A cleaning device includes a cleaning blade disposed in contact with a rotator, a toner collecting section disposed along the rotator and the cleaning blade and includes a groove extending in an axial direction of the rotator, a conveyor disposed in the groove, and an agitator disposed on a side of a rim of the groove. The conveyor rotates to convey the toner in a longitudinal direction of the groove. The agitator vibrates through contact with the conveyor and includes comb-tooth portions lined in a comb shape in the longitudinal direction of the groove, and bent portions, each of which is bent from an end of one of the comb-tooth portions. The comb-tooth portions contact a circumference of the conveyor to vibrate. The bent portions are lined at intervals smaller than intervals on a base side of the comb-tooth portions.

An elastic blade may include an edge layer and at least one backup layer laminated on the edge layer. The edge layer may include a contact edge to contact a contact object and an opposing face to oppose the contact object, and the backup layer may be greater in elastic power than the edge layer.

An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor, a charging device, an electrostatic latent image forming device, a developing device, a transfer device, and a cleaning device, and further includes an intercepting device that includes an intercepting member separated from the electrophotographic photoreceptor by a gap so that a distance from the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor to the intercepting member is about 0.3 to 0.9 (inclusive) times a volume-average particle size of toner particles. The intercepting member is used to intercept residual toner particles at a position downstream of the transfer device and upstream of the cleaning device in a rotation direction of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, the residual toner particles remaining on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor.

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing drum; a toner image transfer device; a cleaning blade for cleaning the drum after transfer of the image; a rotatable furbrush provided downstream of the transfer device and upstream of the blade, the furbrush being rotatable counterdirectionally with respect to a peripheral movement of the drum; an executing portion for executing a first mode for forming an image on the transfer material on the basis of a signal inputted to the apparatus and a second mode for supplying a band of the toner to the blade; and a controller for controlling a peripheral speed difference between the drum and the furbrush, wherein the difference when the band of the toner passes the furbrush in the second mode is smaller than that when the toner on the drum after the image transfer passes the furbrush in the first mode.

An image forming device includes an image carrier, a charging device that charges the surface of the image carrier, an electrostatic image forming device that forms an electrostatic image on the surface of the image carrier, a developing device that uses a developer containing toner particles and external additives adhering to the surface of the toner particle to develop the electrostatic image into a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image to a recording medium, a cleaning device having a blade that cleans off residual toner from the image carrier, a suction device that suctions all or part of residual toner excepting the external additives released from the surface of the toner particles, and a fixing device that fixes the toner image to the recording medium.

An image formation apparatus includes: an image carrier; a developing device which develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier as a toner image; a transfer device which transfers the toner image to a medium; a cleaning device which recovers toner remaining on the image carrier after the toner image is transferred; and a lubricant application adjustment mechanism which applies a lubricant on the image carrier and recovers toner present on the image carrier upstream of the cleaning device; and a controller which controls the lubricant application adjustment mechanism. The controller causes the lubricant application adjustment mechanism to recover more toner when the toner image formed on the image carrier has a larger image area ratio.

A cleaning device includes a housing, a cleaning blade, and first and second sealing members. The housing has formed therein an opening facing an image carrying member. The cleaning blade removes toner that remains attached to the image carrying member while being in contact with the circumferential surface of the image carrying member. The first and second sealing members prevent waste toner inside the housing from leaking out through a gap between the housing and the image carrying member, owing to the first and second sealing members abutting on the circumferential surface of the image carrying member.

A cleaning device includes multiple cleaners, a partition, and a holder. The multiple cleaners include a first cleaner and a second cleaner adjacent to the first cleaner. The multiple cleaners each include a cleaning roller to remove a substance adhering to a surface of an object and a housing having an opening to collect the substance. The partition partitions the first cleaner and the second cleaner and defines a part of a wall of each of the first cleaner and the second cleaner. The holder holds the multiple cleaners.

A cleaning member includes a core and an elastic layer disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the core. A circumferential cover length over which the elastic layer covers the core in a circumferential direction is greater at least at one of first and second end portions in an axial direction of the core than at a central portion in the axial direction. The central portion in the axial direction extends from one end to the other end of the core in the axial direction. When the cleaning member is rotated by a member to be cleaned, a non-contact region in which the first and second end portions in the axial direction are not in contact with the member to be cleaned is in a range from approximately 0 to approximately 15 in terms of a rotation angle of the cleaning member viewed from one side in the axial direction.

An image bearer protective agent is provided. The image bearer protective agent includes a fatty acid metal salt and an inorganic lubricant. The inorganic lubricant includes a first inorganic lubricant having a tap density of from 0.30 to 0.8 g/cm.sup.2.