Patent ID: 7421239

Claim:
A cleaning apparatus comprising: a blade which abuts on an endless belt to be supported on a tension roller including a support shaft so as to remove a toner adhered to a surface of the endless belt; a blade holding structure that holds the blade and is configured to be movable with respect to a direction of motion adjustment for adjusting tension on the endless belt applied by the tension roller with rotation of the blade restricted, and causes the blade to abut on a winding area of the endless belt with respect to the tension roller, wherein the blade holding structure includes a plurality of projections; and an abutment maintaining structure that allows the blade to follow up movement of the tension roller in the direction of motion adjustment to thereby maintain abutment of the blade on the endless belt, and includes a first elongated hole, the support shaft of the tension roller being slidably fitted in the first elongated hole, wherein the plurality of projections are slidably fitted with the abutment maintaining structure, wherein the blade holding structure includes a positioning unit that restricts rotational movement of the blade holding member, with the support shaft as a fulcrum, by a second elongated hole, and the projections are configured to be fitted in the second elongated hole in the direction of motion adjustment in a slidable manner.