JP2001060055A - Image forming device and new cleaning member adjusting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an image forming device having no damage of a cleaning member due to friction with a photoreceptor after exchanging the cleaning member to a new one by adjusting the abutting load of the new cleaning member when the new cleaning member abuts on the photoreceptor for the first time to be smaller than the abutting load imposed when residual toner is scraped usually. SOLUTION: When a new blade (cleaning member) 18 abuts on a photoreceptor drum 2 for the first time after exchanging the blade to the new blade 18, a cam driving motor rotates a cam 27 so as to push up an arm 26 against the load imposed by a weight plate 24. A holder main body 22 is turned in a direction (shown by an arrow B2) where it is separated from the drum 2 corresponding to the rotation. The rotation of the cam driving motor is set to be stopped within a range where the blade 18 comes in contact with the drum 2. Though the blade 18 press-contacts with the drum 12, at such a time, the abutting load imposed on the drum 2 is adjusted to be smaller than the abutting load imposed when the residual toner is scraped usually.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for cleaning residual toner adhered to a photoreceptor using a cleaning member, and a cleaning member adjusting method for replacing the cleaning member with a new cleaning member and adjusting the cleaning member. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of reducing frictional resistance with a photoconductor by attaching toner to a new cleaning member after replacement, and a method of adjusting a new cleaning member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile or the like using an electrophotographic system, a toner image formed on the surface of a photoreceptor is not completely transferred to a transfer paper, and untransferred toner remains. I do. In order to continuously perform the image forming operation, it is necessary to completely remove and clean the residual toner with a cleaning member. As the cleaning member, a blade formed of an elastic body such as polyurethane is often used. This is a configuration in which the edge of the blade abuts on the photoreceptor to scrape off residual toner.
To prevent poor cleaning due to edge wear,
It is necessary to periodically replace the blade with a new blade (new cleaning member).

However, if the new blade and the cleaned photoreceptor are brought into direct contact with each other, the frictional resistance is so large that the blade may be damaged. Therefore, an operator may apply setting powder to the blade or use a developing means. There has been proposed a method of reducing mutual frictional resistance by, for example, contacting a new blade to a photoreceptor after the toner is attached to the photoreceptor to form a setting toner image.

[0004] However, in the method in which an operator applies setting powder to the blade, it is difficult to uniformly apply the powder, resulting in unevenness, and a similar problem of blade damage may occur in a place where the amount of powder is small.

In the method of forming a toner image for setting on a photoreceptor, there is no problem of the above-mentioned unevenness in the amount of powder.
When the new blade starts to scrape off the toner image for setting, the leading end of the toner image for setting already reaches the position of the pre-charging exposure unit, charging unit or exposure unit located downstream of the blade, so that the toner is There has been a problem that the particles scatter and contaminate the pre-charging exposure means, charging means or exposure means. In other words, when the blade is replaced with a new blade and the new blade is first brought into contact with the photoconductor, if the setting toner image is not formed on the photoconductor, the photoconductor is directly rubbed and the new blade is damaged. Therefore, it is necessary to abut the new blade in a state where the setting toner image is formed, but considering safety, the tip of the setting toner image necessarily moves downstream from the blade contact position, The toner scatters on the pre-charging exposure unit, the charging unit or the exposure unit downstream of the blade, and becomes dirty.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to replace a new cleaning member with a new one, so that there is no damage to the cleaning member due to friction with the photoreceptor, and the toner adhered to the photoreceptor for setting is scattered. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and a new cleaning member adjustment method that do not stain the inside of the forming apparatus.

[0007]

The above object of the present invention has been achieved by the following constitutions.

[0008] 1. A photoreceptor for forming an electrostatic latent image; a driving unit for driving the photoreceptor; a developing unit for attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor to form a toner image; An image forming apparatus comprising: a transfer unit for transferring to a transfer sheet; and an exchangeable cleaning member that abuts on the photoconductor and scrapes residual toner remaining on the photoconductor after the transfer. A load adjusting means for adjusting the contact load between the cleaning member and the developing means, and a control means for controlling operations of the developing means and the load adjusting means. When the new cleaning member is brought into contact with the photoconductor for the first time after the replacement, the load adjusting means is actuated to reduce the contact load of the new cleaning member with the normal residual toner. The contact load at the time of dropping is adjusted to be smaller, and the drive unit is operated to drive the photoconductor, and the developing unit is operated to attach toner to the photoconductor to form a toner image for setting. An image forming apparatus characterized in that the image forming apparatus is controlled as follows.

[0009] 2. The control means, when the leading end of the setting toner image comes downstream from the contact position or the contact position between the new cleaning member and the photoconductor,
Activating the load adjusting means to adjust the new cleaning member to a contact load when the normal residual toner is scraped off,
2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drive unit is operated to drive the photoconductor.

[0010] 3. Forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor, forming a toner image by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image, transferring the toner image to transfer paper, abutting the photoreceptor, and transferring the toner image after the transfer; A new cleaning member adjusting method for replacing and adjusting a cleaning member for scraping off residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor with a new cleaning member includes the steps of: And a setting toner image forming step of forming a setting toner image by adhering toner onto the photoreceptor. .

4. When the leading end of the setting toner image comes to the contact position between the new cleaning member and the photoconductor or downstream from the contact position, the contact load between the new cleaning member and the photoconductor is usually reduced. A cleaning load adjustment step of adjusting the load at the time of scraping off the residual toner, and actuating the drive unit to drive the photoconductor, and cleaning the setting toner image with the cleaning load adjusted in the cleaning load adjustment step. 3. The method for adjusting a new cleaning member according to the above item 3, further comprising a cleaning step of scraping off with a new cleaning member.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to this.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a copying machine as an image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming section of the copying machine, FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of a cleaning unit having a cleaning member, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing an IV-IV section, FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a part of the cleaning unit, and FIG. 6 is a timing chart explaining a part of the operation of the image forming apparatus.

In FIG. 1, the copying machine 101 stores transfer papers 105 in a main body thereof, and feeds the transfer papers 105 to be used for the image forming operation one by one by a paper feed roller 106 having a double feed prevention mechanism. Carry in. The paper feed unit 109 is disposed immediately before the image forming unit 1 and includes a loop roller 110.
And a registration roller 111.

On the other hand, in the image forming section 1, the photosensitive drum 2
The (photoconductor) is rotated in the direction of arrow A by a driving unit described later, and a uniform potential is applied by the charging electrode 3, and the scanner unit 112 attaches a document (not shown) on the document mounting glass 113. The corresponding digital data is obtained and subjected to image processing. Based on the digital data subjected to the image processing, the scanning exposure unit 114 irradiates the surface of the rotating photosensitive drum 2 to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the document. Form. Next, the electrostatic latent image is visualized by a developing unit 5 (developing means), and a toner image is developed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2.

The registration roller 111 is driven in synchronization with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 2, and the transfer paper 105 is sent to the transfer electrode 7 (transfer means). The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 2 is transferred to the transfer paper 105 sent to the transfer electrode 7, and then the transfer paper 105 is separated from the photosensitive drum 2 by the separation electrode 8 and the separation claw 9. Then, the transport unit 117 transports to the fixing unit 118. A cleaning unit 11 disposed on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 2 with respect to the separation claw 9 cleans the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 after the transfer to remove foreign matters, residual toner, and the like. When the residual toner is removed, the charging electrode 3 charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 again in preparation for the next image forming operation.

The recycling pipe 6 conveys the residual toner collected by the cleaning unit 11 to the developing unit 5. The transported toner is used again for development.
The developing unit 5 incorporates new toner supplied from a toner cartridge (not shown), and consumes the new toner by executing an image forming operation. The collected toner is mixed with the new toner. In the present invention, the toner in which the collected toner is mixed with the new toner is also regarded as the new toner.

In the fixing unit 118, the transfer paper 105
Is heated and pressurized to fix the toner image. In the case of one-sided copy, the sheet is nipped by the conveyance roller 119 and sent to the sheet discharge tray 123. In the case of double-sided copying, the transfer paper 105 on which the toner image has been fixed is sent to the stacker 120 via the escaping conveyance path 121 by the conveyance roller 119 and temporarily evacuated. The transfer paper 105 temporarily evacuated into the stacker 120 is sent out again, and
The toner image is transferred and fixed again into the paper feeding unit 109 via the.

Next, details of the image forming section 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In the image forming section 1 of the copying machine 101, a charging electrode 3 (charging means), a scanning exposure section 114 (exposure means), and a developing unit 5 are provided around a photoconductor drum 2 (photoconductor).
(Developing means), a transfer electrode 7 (transfer means), a separating electrode 8, a separating claw 9, a cleaning unit 11, and a pre-charge exposure section (PCL) 12 (pre-charge exposure means) are arranged in this order. . These are connected to a control means 13 built in the copying machine 101. The control unit 13 operates the developing unit, a driving unit, a load adjusting unit, and the like based on information input by a user from an instruction input unit (not shown) to execute overall sequence control of the copying machine 101. .

In the image forming section 1, a uniform + charge is applied to the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 by the action of the charging electrode 3, and then the scanning exposure section 114 is rotated based on digital data subjected to image processing. The surface of the photosensitive drum 2 is irradiated to form an electrostatic latent image. The toner is agitated inside the developing unit 5, and the toner takes a positive charge due to mutual friction.
The developing unit 5 includes a sleeve 5a having a rotation axis parallel to the rotation axis of the photosensitive drum 2. When a developing bias is applied to the sleeve 5a, the electrostatic latent image
Development (reversal development) is performed with the charged toner, and a toner image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2.

The transfer paper 1 is synchronized with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 2.
When the transfer electrode 05 is fed, the transfer electrode 7 applies a negative charge to the back surface of the transfer paper 105, and the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 is transferred to the transfer paper 105. The transfer paper 105 on which the toner image has been transferred is neutralized by the discharge of the separation electrode 8 and the adsorption force to the photosensitive drum 2 is reduced. Then, the transfer paper 105 is guided to the separation claw 9 while being naturally separated by its own weight, and the separation is completed. Is sent to the fixing unit 118.

On the other hand, although the toner that is not transferred remains on the photosensitive drum 2 passing through the separation claw 9, the residual toner is collected by the cleaning unit 11 and is exposed by the pre-charging exposure unit 1.
2 exposes the cleaned photoreceptor drum 2 with uniform light to eliminate / uniform the residual potential and prepare for the next charging.

The recycling pipe 6 is a pipe-shaped member provided with a screw for transporting toner therein, and connects the cleaning unit 11 to the developing unit 5 to remove the toner from the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 to remove the cleaning unit 11. Is sent to the developing unit 5. The toner sent to the developing unit 5 by the recycling pipe 6 is used again for development.

The drum driving motor 40 (driving means) starts and stops rotating under the control of the control means 13. When the toner image is developed on the photosensitive drum from the image information read from the original or the blade in the cleaning unit 11 is replaced with a new blade, when the toner is brought into contact with the photosensitive drum 2 for the first time, the toner is applied to the photosensitive drum 2. The photosensitive drum 2 is rotated by the drum drive motor 40 when the toner image for setting is formed by attaching the toner image, and the toner image for setting is scraped off by a blade.

Next, the structure of the cleaning unit 11 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a sectional front view of the cleaning unit 11, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG.

The cleaning unit 11 has a housing 14, a brush roller 16, a toner conveying means 17, and a blade 18 as a cleaning member.
Is pressed and contacted (contacted) with the surface of the photosensitive drum 2 to scrape off the residual toner, and the scraped-off residual toner once rides on the brush roller 16 and falls into the screw 17 a of the toner conveying means 17. The screw 17a is rotated by a drive mechanism (not shown) to collect the dropped toner, and the collected toner is sent to the developing unit 5 again through the recycling pipe 6, and is accumulated in the developing unit 5. The toner is mixed with the mixed toner and stirred together before being reused for image formation.

The blade 18 is sandwiched and fixed by a blade holder 18a composed of two L-shaped cross-sections. The blade holder 18a is fixed to two holder side plates 22a of the holder body 22. The holder body 22
It has a holder top plate 22b and a holder back plate 22c that are continuous with the holder side plate 22a, and a rotating shaft 23 projects from both sides of the holder top plate 22b. Since the rotating shaft 23 is rotatably supported by both side plates 14 a of the housing 14, the holder main body 22 is moved in two directions as shown by an arrow C in FIG.
In the direction.

The weight plate 2 is provided on the holder back plate 22c.
4 is locked, and the weight plate 24 is
2 and the blade 18 are given a rotational moment about the rotation shaft 23, and the tip of the blade 18 is moved to the photosensitive drum 2.
The surface is adjusted so that it comes in contact with the surface at a constant pressure.

One end of the rotating shaft 23 penetrates the side plate 14a and is connected to a cam mechanism 25 as load adjusting means. The cam mechanism 25 is fixed to an end of the rotating shaft 23 to form a follower, a cam 27 for vertically moving the arm 26 to rotate the rotating shaft 23, and a shaft 27a. A driven gear 28 for transmitting a rotational force to the cam 27; and a driving gear 3 connected to the driven gear 28 via an idle gear 29.
0, and a cam drive motor 31 that transmits a rotational force in a predetermined direction to the drive gear 30. Cam drive motor 3
1 controls the cam mechanism 25 under the control of the control means 13, and the pressure (contact load) at the time of contact between the blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 is determined by the degree to which the cam 27 pushes up the arm 26. Although the degree of bending of the blade 18 changes when the contact load changes, the bending of the blade 18 is omitted in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Next, adjustment of the contact load by the cam mechanism 25 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a part of the cleaning unit 11. FIG. 5 (A) and FIG. 5 (B) show a state where the contact load applied to the photosensitive drum 2 and the blade 18 is different. ing.

As a preparation for executing image formation, a cam drive motor 31 supplies a drive under the control of the control means 13 to rotate the cam 27, and as shown in FIG. In a non-contact state. When the arm 26 and the cam 27 are brought into a non-contact state, the weight of the weight plate 24 is applied to the holder main body 22, so that the holder main body 22 approaches the photosensitive drum 2 around the rotation shaft 23 (arrow B1). When the blade 18 rotates, the blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 are pressed (contact). The contact load between the blade 18 thus pressed and the photosensitive drum 2 is a contact load (hereinafter, referred to as a cleaning load) when the residual toner is usually scraped off. The cleaning load is an optimal contact load that removes residual toner attached to the photosensitive drum 2 and does not hinder the next image forming operation. When the cleaning load is applied, the control unit 13 executes a sequence control relating to an image forming operation for forming a normal toner image.

Next, a case where the new blade is brought into contact with the photosensitive member for the first time after the blade (cleaning member) is replaced with a new blade (new cleaning member) will be described.

First, the blade replacement will be described. To replace the blade 18 with a new blade 18,
When the blade 18 is completely separated from the photosensitive drum 2 (by releasing the contact state), the blade is removed,
Install a new blade. The blade replacement may be performed manually by an operator or, for example, a new blade for replacement is built in the cleaning unit as in the invention disclosed in JP-A-6-95448, and the blade is automatically replaced with the new blade. Rotational exchange may be performed. For convenience of explanation,
The blade before replacement is referred to as "blade" and the blade after replacement is referred to as "new blade". However, in the drawing, the difference is only temporally before or after blade replacement. FIG. 5B shows the state of the contact load when the cleaning unit of FIG. 5 contacts the photosensitive drum 2 for the first time after the blade is replaced with a new blade 18 which is a type in which the blade is replaced manually. The cam drive motor 31 supplies a drive to rotate the cam 27, and the cam 27 rotates to push up the arm 26 against the load applied by the weight plate 24. Arm 26
In response to the rotation, the holder main body 22 rotates in a direction (arrow B2) in which the holder main body 22 is disengaged from the photosensitive drum 2. The rotation of the cam drive motor 31 is set to stop within a range where the contact between the blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 is maintained. At this time, although the blade 18 is pressed against the photosensitive drum 2, the contact load with the photosensitive drum 2 is smaller than the contact load when the residual toner is usually scraped off (hereinafter, referred to as “load”).
Setting load). Blade 1
8 is applied directly to the photosensitive drum 2 in a state where a setting load is applied, and even if the photosensitive drum 2 is rotated, the blade 1
8 is not damaged, but since the tip of the blade 18 is in contact with the photosensitive drum 2, the toner image developed on the photosensitive member can be scraped off.

The above-mentioned cam mechanism 25 as a load adjusting means
, The contact load between the blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 can be switched between a cleaning load (FIG. 5A) and a setting load (FIG. 5B).

Next, control by the control means when the cleaning member is brought into contact with the photosensitive member for the first time after the cleaning member is replaced with a new cleaning member will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the image forming apparatus of the present invention after the cleaning member is replaced. The lapse of time is from the beginning.

First, the blade is replaced with a new blade 18 in a state where the contact load of the blade has been released. When the replacement is completed, the new blade 18
Is applied, and the new blade 18 is brought into contact with the photosensitive drum 2 to such an extent that the blade 18 is not damaged by friction (setting load adjusting step). Corresponds to the time when the cleaning member comes into contact with the photosensitive member for the first time after the replacement with the new cleaning member. When the photosensitive drum 2 is rotated in this state, the setting toner image described below is scraped off by the new blade 18 (not completely removed).

Next, the photosensitive drum 2 starts rotating by the driving means. At the same time, the pre-charging exposure section (PCL) 12 also starts operating to erase and uniform the residual potential. At the same time, the operation of the developing unit 5 is started. When the rotation speed of the photosensitive drum 2 reaches a constant value, a developing bias is started to apply toner to the photosensitive member to develop a setting toner image (setting toner image forming step). In this embodiment, since the developing is performed in a state where only the developing bias is ON without operating the charging electrode 3, the setting toner image has a uniform halftone on the surface of the photosensitive drum 2. The setting toner image serves as a so-called setting powder for preventing friction when the new blade 18 comes into contact with the photosensitive drum 2 for the first time, and the contact load of the new blade 18 is used as the cleaning load. There is no particular limitation on the pattern and density of the toner image as long as the photosensitive drum 2 and the blade 18 cause friction when switching, and the friction can be reduced to such an extent that the new blade 18 is not damaged. It may be the same as a toner image formed by reading a document at the time of normal image formation, but it is preferable that uniform halftone is provided over the entire surface of the photosensitive drum 2 for the purpose of setting.

Next, in the step (c), the drive of the photosensitive drum 2 is stopped, and the rotation of the photosensitive drum 2 is reduced. At the same time, the developing bias is turned off, and the formation of the setting toner image is completed. When the rotation of the photosensitive drum 2 is completely stopped, the drive of the PCL 12 and the developing unit 5 is turned off.

Next, the blade contact load is switched to the cleaning load (cleaning load adjusting step). At this time, the timing is such that the setting toner image exists at the contact position between the new blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2. In other words, the leading end of the setting toner image (the portion where the toner is first adhered and developed) is at least at the contact position between the new blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 or downstream thereof (PCL 12 side).
Have to come. This, as mentioned earlier,
This is to avoid friction between the new blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2.

Next, the photosensitive drum 2, P
When the CL 12 and the developing unit 5 start operating, the new blade to which the cleaning load is applied scrapes off the setting toner image that has already been formed, so that toner adheres to the edge of the new blade, and The setting (adjustment) can be performed so that no scuffing or damage occurs due to friction with the drum 2 (cleaning step). Then, after all the setting toner images have been removed, the rotation of the photosensitive drum 2 is stopped, and the PCL 12 and the developing unit 5 are turned off. Then, the blade contact load is switched to the setting load to complete the setting (adjustment). Yes (). In this embodiment, the blade contact load is switched to the setting load at the end of the setting, but the cleaning load may be held as it is. The control of the above timing is performed by the control means 13.

According to the present invention, the timing for switching the contact load between the new blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 from the setting load to the cleaning load does not need to be controlled with high precision, which is advantageous in terms of technology and cost. . That is, in the case of an image forming apparatus having an automatic blade changing mechanism as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-95448 and forming a toner image for setting, the contact load is switched between release and cleaning load. If the switching timing is too early, the new blade may be damaged by friction, and if the switching timing is too late, there is a problem that the toner is scattered and the inside of the image forming apparatus is stained. The adjustment method eliminated that. That is, the switching can be performed with a sufficient margin to avoid friction between the new blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2. Even if the tip of the setting toner image is the PCL 12, the charging electrode 3, the scanning exposure unit 1,
Even when the setting reaches 14, the new blade 18 and the photosensitive drum 2 are in contact with the setting load from the beginning, so that the setting blade image scrapes off excessive toner on the surface by the new blade 18 (completely removed). Is not performed), and the contamination in the image forming apparatus due to toner scattering can be prevented.

In the present embodiment, the case of a digital copying machine has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to an analog copying machine, a laser printer, a digital facsimile machine, and also to an image forming apparatus for outputting a color image. Applicable.

Further, the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus using a toner image on a belt-shaped photosensitive member instead of the photosensitive drum.

Although the example in which a positive charge is applied to the toner and the photosensitive drum 2 has been described, the present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus in which a negative charge is applied.

[0048]

According to the present invention, there is no damage to the cleaning member due to friction with the photoreceptor after the replacement with the new cleaning member, and the toner adhered to the photoreceptor for setting does not scatter and contaminate the inside of the image forming apparatus. An apparatus and a new cleaning member adjusting method can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a copying machine that is an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming unit of the copying machine.

FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of a cleaning unit.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a section taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a part of a cleaning unit.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart illustrating an operation of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention after replacement of the cleaning member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Photoreceptor drum 5 Developing unit 6 Recycle pipe 11 Cleaning unit 13 Control means 18 Blade 25 Cam mechanism 26 Arm 27 Cam 31 Cam drive motor 40 Drum drive motor 101 Copier 105 Transfer paper

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A photoconductor for forming an electrostatic latent image, a driving unit for driving the photoconductor, and a developing unit for forming a toner image by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor. An image forming apparatus comprising: a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto transfer paper; and an exchangeable cleaning member that contacts the photoconductor and scrapes residual toner remaining on the photoconductor after the transfer. A load adjusting unit configured to adjust a contact load between the member and the photoconductor; and a control unit configured to control operations of the driving unit, the developing unit, and the load adjusting unit. When the new cleaning member is brought into contact with the photoconductor for the first time after the member is replaced with a new cleaning member, the load adjusting means is operated to reduce the contact load of the new cleaning member. The contact load is adjusted to be smaller than the contact load when the residual toner is scraped off, and the drive unit is operated to drive the photoconductor, and the developing unit is operated to attach toner to the photoconductor and set toner. An image forming apparatus, which controls so as to form an image. 2. The control means operates the load adjusting means when a leading end of the setting toner image comes to a contact position between the new cleaning member and the photoreceptor or downstream from the contact position. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the new cleaning member is adjusted to a contact load when the residual toner is usually scraped off, and the drive unit is operated to drive the photoconductor. 3. An electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoreceptor, a toner image is formed by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image, the toner image is transferred to a transfer paper, and is brought into contact with the photoreceptor. A cleaning member for scraping off residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor after the transfer by a new cleaning member and adjusting the cleaning member, wherein the contact between the new cleaning member and the photoreceptor is performed. A setting load adjusting step of adjusting a load to be smaller than that when the residual toner is usually scraped off; and a setting toner image forming step of forming a setting toner image by attaching toner on the photoreceptor. New cleaning member adjustment method. 4. When the leading end of the setting toner image comes to a contact position between the new cleaning member and the photoconductor or downstream of the contact position, the contact between the new cleaning member and the photoconductor is made. A cleaning load adjustment step of adjusting the contact load to a load at which the residual toner is usually scraped off; and actuating the drive unit to drive the photoconductor, and setting the cleaning load adjusted in the cleaning load adjustment step. 4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising a cleaning step of scraping off the toner image for use with the new cleaning member.