Cleaning device and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member for bearing a toner image;
• a cleaning member, contacting said image bearing member, for removing toner from said image bearing member with movement of said image bearing member;
• a container for temporarily accommodating the toner removed from said image bearing member by said cleaning member;
• a feeding screw, including a helical blade, for feeding the toner inside said container to outside of said container;
• and
• a loosening member, constituted by a member including a linear spring and provided in a neighborhood of said feeding screw and a wall surface of said container, for loosening the toner on the wall surface of said container,
• wherein said loosening member includes a torsion coil spring portion, a loosening portion, a contact portion and a portion-to-be-limited,
• wherein said torsion coil spring portion is formed by winding said loosening member about a shaft member provided on one end side of said container and having a rotational axis substantially parallel to a rotational axis direction of said feeding screw, and wherein at one arm portion connecting to said torsion coil spring portion, said portion-to-be-limited is provided, and at the other arm portion connecting to said torsion coil spring portion, said contact portion and said loosening portion are provided,
• wherein said loosening portion is provided so as to extend in the rotational axis direction and loosens the toner on the wall surface by being rotated about the rotational axis bi-directionally in a direction crossing the rotational axis,
• wherein said contact portion is provided between said loosening portion and said torsion coil spring portion with respect to the rotational axis direction and contacts a blade of said feeding screw, and rotates said loosening portion in a first direction around the rotational axis by being rotated in the first direction with rotation of said feeding screw, and
• wherein said portion-to-be-limited is provided further towards an end portion side of said loosening member than said torsion coil spring portion is and is limited in rotation thereof together with said contact portion in contact with a limiting portion provided inside said container, and wherein a restoring force for rotating said loosening portion in a second direction opposite to the first direction is accumulated in said torsion coil spring portion by limiting said portion-to-be-limited by said limiting portion when said contact portion is rotated in the first direction with rotation of said feeding screw, and when said contact portion overcomes said blade with subsequent rotation of said feeding screw, said loosening portion is rotated in the second direction by the accumulated restoring force.