Patent ID: 7796918

Claim:
A cleaner unit of an image forming apparatus, comprising: a cleaning member that is brought into contact with a toner bearing body in order to collect toner from the toner bearing body bearing the toner; a toner removal member configured to remove the toner from the cleaning member; a waste toner storage part configured to store the removed toner, and a toner leakage preventing mechanism to prevent toner from leaking from the unit to outside in a case when the unit is attached to or detached from the toner bearing body, wherein the cleaning member, the toner removal member and the waste toner storage part are integrally constructed into a unit structure, and the unit is constructed to be attachable to and detachable from the toner bearing body or a main body of the image forming apparatus, the toner leakage preventing mechanism actuates at least the cleaning member and the toner removal member, and performs an operation to move the removed toner to the toner bearing body or the waste toner storage part, and the operation of the toner leakage preventing mechanism is performed based on a cleaner unit replacement instruction before the unit is detached from the toner bearing body.