Patent ID: 6181889
Filing Date: 2001-01-30
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus comprising:a photosensitive belt having two ends joined together at a joint to form a loop;a charging unit which uniformly charges the photosensitive belt to a predetermined electric potential at a charging position;an exposing unit which forms an electrostatic latent image on the uniformly charged photosensitive belt in an image forming region on the photosensitive belt at an exposing position during an electrostatic image forming operation during which the photosensitive belt is conveyed past the exposing position;a developing unit which develops the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive belt with a toner, thereby forming a toner image on the photosensitive belt;an intermediate transfer drum onto which the toner image on the photosensitive belt is transferred; anda cleaning unit which removes residual toner from the photosensitive belt at a cleaning position after the toner image on the photosensitive belt has been transferred to the intermediate transfer drum;wherein the photosensitive belt is arranged so that the joint is outside the cleaning unit while the photosensitive belt is being conveyed past the exposing position during the electrostatic latent image forming operation; andwherein a distance along the photosensitive belt from the cleaning position to the exposing position is shorter than a distance along the photosensitive belt from a rear end of the image forming region on the photosensitive belt to a front end of the image forming region on the photosensitive belt.