Patent ID: 8170447

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; an exposure member that exposes the image carrier and forms an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier; a developing member that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier; a contact-retracting unit that rotates the developing member taking a predetermined position as the rotational center, and brings the developing member in contact with or in proximity to the image carrier or retracts the developing member from the image carrier, the rotational center of the developing member being located within a housing of the developing member; wherein the developing member is provided with a sealing member that is in contact with the image carrier in a state of deflection at the developing position of the developing unit; wherein when the developing member rotated by the contact retracting unit is in the middle of moving to the developing unit retracted position, deflection generated in the sealing member is gradually released, and the sealing member is retracted from the image carrier from the upstream side in the rotational direction of the image carrier in order; and wherein the contact-retracting unit makes the rotation action of the developing member link with the action of bringing the exposure member in contact with or in proximity to the image carrier or retracting the exposure member from the image carrier.