Toner guide roller for image-forming process and apparatus applied therewith

Abstract

An image forming apparatus, such as a copier and a printer, for forming a toner image on a recording sheet. The apparatus includes: a photoreceptor for holding the toner image; an image exposure driver for forming a latent image on the photoreceptor; a developer for developing the latent image with a toner so that the toner image is formed on the surface of the photoreceptor; a transferrer for transferring the toner image from the surface of the photoreceptor to the recording sheet; a scraping blade for scraping off a residual toner on the surface of the photoreceptor after the toner image is transferred from the surface to the recording sheet; a toner collection chanber for collecting the residual toner; a toner guide roller for conveying the residual toner from the scraping blade to the toner collecting chanber; in which the toner guide roller is urged onto the surface of the photoreceptor, and the toner guide roller has a surface made of an open-cell cellular material having a pore size between 1 .mu.m and 50 .mu.m.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.