Patent ID: 7555256

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a development unit including a developer carrier, a developer reservoir and a toner and operating to supply the toner contained in the developer reservoir to the image carrier by means of the developer carrier, thereby developing a latent image, formed on the image carrier, into a toner image; a transfer unit for transferring the toner image on the image carrier onto a transfer medium; a recovery unit for recovering the toner remaining on the image carrier after image transfer; a return unit for transporting a recover toner recovered by the recovery unit to return the recover toner into the developer reservoir; an aggregator for aggregating the recover toner into developer aggregates: and a separator/feeder for separating the toner contained in the developer reservoir from the recover toner thereby exclusively feeding the toner to the developer carrier, wherein the separator/feeder comprises a regulator member pressed against a surface of the developer carrier for removing the recover toner from the developer carrier, and the regulator member is provided on a side of the developer carrier that is opposite the image carrier.