Patent ID: 7469115

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a first side plate provided on said image forming apparatus; an image forming unit to form a toner image, said image forming unit having an image bearing member, a frame provided at a position at which the frame faces to said first side plate and a first support portion to support the image bearing member with regard to the frame, said image forming unit being inserted into said image forming apparatus from said first side plate; a second side plate provided on said image forming apparatus and at a position at which said second side plate faces to said first side plate, wherein at least a part of said image forming unit is provided in a space between said first side plate and said second side plate; a shaft provided in said image forming apparatus, said shaft extending through the image bearing member and supporting said image bearing member; a second support portion provided at said second side plate, said second support portion supporting said shaft; a transfer unit that have a transfer member to transfer an image formed on said image bearing member; a first positioning portion provided at said first plate side of said transfer unit, said first positioning portion determining a position of said transfer unit with regard to said shaft; a second positioning portion provided at said second plate side of said transfer unit, said second positioning portion determining a position of said transfer unit with regard to said shaft; a first positioned portion provided in said image forming unit, said first positioned portion abutting against said first positioning portion to be positioned by said first positioning portion; and a second positioned portion provided on said second side plate, said second positioned portion abutting against said second positioning portion to be positioned by said second positioning portion.