via a photosensitive drum and via the intermediate transfer belt on the basis of a counter accumulated value that correlates with an amount of organosilicon polymer adhering to the blade.

An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductor, a charger, a ventilation mechanism, an exposure device, a developing device, a transfer device, and a controller. The ventilation mechanism guides ozone generated in the charger to an ozone discharge port. The exposure device forms an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor charged by the charger. The transfer device transfers a toner image on the photoconductor developed by the developer supplied from the developing device to a medium. The controller allows the ventilation mechanism to discharge the ozone generated in the charger from the ozone discharge port after stopping supply of the developer from the developing device to the photoconductor in an operation mode in which the ozone is discharged.

Provided is a toner including toner base particles and resin particles. Each toner base particle includes a binder resin, a colorant, and wax. Each resin particle e has a core-shell structure including a core and a shell, where a glass transition temperature TgA of the shell is higher than a glass transition temperature TgB of the core. A surface of each toner base particle is covered with the resin particles. A storage elastic modulus G′1 of the toner at 70° C. during heating is 1.0×10.sup.5 Pa or greater but 1.0×10.sup.3 Pa or less, and a storage elastic modulus G′2 of the toner at 100° C. during heating is 1.0×10.sup.4 Pa or greater but 5.0×10.sup.4 Pa or less, as the toner is measured by a rheometer.

A charging device includes: a charging roller to charge a surface of the image carrier by rotating in contact with the image carrier; a cleaning roller to clean a surface of the charging roller by rotating in contact with the charging roller; a bearing to hold the charging roller and the cleaning roller so that a distance between an axis of the charging roller and an axis of the cleaning roller is constant; and a biaser to apply biasing force to the bearing in a direction to bring the charging roller into press contact with the image carrier, wherein the bearing has a first bearing to support the axis of the cleaning roller and a second bearing to support the axis of the charging roller, the first bearing is disposed inward from the second bearing in a roller axial direction of the cleaning roller and the charging roller.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier having a first rotation axle, a charging roller having a second rotation axle, a conductive member to contact a surface of the image carrier, a gap size acquisition device, and a gap adjustment device. The charging roller is disposed adjacent to the image carrier in a non-contact manner across a gap to charge the image carrier. The gap size acquisition device acquires a size of the gap. The gap adjustment device adjusts a distance between the first rotation axle and the second rotation axle based on information from the gap size acquisition device to maintain the size of the gap within a predetermined range.

A cleaning device cleans a discharge wire that discharges electric charge onto a discharge target. The cleaning device moves in a longitudinal direction oldie discharge wire. The cleaning device includes a first contact portion that contacts and cleans the discharge wire and a second contact portion that contacts and cleans the discharge wire. When the first contact portion and the second contact portion clean the discharge wire, the first contact portion and the second contact portion sandwich the discharge wire in a discharge direction in which the discharge wire discharges the electric charge onto the discharge target. The discharge direction is parallel to a radial direction of the discharge wire.

There is provided a method of producing a blade for cleaning a toner image retainer, the method including: binding an abutting layer that abuts against the toner image retainer and a supporting layer that supports the abutting layer, wherein the maximum value D of a difference between a first loss tangent (Tan δ) at 1 Hz and a second loss tangent at 100 Hz of the blade that includes the abutting layer and the supporting layer satisfies formula (1):

[Mathematical Formula 1]

0.2≤D≤0.7  (1)

wherein the maximum value D is a maximum value of a difference between the first loss tangent and the second loss tangent at temperatures within a range of 0° C. to 50° C.