Patent ID: 8346113

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a rotatable image carrier operable to carry a toner image on a surface thereof; a transfer part operable to electrostatically transfer the toner image carried on the surface of the image carrier, onto a transfer material; a cleaning member that is in contact with the surface of the image carrier and that is operable to clean toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier after transfer by the transfer part; another cleaning member that is positioned upstream relative to the cleaning member in a rotating direction of the image carrier and that is in contact with the surface of the image carrier; and a voltage supplier operable to apply, to the cleaning member, a bias voltage that is for cleaning the surface of the image carrier and that has a polarity opposite to a normal charging polarity of the toner, wherein application of the bias voltage by the voltage supplier starts before rotation of the image carrier starts, when Vr>0, 0<Vc<Vr, and when Vr<0, Vr<Vc<0, where Vc is a value of the bias voltage from a start of the application until a start of the rotation, and Vr is a reference value which is a value of the bias voltage from the start of the rotation onward, before the start of the rotation, the voltage supplier applies, to the another cleaning member, a bias voltage having a same polarity as the normal charging polarity, for cleaning toner that remains on the surface of the image carrier and that is charged with the polarity opposite to the normal charging polarity, and when a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of the rotation, the voltage supplier switches the bias voltage applied to the cleaning member from the value Vc to the reference value Vr.