Image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorRyo Nameki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
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 μm and a radius of 15 μm 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 μm or more and 8 μm or less when the linear pressure is 0.196 N/cm and is 4 μm or more and 13.5 μm or less when the linear pressure is 0.490 N/cm.
Claims7
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- an image bearing member, which is configured to rotate while bearing a toner image;
- and
- a cleaning blade, which is to be brought into contact with a surface of the image bearing member, and is configured to clean the image bearing member,
- wherein the image bearing member has a plurality of recesses on a surface thereof, the plurality of recesses each having an aperture width of 5 μm or more and 100 μm or less in a rotational direction of the image bearing member, an aperture width of 5 μm or more and 100 μm or less in a width direction crossing the rotational direction of the image bearing member, and a depth of 0.1 μm or more and 3 μm or less,
- wherein the cleaning blade comprises a rubber member, a distal end portion of the cleaning blade, which is to be brought into contact with the image bearing member, having a hardness higher than a hardness of a base end portion, a contact force per unit length in a longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade with respect to the surface of the image bearing member being 0.196 N/cm or more and 0.490 N/cm or less, and
- wherein, when the cleaning blade is supported so that a free length from a position at which the cleaning blade is supported to a distal end of the cleaning blade is 8 mm, and when the cleaning blade 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 μm and a radius of 15 μm on a surface so that a contact angle with respect to the opposed object for measurement is 25°, a contact width in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade between the cleaning blade and the opposed object for measurement in each of the measurement recesses is 4 μm or more and 8 μm or less when the contact force per unit length in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade is 0.196 N/cm, and is 4 μm or more and 13.5 μm or less when the contact force per unit length in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning blade is 0.490 N/cm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.