Patent ID: 7903993

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: a latent image carrier that carries a latent image on an endlessly moving surface thereof; a developing means for developing the latent image carried on the latent image carrier by means of a toner; a charging member that uniformly charges the surface of the latent image carrier while moving a surface of the charging member in contact with the latent image carrier; a first bias supply means for supplying a bias to the charging member; a cleaning member that recovers at least toners adhered to the surfaces of the latent image carrier and the charging member, while moving a surface of the cleaning member in contact with the latent image carrier and the charging member on an upstream side in a latent image carrier rotational direction in relation to the charging member, to clean the surfaces of the latent image carrier and the charging member; and a second bias supply means for supplying a bias to the cleaning member, wherein at least one of the following is performed: supplying a bias from the second bias supply means to the cleaning member to transfer the toners from the cleaning member to a non-image area on the latent image carrier surface such as to transfer the toners directly from the cleaning member to the non-image area by means of an electrostatic force, the toners being recovered from the latent image carrier and the charging member to the cleaning member; and supplying a bias from the first bias supply means to the charging member, and supplying a bias from the second bias supply means to the cleaning member, to transfer the recovered toners from the cleaning member to the non-image area such as to transfer the toners from the cleaning member to the non-image area via the charging member, and wherein the toners that are transferred to the non-image area are recovered by the developing means.