Patent ID: 7212777

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image bearing member configured to bear a latent electrostatic image thereon, the image bearing member comprising: an electroconductive substrate; and a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate; a charging device configured to charge the image bearing member; an irradiation device configured to irradiate the image bearing member with light to form the latent electrostatic image on the image bearing member; a developing device configured to develop the latent electrostatic image on the image bearing member with a toner to form a toner image on a surface of the image bearing member; a cleaning device comprising: a cleaning blade configured to scrape the surface of the image bearing member to remove particles of the toner remaining on the image bearing member, and a transfer device configured to transfer the toner image formed on the image bearing member to a recording material directly or by way of an intermediate transfer member, wherein the image forming apparatus satisfies the following relationships (1) and (2): (1) 0.10< or =Dm 3 /V< or 3.41, wherein Dm represents a weight average particle diameter of the toner and V represents a circumference velocity of the image bearing member; and (2) T ave < or =1.40 kgf·cm, wherein T ave represents an average of a torque T of the image bearing member when the torque is measured for 15 seconds while the cleaning blade is in contact with the image bearing member.