Patent ID: 7596337
Filing Date: 2009-09-29
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. A cleaner unit provided with a belt, the cleaner unit comprising: a cleaner roller configured to be brought into contact with the belt; a cleaner shaft configured to be brought into contact with the cleaner roller; a blade configured to be brought into contact with the cleaner shaft; a toner container that includes a storage space configured to store toner and an opening allowing toner to be delivered to the storage space; and a toner squeeze pump that is provided outside the storage space, the toner squeeze pump including wherein the elliptic rotor rotates around a rotation axis orthogonal to the elliptic cross section of the elliptic rotor, the rotor housing has a first wall and a second wall, the first wall continuing from the opening and the second wall extending orthogonal to the first wall, and the toner retaining member slidably abuts a peripheral surface of the elliptic rotor from a side of the opening in the storage space toward a rotation center of the elliptic rotor, and wherein the cleaner roller is configured to collects toner adhering to a surface of the belt on a surface of the cleaner roller, the cleaner shaft is configured to collects the toner adhering to the surface of the cleaner roller on a surface of the cleaner shaft, the blade is configured to scrapes off the toner adhering to the surface of the cleaner shaft, the toner squeeze pump is configured to deliver the toner scraped off by the blade toward the opening of the storage space and to compress the toner stored in the storage space, and a part of a bottom wall of the toner container which continues from the opening extends in a substantially horizontal direction, when the cleaner unit is attached to the image forming apparatus.