Patent ID: 7483648

Claim:
A process cartridge, comprising: a casing configured to accommodate a plurality of units positioned one above the other in a space within said casing such that one of said plurality of units is spaced, in a horizontal direction, from a vertical line extending through the other unit positioned below said one unit, said plurality of units including an image carrier, a sleeve configured to cause a developer to electrostatically deposit on said image carrier, and a conveying member positioned below said sleeve and disposed in a first space separate from a second space accommodating said sleeve, said conveying member configured to feed said developer to said sleeve while agitating said developer, wherein said casing includes a continuous flat bottom wall that extends beneath each of the plurality of units and that is inclined relative to a horizontal plane and oriented such that when said bottom wall is placed on a horizontal surface, said one unit is shifted toward said vertical line, and wherein said plurality of units are arranged in said casing and said continuous flat bottom wall is inclined relative to the horizontal plane such that said casing is configured to be mounted in an image forming apparatus with said continuous flat bottom wall extending substantially parallel to a portion of a lower run of an image transfer belt of the image forming apparatus that extends between two photoconductive drums that are respectively included in two process cartridges that are consecutively arranged in the image forming apparatus.