Patent ID: 7711283

Claim:
An image forming method, comprising: charging a rotating latent image bearing member with a rotating charger selected from at least one of contact chargers and short range chargers; irradiating the rotating latent image bearing member with imagewise light to form an electrostatic latent image on the latent image bearing member; developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer including a toner having a charge to form a toner image on the latent image bearing member; transferring the toner image onto a receiving material; and after transferring the toner image, forming an electric field between the charger and the latent image bearing member so that charged materials present on a surface of the charger fly toward the latent image bearing member, wherein forming the electrical field includes: forming the electric field between the charger and the latent image bearing member while changing directions of the electric field by setting a potential of the charger to be lower and higher than a potential of a photoreceptor, in a first direction, charged materials having a charge with a first polarity on the surface of the charger fly toward the latent image bearing member, and in a second direction, charged materials having a charge with a second polarity on the surface of the charging member fly toward the latent image bearing member.