An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that carries a toner image including toner; a driver that rotates the image carrier; a toner remover that comes in contact with the image carrier and removes toner remaining on the image carrier while the image carrier is rotated in a forward direction by the driver; and a hardware processor that evaluates a degree of deterioration of the image carrier or the toner remover, determines a number of times of execution of removal operation in which the image carrier is rotated in a reverse direction and then rotated in the forward direction, on the basis of the degree of deterioration, and controls the driver to cause the removal operation to be executed the number of times of execution.

Disclosed is a development cartridge detachable from a main body of an image forming apparatus. The development cartridge includes a lateral waste toner sealing member contacting an end portion of a photosensitive drum in a lengthwise direction of the photosensitive drum to prevent a waste toner from leaking through the end portion of the photosensitive drum, and a photosensitive frame including a waste toner container to contain the waste toner, a first attachment surface, to which the lateral waste toner sealing member is attached, and a side wall to form a boundary at an upstream side of the first attachment surface with respect to a rotation direction of the photosensitive drum. The lateral waste toner sealing member includes an opposite surface facing the side wall, and a protrusion protruding towards the side wall is provided on the opposite surface.

A cleaning device may include a cleaning blade that is in contact with an image carrier for cleaning, an applicating roller that is in contact with the image carrier at a position upstream compared to the cleaning blade, and a plate-like member that is in contact with the applicating roller. The plate-like member may be in contact with the applicating roller at a contact part which is not an edge of the plate-like member and may be arranged such that a space for reserving the toner is formed on an upper side of the contact part. An angle between a tangent line that passes the upper end of the plate-like member and touches the applicating roller on an upper side and a horizontal line that passes the upper end of the plate-like member may be larger than an angle of rupture of the toner reserved in the space.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that carries an image; a developing device that develops a latent image formed on the image carrier into a visible image formed of powder; an intermediate transfer body to which the visible image is transferred from the image carrier and that temporarily transports the visible image; a transfer device that transfers the visible image on the image carrier to the intermediate transfer body; a first cleaning device that cleans the image carrier by collecting powder that remains on the image carrier; a first collection container that receives the powder collected by the first cleaning device; a second cleaning device that cleans the intermediate transfer body by collecting powder that remains on the intermediate transfer body; a second collection container that receives the powder collected by the second cleaning device; a feeding device that supplies a transfer-process bias to the transfer device; and a changing unit that changes the transfer-process bias supplied by the feeding device when a waste powder image is formed on the image carrier, the transfer-process bias being changed so as to adjust amounts of powder in the waste powder image received by the first collection container and the second collection container.

A lubricant application device includes an application roller with application bristles radially arranged about an outer circumferential surface thereof for receiving a lubricant from a lubricant supply source and applying the lubricant to a photosensitive body A minimum distance between the outer circumferential surface of the application roller and the photosensitive body is shorter than a length of the application bristles. The lubricant application device has a drive unit for rotating the application roller and a controller for controlling the drive unit. The controller is adapted to control the drive unit to counteract a bristle-bending tendency of the application bristles.

A transfer unit transferring a developer image onto a transfer medium includes: an image bearing member on which the developer image is formed; a cleaning member provided to extend in a width direction of the image bearing member to abut against the image bearing member, and remove a developer on the image bearing member; and a seal member that prevents the developer removed by the cleaning member from leaking outside the transfer unit, the seal member is opposed to a tip portion of the cleaning member, the transfer unit further including a first unit provided with the image bearing member and the cleaning member, and a second unit that is provided with the seal member and can engage with the first unit, wherein the second unit engages with the first unit so that the seal member abuts against the cleaning member and the image bearing member.

An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductor; a charger, an exposure device, a developing device, a transferor, a cleaner, a belt resistance sensing device, and a transfer bias applier. The charger charges a surface of the photoconductor with a charge of a single polarity. The exposure device irradiates the surface of the photoconductor with light after charging. The developing device supplies a developer to the surface of the photoconductor. The transferor transfers an image developed by the developing device, from the surface of the photoconductor onto an intermediate transfer belt. The cleaner cleans the developer remaining on the surface of the photoconductor after an image transfer by the transferor. The sensing device is provided for the transferor, to detect a resistance value from a current value flowing during application of a transfer bias. The bias applier controls, according to the resistance value detected, the transfer bias applied to the transferor.

A lubricant solid contains, in a content of 92 mass% or more and 100 mass% or less, a lubricant having a polygonal network bond structure.

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a charger, a light exposure device, a development device, a transfer belt, a primary transfer device, a secondary transfer device, and a cleaning member. The cleaning member is pressed against a circumferential surface of the image bearing member and collects residual toner remaining on the circumferential surface of the image bearing member as a result of primary transfer of a toner. The transfer belt has a surface resistivity of at least 6 Log Ω and no greater than 11 Log Ω. A linear pressure of the cleaning member on the circumferential surface of the image bearing member is at least 10 N/m and no greater than 40 N/m. The image bearing member includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer of a single layer. The image bearing member satisfies formula (1): $\begin{array}{cc}0.06\leqq \frac{V}{\left(Q/S\right)\times \left(d/{\epsilon }_r.Math.{\epsilon }_0\right)}.& \left(1\right)\end{array}$

A control unit of an image forming apparatus calculates an actual linear pressure of a cleaning blade by taking into account, with respect to an initial linear pressure of the cleaning blade measured in advance, a linear pressure reduction based on cumulative rotation time of an image carrier, a linear pressure reduction based on cumulative non-rotation time of the image carrier, and a linear pressure reduction based on an external temperature detected by a temperature detection unit, and the control unit outputs information for urging replacement of the cleaning blade to an output unit when a linear pressure difference between the actual linear pressure of the cleaning blade and a lower-limit linear pressure of the cleaning blade calculated in advance from an abrasion amount of the cleaning blade with respect to the cumulative number of rotations of the image carrier reaches a predetermined threshold value.