Patent ID: 7817954

Claim:
A cleaning unit, comprising: a cleaning member disposed in contact with a surface of a target member and supplied with a given voltage, with the cleaning member configured to remove residual toner remaining on the surface of the target member by an electrostatic force generated due to the voltage applied to the cleaning member; a conductive elastic blade disposed in contact with the surface of the target member upstream from the cleaning member in a direction of movement of the surface of the target member; a conductive blade supporting member configured to fixedly support the conductive elastic blade to a main body of the cleaning unit; a blade power source configured to apply a given voltage to the conductive elastic blade via the blade supporting member, and to charge the residual toner to a same polarity as the voltage applied to the elastic blade while the residual toner passing between the elastic blade and the target member is removed electrostatically from the target member; and a conductive member having conductivity greater than that of the elastic blade, configured to electrically connect the blade supporting member and the elastic blade and deform with the elastic blade while being fixedly attached to a surface of the elastic blade, the conductive member being disposed so that an edge part of the conductive member is closer to where the elastic blade contacts the target member than an edge part of the blade supporting member.