Patent ID: 8090306

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an apparatus body provided with a rolling member and a horizontal guide; an image bearing member adapted to bear a toner image on a surface thereof; a cleaning device adapted to remove toner remaining on the surface of the image bearing member; and a waste-toner collection system for collecting waste toner which is the toner removed by the cleaning device, the waste-toner collection system including: a transport section adapted to transport the removed waste toner; a waste toner container adapted to accumulate the waste toner discharged from the transport section; and a holder tray formed to have an upwardly-opened container-replacement opening for a replacement operation of replacing the waste toner container, and adapted to be movable between a retracted position where the holder tray has been pushed into the apparatus body approximately horizontally from the side of a front surface of the apparatus body, and a drawn-out position where the holder tray has been drawn out from the apparatus body approximately horizontally from the side of the front surface, while holding the waste toner container, wherein the holder tray includes a bottom portion, a left wall and a right wall, each of the left and right walls having a flat plate-shaped guide plate formed to extend approximately horizontally in a frontward-rearward direction of the apparatus body and protrude outwardly; wherein the waste toner container is adapted to be set in a collection position for allowing the waste toner container to receive the waste toner discharged from the transport section, correspondingly to the retracted position of the holder tray, and to be set in a replacement position for allowing the replacement operation to be performed through the container-replacement opening from above the holder tray, corresponding to the drawn-out position of the holder tray; wherein the roller member is disposed to support a lower surface of the guide plate from below in such a manner that the bottom portion of the holder tray is lifted from a bottom surface of the apparatus body, and adapted to be rotated according to a slide contact with the lower surface of the guide plate during the operation of drawing out or pushing the holder tray from/into the apparatus body; and the horizontal guide is adapted to guide the guide plate approximately horizontally while slidably contacting an upper surface of the guide plate during the operation of drawing out or pushing the holder tray from/into the apparatus body.