Patent ID: 7123857

Claim:
An image bearing member unit comprising: an image bearing member on which a toner image is formed; and a support member supporting the image bearing member such that the image bearing member protrudes through an opening formed in the support member, the support member including a shutter housing space for housing a shutter when the shutter is in an opened position, wherein the image bearing member unit is configured to be drawn out of and put into a main body of an image forming apparatus, wherein the image bearing member unit further comprises the shutter assembled with the support member to move in directions, substantially perpendicular to directions in which the image bearing member unit is drawn out of and put into the main body of the image forming apparatus, to be located, when the image bearing member unit has been drawn out of the main body of the image forming apparatus, in a closed position wherein the shutter covers the image bearing member protruding through the opening formed in the support member, and to be located, when the image bearing member unit has been set in a predetermined position inside of the main body of the image forming apparatus, in the opened position wherein the shutter does not cover the image bearing member protruding through the opening formed in the support member, and wherein the shutter moves to the closed position and to the opened position in conjunction with operations of attaching and detaching the image bearing member unit to and from the main body of the image forming apparatus.