Patent ID: 8244151

Claim:
A belt cleaning apparatus removing, after the toner image is transferred to a recording medium, a residual toner remaining on an outer peripheral surface of an endless intermediate transfer belt which comprises a base material and an elastic layer formed on a surface of the base material, is rotatably supported around a plurality of supporting rollers with tension, and bears and conveys a toner image, the belt cleaning apparatus comprising: a cleaning blade formed of a plate-like elastic member, having an abutting side which is a straight end side abutting on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt, and removing a residual toner by abutting on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer belt, the cleaning blade being provided so as to be parallel to a width direction of the intermediate transfer belt, a side length of the abutting side being longer than a width of the elastic layer in the width direction of the intermediate transfer belt; and a housing that supports the end side other than the abutting side of the cleaning blade and contains a residual toner removed by the cleaning blade, wherein the intermediate transfer belt is formed such that a width of the base material in the width direction thereof is longer than the width of the elastic layer, and the cleaning blade is formed such that the side length of the abutting side is shorter than or equal to the width of the base material in the width direction of the intermediate transfer belt.