Image forming apparatus with superposed direct current and alternating current charging voltage

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image bearing member;
• a flexible charging member for charging said image bearing member, wherein a nip portion is formed between said charging member and said image bearing member, said charging member being applied with a voltage when said charging member at least charges said image bearing member for an image formation, said nip portion being provided with electrically conductive particles;
• and
• developing means for developing an electrostatic image formed on said image bearing member with a developer, said developing means executing a developing operation and, at the same time, executing a collecting operation for collecting a residual developer on said image bearing member,
• wherein the voltage is a superposed voltage with a direct current voltage and an alternating current voltage having a peak to peak voltage, which is less than a peak to peak voltage of the alternating current voltage applied to said charging member when the charging potential of said image bearing member converges under the condition that said charging member charges said image bearing member without the conductive particles.