Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a rotatable image bearing member;
• a charging member for electrically charging said image bearing member in contact with said image bearing member at a charging portion by being supplied with a voltage;
• a charging voltage source for applying the voltage to said charging member;
• electrostatic image forming means for forming an electrostatic image on said image bearing member electrically charged;
• a developing device including a developing member for forming a toner image by being supplied with a voltage to supply a toner charged to a normal polarity to the electrostatic image on said image bearing member at a developing portion;
• a developing voltage source for applying said developing member;
• transfer means for electrostatically transferring the toner image from said image bearing member onto a toner image receiving member at a transfer portion by being supplied with a voltage;
• a transfer voltage source for applying the voltage to said transfer means;
• and
• a controller for executing a cleaning operation for decreasing an amount of the toner deposited on said charging member during non-image formation,
• wherein during image formation, the toner remaining on said image bearing member after transfer is collected into said developing device by said developing member while forming an image by transferring the toner image onto the toner image receiving member, and
• wherein in the cleaning operation, while rotating said image bearing member, said controller electrostatically transfers the toner deposited on said charging member and charged to an opposite polarity to the normal polarity from said charging member onto said image bearing member, passes the transferred toner through the developing portion in a state that the transferred toner is electrostatically urged from said developing member toward said image bearing member, reverses a charge polarity of the passed toner to the normal polarity at the charging portion, and then electrostatically transfers the toner reversed in charge polarity from said image bearing member onto said developing member at the developing portion to collect the toner in said developing device.