Image forming apparatus including elastic cleaning blade with resin film formed only at ends thereof and process cartridge including same

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes an electrostatic latent image bearing member, a charging for uniformly charging a surface of the electrostatic latent image bearing member, a developing for visualizing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrostatic latent image bearing member with a developer, a transferring device for transferring a developer image formed on the electrostatic latent image bearing member to a transferring material, and a cleaning device for cleaning the surface of the electrostatic latent image bearing member by bringing a cleaning blade consisting of an elastic blade into contact with the surface of the electrostatic latent image bearing member. The cleaning blade includes a portion to be brought into contact with the surface of the electrostatic latent image bearing member and resin films are formed on surface areas at both ends outside a developing area in a longitudinal direction. A portion of the elastic blade corresponding to the developing area is free of resin film. The elastic blade may be included in a process cartridge.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.