Brush having a higher contact pressure with an image bearing member at an upstream end of the brush and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a rotatable image bearing member;
• a charging member forming a charging portion in contact with the image bearing member and configured to electrically charge a surface of the image bearing member in the charging portion;
• a developing member configured to develop, with the toner, an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image bearing member;
• a transfer member configured to transfer a toner image, obtained by developing the electrostatic latent image by the developing member, from the image bearing member onto a toner image receiving member in a transfer portion;
• and
• a brush provided so as to contact the surface of the image bearing member in a contact portion downstream of the transfer portion and upstream of the charging portion with respect to a rotational direction of the image bearing member, and configured to electrically charge the toner which is not transferred onto the toner image receiving member,
• wherein the toner which is not transferred onto the toner image receiving member is collected by the developing member,
• wherein with respect to the rotational direction, a contact pressure between the brush and the image bearing member at an upstream end of the brush in the contact portion is higher than a contact pressure between the brush and the image bearing member at a downstream end of the brush in the contact portion, and
• wherein a density of the bristle material is 150 kF/inch2 or more.