A cleaning device, including: a cleaning frame; a cleaning member having one end and the other end, the image bearing member being capable of rotating and bearing a developer image formed of a developer so as to remove the developer remaining on the image bearing member after transfer of the developer image from the image bearing member; and a sheet member having flexibility and having one end and the other end; wherein a work function W (D) of the developer and a work function W (S) of the sheet member satisfy 0W(D)W(S)0.23 and the developer includes inorganic particles, and at least one kind of the inorganic particles has an average primary particle diameter of 50 nm or larger.

The disclosure provides a cleaning blade having a blade portion. The blade portion has a blade tip equipped with an edge constituted by a ridge line between the tip surface the blade portion and a blade surface arranged near a photosensitive drum. The blade portion satisfies the following expressions: a50 m, and 0.1b/a0.6 where, when the blade portion is viewed along blade longitudinal direction with the edge in sliding contact with the photosensitive drum for measurement rotating in one direction, a represents a maximum amplitude of the edge which vibrates with the rotation of the photosensitive drum for measurement, and b represents a maximum amplitude when a position separated from the edge by 200 m on the blade surface of the blade tip vibrates with the oscillation of the edge.

A process cartridge using an image forming apparatus, including a rotatable image bearing member having a circumferential surface; a developing unit configured to supply a developing agent to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member that cleans the circumferential surface, wherein the developing agent contains a toner including toner particles and a metal soap, the image bearing member includes a plurality of grooves formed on the circumferential surface to extend in a circumferential direction of the circumferential surface and to be arranged side by side in a rotation axis direction, and the plurality of grooves and portions between the grooves form concave-convex portions on the circumferential surface. The circumferential surface of the image bearing member had surface roughness Rz of 0<Rz0.70 m and average interval Sm between concave-convex portions on the circumferential surface of 0<Sm70.0 m.

An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing member; a developing member to supply a developer to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member to clean a peripheral surface of the image bearing member in contact with the peripheral surface, wherein a plurality of grooves extend in a circumferential direction on the peripheral surface, and have a width in a generatrix direction of the peripheral surface within a range of at least 0.5 m and not more than 40 m, and are formed to be side by side in the generatrix direction; the number of the grooves is at least 20 and not more than 1000 per a width of 1000 m in the generatrix direction of the peripheral surface; and an average depth (Rvk) of a valley of a projection under a core section of a roughness curve of the peripheral surface is 0.08 m or less.

A toner conveying device includes a case, a conveying screw, a film member and a supporting member. The conveying screw conveys a toner stored in the case in a predetermined direction inside the case. The film member includes a base part elongated in an axial direction of the conveying screw as a longitudinal direction and a plurality of protruding pieces formed so as to protrude in one direction intersecting the longitudinal direction from the base part, and has flexibility. The supporting member includes an attaching part elongated in the axial direction as the longitudinal direction to which the film member is attached, and an axis part being in parallel to the longitudinal direction. The film member and the supporting member are disposed at an upper side of the conveying screw so that the protruding pieces come into contact with the conveying screw, and are rotatable around the axis part.

A cleaning blade is a contacting device abutting a photoconductor which is a rotating body. The cleaning blade includes a contacting member that abuts the photoconductor, a supporting member that supports the contacting member, and a holding member that holds the supporting member. The supporting member supports the contacting member in a part protruding from the holding member. The holding member includes an upper surface on the side where the contacting member abuts the photoconductor and a lower surface on the opposite side of the upper surface. The holding member holds the supporting member with a supporting region away from the tip portion to the read end side. It is possible to reduce the fluctuation of the contact pressure abutting the rotating body.

A developer container according to an embodiment includes: a container having a space that contains a developer; an optical system includes a first optical member including first end face exposed to a containing space in the container and a second optical member including a second end face exposed to the containing space and being opposed to the first end face in a first direction, and on which the light is incident through the second end face; a shaft provided in the containing space to be rotatable about the first direction; a cleaning member provided to the shaft to be movable in the first direction to clean the first and second end faces by passing through a gap with a rotation of the shaft; and a guide member provided upstream of the optical system and that comes into contact with the cleaning member to guide the cleaning member to a gap.

A cleaning unit includes a case, a blade, a swing member, a first coil spring, a second coil spring, and a plurality of first engaging portions. The first coil spring is provided on a first end side of the blade in the longitudinal direction and configured to pull the swing member. The second coil spring is provided on a second end side of the blade in the longitudinal direction and configured to pull the swing member. The plurality of first engaging portions are provided on one of the case or the swing member at the first end side of the blade and configured to selectively engage a one end side of the first coil spring at different positions with respect to the longitudinal direction of the blade so that a contact pressure of the blade against the image bearing member caused by the first coil spring is changed.

A cleaning blade, which is to be brought into contact with a surface of a photosensitive drum, satisfies the following condition. First, the cleaning blade having a free length of 8 mm is brought into contact with an opposed object for measurement having a plurality of measurement recesses each having a partially spherical shape with a depth of 0.7 m and a radius of 15 m on a surface so that a linear pressure is 0.196 N/cm and 0.490 N/cm, and a contact angle with respect to the opposed object for measurement is 25. In this case, a contact width of the cleaning blade in each of the measurement recesses is 4 m or more and 8 m or less when the linear pressure is 0.196 N/cm and is 4 m or more and 13.5 m or less when the linear pressure is 0.490 N/cm.

A developing device includes a developer carrying member (41) rotating while carrying a liquid developer on a carrying surface (41b) and an end portion restricting member (46) for restricting movement of the liquid developer, carried on the carrying surface (41b), to an outside of the carrying surface (41b). A contact angle between the end portion restricting member (46) and the liquid developer is set so as to be larger than a contact angle between the carrying surface (41b) of the developer carrying member (41) and the liquid developer. By this, when the developer carrying member (41) is separated from the end portion restricting member (46), deposition of the liquid developer in a large amount in the neighborhood of an end (41c) of the carrying surface (41b) is prevented.