Patent ID: 8498565

Claim:
A cleaning blade for use in an image forming apparatus, comprising: a holder; and an elastic blade attached to the holder and in contact with an image bearing member, the elastic blade being impregnated with an acrylate polymer from at least one surface thereof to a depth of from 5 to 100 μm wherein the at least one surface includes a contact surface in contact with the image bearing member and disposed parallel to a longitudinal direction of the elastic blade, and a first position having a ratio of A/B to A 0 /B 0 of 1.1 is within a depth range of from 5 to 100 μm from the contact surface, where A represents a peak area value for 1,700 cm −1 obtained by a micro infrared (IR) method according to transmission for a segment of the elastic blade, B represents a peak area value for 1,597 cm −1 obtained by the micro infrared (IR) method according to transmission for the segment of the elastic blade, A 0 represents a peak area value for 1,700 cm −1 obtained by the micro infrared (IR) method according to transmission for a segment of an other elastic blade which is different from the elastic blade in that no acrylate polymer is applied, and B 0 represents a peak area value for 1,597 cm −1 obtained by the micro infrared (IR) method according to transmission for the segment of the other elastic blade which is different from the elastic blade in that no acrylate polymer is applied.