Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus equipped with a cleaning device that removes toner by bringing a cleaning blade into contact with an image bearing member.
Description of the Related Art
Many image forming apparatuses using toner, such as copying machines, printers, and multifunction peripherals, are equipped with a cleaning device that removes unnecessary toner by bringing a cleaning blade into contact with the surface of an image bearing member, which includes an intermediate transfer member, or a recording material conveyance member.
In such a cleaning device, it is desirable to keep a certain amount of toner as lubricant lying at a contact portion of the cleaning blade so as to reduce frictional load of the cleaning blade and to maintain a cleaning function normally.
If the amount of such toner is small, the effect of lubricant cannot be obtained, so that a failure in cleaning may occur. On the other hand, if the amount of toner is too large, toner smudges on the back of paper or toner smudges on a printed image may be caused. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the amount of toner to be supplied to the cleaning device to an adequate amount.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-25348 discusses a technique to cause a toner image constantly with a constant density to be formed in an interval between images to be transferred, by changing an image forming condition even if a characteristic change of an image bearing member or toner occurs due to an environmental change or temporal change. As a result, there can be provided an image forming apparatus capable of constantly supplying a constant amount of toner to the cleaning device as needed.
At the time of continuous printing, in order to supply an adequate amount of toner to the cleaning device at an inter-sheet interval, which is an interval between image formation for printing and image formation for subsequent printing, it is necessary to perform an image forming condition change, which is time-consuming. Therefore, it is difficult to maintain the maximum throughput of continuous printing.