Patent ID: 8280293

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising a plurality of image forming devices each including: an image carrier that carries a toner image and a surface of which is moved; a toner removing unit that removes residual toner remained on the surface of the image carrier after the toner image is transferred to a transfer member by a transferring unit; a lubricant supply mechanism that supplies lubricant to the surface of the image carrier after the toner removing unit removes the residual toner; and a lubricant leveling blade that is arranged such that a ridge portion of the lubricant leveling blade comes into contact with the surface of the image carrier so that the ridge portion intersects with a surface movement direction of the surface of the image carrier, and that levels out the lubricant supplied to the surface of the image carrier, wherein an image forming device in which the lubricant leveling blade is more easily worn away over time than the lubricant leveling blades of the other image forming devices among the plurality of image forming devices includes, as the lubricant leveling blade, an obtuse-angle blade in which a blade corner portion angle formed by two planes, one of which faces the surface of the image carrier on an upstream side and the other of which faces the surface of the image carrier on a downstream side in a surface movement direction of the surface of the image carrier across the ridge portion, is set to an obtuse-angle, and each image forming device other than the image forming device having the obtuse-angle blade includes, as the lubricant leveling blade, a right-angle blade in which the blade corner portion angle formed by two planes forming the ridge portion is set to a substantially right angle.