Patent ID: 7995931

Claim:
An image forming apparatus including a process cartridge which is detachably mountable to a main assembly of said image forming apparatus and includes a rotatable image bearing member, having a surface layer of a lubricant, for bearing an electrostatic latent image and includes a cleaning blade, provided counterdirectionally to a rotational direction of the image bearing member to contact the image bearing member in a predetermined area thereby to form a nip, for removing a developer from the surface of the image bearing member, said image forming apparatus comprising: charging means for electrically charging the surface of the image bearing member; developing means for developing, with a developer, an electrostatic latent image formed after the surface of the image bearing member is electrically charged; fresh cartridge detecting means for detecting whether or not the process cartridge is a fresh cartridge; and control means for effecting control so that when said fresh cartridge detecting means detects that the process cartridge is the fresh cartridge, a developing bias is applied to said developing means in an area of the image bearing member in which a charging bias is not applied to said charging means to deposit developer on the surface of the image bearing member and then the charging bias is applied to said charging means.