Patent ID: 8781356

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming assembly including an image carrier on which a latent image is formed while the image carrier is rotated and which carries a toner image formed by developing the latent image, the image carrier including a support portion that is supported and that projects at a first end of the image forming assembly in a rotation-axis direction, and a developing device that is urged toward the image carrier so as to be near the image carrier and develops the latent image on the image carrier with toner, the developing device including a projecting portion that projects at the first end; an image forming apparatus body including a frame into which the image forming assembly is installed in a direction such that the first end is the trailing end and that supports the image forming assembly, and an assembly covering member that is rotatably supported by the frame and that rotates between a closed state in which the assembly covering member covers the first end of the image forming assembly supported by the frame and an open state in which the first end of the image forming assembly is exposed, the assembly covering member having a support hole that receives and supports the support portion in the closed state and an interference avoiding hole that receives the projecting portion so as to avoid an interference with the projecting portion in the closed state and that is shaped such that a gap is formed along the entire periphery around the projecting portion in the closed state, wherein the image forming apparatus body transfers the toner image formed by the image forming assembly supported by the frame onto a recording medium and fixes the toner image to the recording medium; and a vibration reducing member that reduces vibration of the developing device relative to the image carrier by being fitted in the gap around the projecting portion in the interference avoiding hole in the state in which the projecting portion of the image forming assembly installed in the frame is inserted in the interference avoiding hole in the assembly covering member in the closed state, wherein the image forming apparatus is operated in the state in which the vibration reducing member is removed.