Patent ID: 8254821

Claim:
A cleaning apparatus comprising: a photosensitive body of an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus, said photosensitive body having a surface; and a blade configured to remove one or more toner particles remaining on the surface of the photosensitive body, wherein said one or more toner particles have a mean particle diameter D and a standard deviation σ of a particle size distribution, and a front end of the blade is arranged on the surface of the photosensitive body so as to satisfy a condition represented as: μ ≤ sin ⁢ ⁢ θ 1 + cos ⁢ ⁢ θ , when an imaginary sphere having a diameter of (D−σ) contacts the surface of the photosensitive body and the blade at the same time, θ is an angle defined by a first tangent line at a contact point between the sphere and the surface of the photosensitive body and a second tangent line at a contact point between the sphere and the blade, with the sphere sandwiched by said first and second tangent lines, μ is a smaller friction coefficient of a friction coefficient between said one or more toner particles and the surface of the photosensitive body and a friction coefficient between said one or more toner particles and the blade, the front end of the blade has plural protruding parts, and the plural protruding parts are arranged so as to remove toner particles starting with a protruding part provided at an upstream side of the cleaning apparatus to a protruding part that removes a particle having a particle diameter of (D−nσ) (with n being an integer).