Abstract: In an image forming apparatus, it is necessary to improve slide portions of a cleaning blade and an image bearing body which cause chatter vibration phenomenon in order to configure the cleaning blade so as to be durable of long-term use. In order to solve the above issue, an image forming apparatus for forming a toner image on a recording material which includes an image bearing member and a cleaning blade for cleaning the image bearing member, and in which a decreasing ratio of a friction coefficient &mgr; between the image bearing member and the cleaning blade relative to common logarithms of driving speeds of the image bearing member is maintained 0.03 or lower for prolonging a service life of the cleaning blade.

Abstract: In a cleaning device having a cleaning blade which is abutted against an image bearing member that bears an image and cleans the surface of the image bearing member, the cleaning blade includes at least a first rubber layer which is abutted against the image bearing member; and a second rubber layer that supports the first rubber layer; wherein the tan&dgr; peak temperature obtained by a dynamic viscoelasticity test of the first rubber layer is a value close to the surface temperature of the image bearing member; and wherein the tans peak temperature obtained by a dynamic viscoelasticity test of the second rubber layer is lower than the tan&dgr; peak temperature of the first rubber layer.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus is herein disclosed which comprises a first image bearing body for bearing an image formed by a substantially spherical toner, transferring means for transferring a toner image formed on the first image bearing body onto a second image bearing body, and a cleaning member, abutting on the first image forming body, for sweeping away the toner remaining on the first image bearing body after a transferring operation by the transferring means, wherein it is simultaneously satisfied that the first image forming body contains a fluororesin on its surface, a content ratio F (% by weight) of the fluororesin is in a range of 10≦F≦50, a surface roughness Rz (&mgr;m) of the first image bearing body is Rz<5.0, and a dynamic friction coefficient &mgr; between the first image bearing body and the cleaning member is in a range of 0.5≦&mgr;≦2.5.

Abstract: In an image forming apparatus, it is necessary to improve slide portions of a cleaning blade and an image bearing body which cause chatter vibration phenomenon in order to configure the cleaning blade so as to be durable of long-term use. In order to solve the above issue, an image forming apparatus for forming a toner image on a recording material which includes an image bearing member and a cleaning blade for cleaning the image bearing member, and in which a decreasing ratio of a friction coefficient &mgr; between the image bearing member and the cleaning blade relative to common logarithms of driving speeds of the image bearing member is maintained 0.03 or lower for prolonging a service life of the cleaning blade.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an image-bearing member for bearing a toner image thereon, a transfer device for transferring the toner image from the image-bearing member to a recording medium at a transfer position, a drive mechanism for moving the image-bearing member, and a cleaning blade abutted against the image-bearing member for removing a transfer residual toner remaining on the image-bearing member after the transfer of the toner image to the recording medium in accordance with the movement of the image-bearing member. The image forming apparatus is operated effectively for a long period by cleaning the image-bearing member according to a method wherein cleaning aid particles having a volume-average particle size of 0.1-3 &mgr;m smaller than that of the toner are caused to be resident in a width of 50-100 &mgr;m along an upstream side of the cleaning blade with respect to the moving direction of the image-bearing member.