Patent ID: 7726240

Claim:
A cleaning apparatus comprising: a liquid supply device which supplies a transfer liquid to a first cylinder, the transfer liquid supplied from said liquid supply device to said first cylinder being transferred to a transfer target body which comes into contact with said first cylinder a cleaning unit which comes into contact with and cleans said first cylinder; and a cleaning liquid supply means for supplying a cleaning liquid to said first cylinder, wherein said cleaning unit is arranged downstream of a contact position where said first cylinder is in contact with the transfer target body in a rotational direction of said first cylinder, and upstream of a liquid receiving position where said first cylinder receives a liquid supplied from said liquid supply device in a rotational direction of said first cylinder, wherein, during the time the transfer liquid is transferred to the transfer target body, said cleaning unit comes into contact with said first cylinder to remove the transfer liquid accumulating on a portion of said first cylinder which corresponds to a leading edge of the transfer target body, wherein during the time the transfer liquid is not transferred to said transfer target body, said cleaning unit cleans said first cylinder with the cleaning liquid supplied from said cleaning liquid supply means, and wherein during the time the transfer liquid is transferred to said transfer target body, said cleaning unit removes the transfer liquid accumulating on a portion of said first cylinder which corresponds to a leading edge of the transfer target body without supplying the cleaning liquid from said cleaning liquid supply means.