1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning member for removing a developer from a member to be cleaned.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus repeatedly uses an image bearing member (a member to be cleaned) on which a developer image is to be formed. Thus, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a cleaning unit for removing a developer remaining on the image bearing member after the developer image has been transferred from the image bearing member onto a recording medium. A cleaning blade type cleaning unit is configured to bring an flexible blade into contact with the surface of the image bearing member with predetermined pressure to remove a developer from the surface of the image bearing member. A cleaning member discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,635 has a structure where a blade is attached to a leading end of a plate metal, which is a supporting member, by molding. The plate metal is attached and fixed to a frame member with screws or the like to bring the blade into contact with the surface of the image bearing member with predetermined pressure.
There is demand for the downsizing, the speeding up, and a higher image quality of an image forming apparatus such as a printer. The downsizing of the image forming apparatus also leads to the downsizing of an image bearing member. Further, the speeding up of the image forming apparatus increases the rotational speed of the image bearing member. Thus, a blade in contact with the surface of the image bearing member repeatedly slides in contact with the surface of the image bearing member at high speed. This may raise the temperature of the blade, and may reduce the hardness of the blade. As a result, the frictional force between the surface of the image bearing member and the blade may increase, leading to an increase in the driving torque for driving the image bearing member and a turning-up of the blade. Further, recently, to achieve a higher image quality, a developer containing spherical particles may be used. In this case, to remove the developer from the surface of the image bearing member, it is necessary to increase the contact pressure of the blade on the image bearing member. This may become a factor that exacerbates the above problems.