Patent ID: 7805089

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a rotatable photosensitive member; a charging device that electrically charges said photosensitive member by being supplied with a charging bias in the form of a DC bias biased with an AC bias; an exposure device that exposes said photosensitive member electrically charged by said charging device to form an electrostatic latent image; a developing device, including a carrying member that carries toner, that develops the electrostatic latent image into a toner image by applying a developing bias to the carrying member; a transfer device that transfers the toner image onto an image receiving member; an adjusting device, disposed downstream of said transfer device and upstream of said charging device with respect to a rotational direction of said rotatable photosensitive member, that adjusts an electric charge of residual toner remaining on said photosensitive member without being transferred onto said image receiving member; and a control device that effects control so that a second AC bias, which is smaller than an AC bias to be applied to said charging device during image formation and which is close to an electric discharge start bias, is applied to said charging device during non-image formation so that a direction of an electric field formed between said carrying member and an area in which the residual toner is deposited on said rotatable photosensitive member is opposite to a direction of an electric field formed between said carrying member and an area in which the residual toner is not deposited on said rotatable photosensitive member.