JP2002287590A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus with which as satisfactory image is obtained by suitably reusing toner recovered by cleaning without agglutinating it. SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus is constituted of a cleaning means to remove the toner, etc., to be adhered on an intermediate transfer body 2 after transferring a toner image adhered on a plurality of image carriers 1a to 1d by a developing means 2 on an intermediate transfer body 6. The cleaning means is provided with a plurality of cleaning members 11, 12 to act on attachments on the image carriers and a plurality of feeding route to the toner, etc., recovered by the cleaning members 11, 12, of which the one or more of the feeding routes are supply routes of recycled toner to a developing means and the routes are selected for each cleaning member.

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 provided with a developing device, an image carrier and a cleaning device for each color, for example, in a color copying machine using an electrophotographic process. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that reuses toner collected by cleaning.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a color image forming apparatus using an electrophotographic process, toner images of three colors or four colors are formed on an image carrier, and toner images of these colors are formed on an intermediate transfer member or a transfer member. By overlapping, a full-color image is formed.

In such a color image forming apparatus, for example, a method of forming toner images of four colors sequentially with one or two image carriers, an image carrier for each of four colors,
There are a system having a developing unit for forming a toner image on the image carrier and a system having a cleaning unit for cleaning the image carrier. The latter method is generally referred to as a so-called tandem method in which the respective colors are arranged linearly in the moving direction with respect to the intermediate transfer body or the transfer belt. The tandem system is capable of simultaneously forming toner images of four colors, and thus is excellent in speeding up. In addition, since the cleaning device for the image carrier is provided for each color, the collected toner cleaned from the image carrier is removed. It is considered that recycling is easy to use again for image formation.

Moreover, in a color image forming apparatus,
An original having a large number of colors and a large image area such as a photographic original compared to black and white is often output, and therefore, recycling toner is important in terms of resource saving and running cost reduction.

[0005]

However, in the conventional color image forming apparatus, there are actually several problems, and the first problem is that the upstream color process to the downstream color process is difficult. It is a mixture of colors. As a countermeasure against such color mixing, for example, one having a configuration disclosed in (1) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-227727 or (2) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-242152 has been proposed.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-227727 proposes a method of cleaning an intermediate transfer and a transfer belt. In this method, when the toner image formed on the image carrier is transferred onto the intermediate transfer member or the transfer belt to form an image, the remaining toner on the intermediate transfer member or the transfer belt after the image formation is removed. Color mixing caused by being transferred onto the image carrier and collected by cleaning the image carrier is prevented.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-242152 discloses that a part of the toner transferred onto the intermediate transfer member due to discharge when the image is transferred from the image carrier on the upstream side to the intermediate transfer member is discharged.
The charging polarity is opposite to the normal charging polarity, and when the toner having the opposite charging polarity transfers the toner of the downstream color,
Conversely, it is considered that the toner is transferred to the image carrier, and by providing a recovery unit utilizing the fact that the reversely transferred toner has the opposite charging polarity, color mixing on the image carrier is prevented. Such a method is cleaningless, and the residual toner after transfer, which is charged to the normal charging polarity without cleaning, is collected by the developing unit as it is. For this reason, it is difficult to achieve both the recovery ability in the developing section and the performance of development. Even in the case of two-component development, if the recovery ability by the carrier ears is enhanced, the texture may occur. As a result, the image is roughened. On the contrary, if the collecting ability is weakened, the afterimage becomes a problem.

[0008] The second problem is a change in the properties of the toner due to the recycling process. The cause is considered to be the stress in the developing unit, the transferring unit, the cleaning unit, and the transporting unit from the cleaning to the developing unit. Has become. In other words, when the recycled toner is supplied to the developing means in the form of aggregates, the aggregates have a low charge amount and are easily scattered, and when developed in an aggregated state, the stability of the adhesion amount is impaired. Results. In particular, in a color image, when the amount of adhesion changes, the hue changes, and the change is conspicuous. Further, if there is a mixed-color toner in the recycled toner, the mixed-color toner is concentrated.

Therefore, in the tandem type color image forming apparatus, as described above, it is important to prevent the color mixture of the upstream colors and the aggregation of the recycled toner. In particular, aggregation of recycled toner is considered to occur due to mechanical stress applied to the toner. However, there is a trade-off relationship between cleaning performance and mechanical stress, and it is difficult to achieve both. Met.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an image forming apparatus capable of obtaining a good image by suitably reusing toner collected by cleaning without agglomeration. The purpose is to do.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cleaning device, comprising: a plurality of cleaning members acting on deposits on an image carrier; Has a plurality of transport paths for the toner and the like collected by the above-mentioned method, and at least one of the transport paths is a path for supplying recycled toner to the developing unit, and a path is selected for each cleaning member. With this configuration, good cleaning is performed by a combination of the cleaning members, and a good image is obtained by recycling only the collected toner by means suitable for collection and recycling.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a blade-shaped cleaning member is provided as the cleaning means, and the toner and the like recovered from the blade-shaped cleaning member are supplied with recycled toner. It is characterized in that it is configured not to be supplied to the path. With this configuration, the use of a blade improves the reliability of cleaning, and the collection by the blade does not recycle agglomerated toner, resulting in a good image. Can be obtained.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the cleaning member is provided, and a bias having a polarity capable of collecting the normally charged toner is applied to the cleaning member. In addition, the configuration is such that the toner collected from the cleaning member is supplied to the recycled toner path, and by this configuration, at the time of cleaning, only the toner whose normality is maintained is subjected to a collection cycle, A good image can be obtained without returning the neutral paper powder, the reversed mixed color reversely charged toner, etc. to the developing means again.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the cleaning member is provided. In addition to applying a bias having a polarity that can be collected, the toner collected from the cleaning member is configured not to be supplied to the recycled toner path. With this configuration, the oppositely charged toner and the normally charged toner are supplied to the cleaning unit. A good image that can be separated by the polarity of the applied voltage and prevents the toner with poor chargeability or the mixed color toner reverse-transferred to the image carrier due to reverse charging from being recycled. It is.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the cleaning means includes a brush as a first cleaning member from an upstream side in a rotation direction of the image carrier, and a second cleaning member. It is characterized by supplying only the toner collected by the brush to the toner recycling path.This configuration enables good cleaning and low-stress toner collection by the brush. When used, a good image is obtained.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows an entire configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention, for example, a color copying machine.

As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming means 1 comprises a plurality of photosensitive members 1a, 1b, 1c, 1 arranged in order from the left of the figure.
d. Each of the photoconductors 1a to 1d rotates in a counterclockwise direction as indicated by a solid line arrow, and has a charging unit 4, a developing unit 2, The cleaning unit 3 is arranged in the counterclockwise direction in order, and develops the electrostatic latent images on the respective photoconductors 1a to 1d formed by the writing unit 5;
Four color toner images are obtained.

The toner images of the respective colors developed on the photoreceptors 1a to 1d are superimposed and transferred onto the intermediate transfer member 6 in order from the upstream side to form a full-color image on the intermediate transfer member 6. The full-color image is transferred onto a transfer material (not shown) by a transfer means 7, and the transfer material is heated and pressed by a fixing means 8 so that the full-color image is fixed on the transfer material. Has become.

At this time, the remaining toner of each color remaining on each of the photoconductors 1a to 1d that has not been transferred onto the intermediate transfer body 6 is collected by each cleaning unit 3, and is collected by the cleaning unit 3. The discharged toner is transported to the developing unit 2 via a toner collection path (not shown).

However, conventionally, each of the photosensitive members 1a to 1d
When the toner images of the respective colors are sequentially transferred onto the intermediate transfer body 6 from the upstream side, the upstream-side photosensitive body already transferred onto the intermediate transfer body 6, for example, the first color toner image of the photosensitive body 1a is There is a case where the image is reversely transferred onto the downstream photoconductor, for example, the photoconductor 1b. As a result, the reverse-transferred toner image on the upstream side having a different color is left as residual toner on the downstream-side photosensitive member 1b, and is collected by the cleaning unit 3 to be removed.
The collected toner of the color may be conveyed to the developing device 2 on the photoconductor 1b side and mixed with the toner of the second color in the developing device 2.

Therefore, the effect of the above-described color mixing due to the reverse transfer toner will be considered by an experiment, for example, between the photosensitive member 1a for the first color and the photosensitive member 1b for the second color.
Here, as one cleaning member constituting the cleaning means 3, for example, a blade made of polyurethane rubber having a thickness of 1 mm and a rubber hardness of 60 ° JIS-A hardness is used, and one edge of this blade is connected to the photosensitive member. And set it in a state where the blade is slightly bent. As another cleaning member, for example, a brush made of rayon and having a length of 2 mm formed on a stainless steel (SUS) shaft having a diameter of 6 mm is used, and the tip of the brush is exposed to 0.5 mm. An experiment was conducted to remove the toner adhering to the surface of the photoconductor while holding it so as to bite into the surface of the body. In this case, the volume resistivity of the bristles of the brush is 108 Ωcm, and the brush is rotated so that the linear velocity is doubled in the same direction as the rotation direction of the photoconductor so that the brush contacts the photoconductor surface at the contact portion with a counter. .

On the other hand, as a cleaning member of the cleaning section 3, for example, cleaning is performed by inserting hydrin rubber having a rubber thickness of 2 mm and a volume resistivity of 107 Ωcm on a shaft of stainless steel (SUS) having a diameter of 6 mm. During cleaning, a voltage of +400 V is applied to the cleaning roller using a roller. Further, the surface of the cleaning roller was adjusted from a constant speed to a slightly higher speed at a contact portion with the surface of the photoreceptor, and an experiment for removing the toner was performed. This is basically to peel off the toner adhering to the photoreceptor surface by the force of the electric field. However, by increasing the contact between the roller contact surface and the toner, the effect of increasing the acting force is obtained. For the same reason, it is preferable to slightly roughen the surface of the cleaning roller, and it is effective that Rz is smaller than the diameter of the toner.

Using such a blade, brush and roller, a cleaning experiment was performed on the surface of the photoreceptor by each method, and the cleaning performance and the cohesiveness of the respective cleaning and recovery toners were observed. The results are shown in Table 1 below. Such a result was obtained. The volume average particle size of the toner in this case is 6 μm.

[0024]

[Table 1]

As is apparent from Table 1 above, cleaning by the blade, brush, and roller methods is as follows.
Cleaning performance and cohesiveness are not compatible. When the toner is not recycled, it is not necessary to pay attention to the cohesiveness. However, when the toner is recycled and used,
When the toner is agglomerated, it scatters during development, and causes sticking in the developing means.

In such an experiment, actually,
4w of toner collected and cleaned by blade
When replenishment was performed to the developing device adjusted to the toner concentration of t% and an image of 30 k was output, toner scattering increased and image density decreased remarkably. This is considered to be due to a decrease in developing ability due to a deterioration in fluidity due to an increase in the cohesiveness of the toner. On the other hand, a similar experiment was performed using the toner collected from the brush, but a good image was obtained.

The present invention has been made based on the results of experiments using the blades, brushes and rollers described above.
Shows a first embodiment of the cleaning means of the present invention,
It is the schematic enlarged view seen from the back surface side of FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes an image carrier made of a photoreceptor, and this image carrier 10 rotates clockwise from bottom to top during image formation, as indicated by solid arrows in FIG. . Reference numeral 11 denotes a blade-shaped cleaning member (hereinafter, referred to as a cleaning blade) that is disposed in a pressure-contact state on the downstream side in the rotation direction of the image carrier 10 and cleans the surface of the image carrier 10. Reference numeral 12 denotes a brush for collecting the toner cleaned by the cleaning blade 11 (hereinafter, referred to as a first cleaning brush). The surface of the image carrier 10 is hardly contacted. A toner supply roller 13 is a toner supply unit that supplies the toner collected by the first cleaning brush 12 to the developing unit 2.
Reference numeral 15 denotes a brush (hereinafter, referred to as a second cleaning brush) disposed on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the image carrier 10, and the second cleaning brush 15
The toner is rotated in the same direction as the rotation direction of 0 at a linear velocity ratio of about twice, and the toner that cannot be completely collected by the first cleaning brush 12 is collected. Reference numeral 16 denotes a brush-handling shaft which is fixed in a state in which it is brought into contact with the second cleaning brush 15 so that the toner adhered to the second cleaning brush 15 is removed by the second cleaning brush 15. With the rotation of 15, the brush is handled and collected. Reference numeral 14 denotes a toner discharge roller that is a toner discharge unit that discharges the toner collected by the second cleaning brush 15 and the toner collection shaft to a waste treatment tank.

That is, according to the above-described cleaning device of the present invention, most of the toner scraped off by the cleaning blade 11 is cleaned and collected by the first cleaning brush 12, so that the collected toner can be recycled with little aggregation. Will be possible. Moreover, by having the cleaning blade 11, the surface of the image carrier 10 can be reliably cleaned.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the transfer means in the tandem type color copying machine of FIG. For example, when the image is transferred from the image carrier 21 of the second color to the intermediate transfer member, for example, the intermediate transfer belt 22, the image portion of the toner image including the toner 23 of the first color already transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 22 a together with the non-image portion b on the intermediate transfer belt 22
A toner image composed of the color toner 24 is transferred. At this time, when the development is negative-positive development and the image carrier is negatively charged, the non-image portion b has a lower potential than the image portion a.

Therefore, the negative polarity toner 23
Adhere to the image area a on the intermediate transfer belt 22. When transferring the second color toner image, the second color toner 2
4 is transferred to the non-image portion b on the intermediate transfer belt 22. The transfer rate of the second color toner 24 is usually 1
Since it is not 00%, some toner 24 remains. At this time, the image portion a on the intermediate transfer belt 22 includes
The second color toner 24 adheres, but in the non-image portion b, 1
The color toner 23 and the image carrier 21 come into contact with each other, and a part of the first color toner 23 is conversely transferred from the intermediate transfer belt 22 to the second color image carrier 21. This is the reverse transfer toner. At this time, if the reverse transfer toner is negatively charged, the non-image portion b on the intermediate transfer belt 22 also has a low potential, so that the toner should not easily adhere.
For some reason, the reverse transfer toner may be positively charged and adhere to the non-image portion b. In this case, since the positively charged toner is attached to the low potential portion, the Coulomb attractive force acts strongly, and the adhesive force is large. On the other hand, the transfer residual toner described above has a small adhesive force because the negatively charged toner is attached to the negatively charged portion.

Therefore, in the present invention, in order to collect and recycle only such transfer residual toner, when the normal charge polarity of the toner is negative, the toner can be collected by applying a positive voltage. .

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the cleaning device of the present invention.
Reference numeral 30 denotes an image carrier, 31 denotes a cleaning roller, 32 denotes a blade for scraping toner from the cleaning roller 31, 33 denotes a cleaning brush, and 34 denotes toner adhering to the cleaning brush 33. A brush-handling shaft 35 is a toner discharging roller for discharging toner collected from the cleaning portion of the cleaning roller 31 and the blade 32 into a waste toner bottle. And a toner supply roller that is a toner supply unit that conveys the supplied toner to the developing unit 2. The cleaning brush 33 is connected to a first power supply 37 for applying a voltage having a polarity opposite to the normal charge polarity of the toner. On the other hand, a second power supply means 38 for supplying a voltage having the same polarity as the normal charging polarity of the toner is connected to the cleaning roller 31.

The cleaning brush 33 is rotated in the forward direction and the rotating direction of the image carrier 30 (indicated by solid arrows in FIG. 4).
And is in contact with the surface of the image carrier 30. Also, the length of the bristle feet of the cleaning brush 33 is 2 mm,
The tip of the brush is held so as to bite into the surface of the image carrier 30 to about 0.5 mm. In this case, the brush is not in a loop shape, and the end face of the hair is
, The rubbing force becomes too strong, and there is a possibility that toner adhering to the image carrier 30 may be removed regardless of the polarity. For this reason, it is preferable to use a brush made of slightly soft rayon and having a volume resistivity of 107 Ωcm.

On the other hand, the cleaning roller 31 is made of silicone rubber in which carbon is dispersed, and has a rubber hardness of JIS4.
5 ° is preferably used. In this case, the roller
To adsorb the toner on the surface, it is better that the surface state is slightly rough. However, since it is necessary to remove the toner adsorbed on the roller surface, a releasability from the toner is also required. For this reason, it is effective that the surface of the roller is coated with a material having excellent releasability, and the surface Rz is uniformly roughened to about 3 μm, which is smaller than the toner diameter (particle diameter) of 6 μm. Thus, even when the toner comes into contact with the concave portion on the surface of the roller, the toner can be satisfactorily scraped off by the blade 32.

That is, in the above configuration, at the time of cleaning, a voltage of +300 V is applied to the cleaning brush 33 and a voltage of -300 V is applied to the cleaning roller 31 to perform a cleaning process on the surface of the image carrier 30 to which toner adheres. Good cleaning was done. Actually, for example, in the color copying machine shown in FIG. 1, a full-color image is formed by four colors, and the second color (magenta) is formed.
When an image is formed by mixing the recycled toner at a ratio of 20% with respect to the new toner in the developing means 2 for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier 1b, the image of the magenta image is formed. No hue change was observed.

FIG. 5 shows a third example of the cleaning means of the present invention.
Reference numeral 40 denotes an image carrier, 41 denotes a first cleaning roller that contacts the downstream surface of the image carrier 40, and 43 denotes a second cleaning roller that contacts the upstream surface of the image carrier 40. A cleaning roller 42 for removing and collecting toner from the surface of the second cleaning roller 43;
Reference numeral 45 denotes a brush for collecting toner from the surface of the first cleaning roller 41. Further, a first power supply means 44 for applying a bias having the same polarity as the normal charge polarity of the toner is connected to the second cleaning roller 43. On the other hand, to the first cleaning roller 41, a second power supply means 46 to which a voltage having a polarity opposite to the normal charging polarity of the toner is applied is connected. Reference numeral 47 denotes a toner supply roller that supplies the toner collected by the first cleaning roller 41 and the brush 45 into the developing unit 2. Reference numeral 48 denotes a toner discharge roller for discharging the oppositely charged toner on the second cleaning roller 43 scraped off by the blade 42 into a waste treatment tank (not shown).

That is, in the above configuration, at the time of cleaning, a bias having the same polarity as the normal charging polarity of the toner is applied to the second cleaning roller 43 so that the image carrier 40 is cleaned.
And the second cleaning roller 43
The oppositely charged toner adsorbed on the toner is removed by a blade 42 and discharged into a waste treatment tank (not shown). on the other hand,
A voltage having a polarity opposite to the normal charge polarity of the toner is applied to the first cleaning roller 41, the toner having the normal charge polarity is collected, supplied to the developing unit 2, and recycled. At this time, when removing the toner adsorbed on the first cleaning roller 41, it is necessary to avoid the stress of the toner. For this reason, in the present invention, in order to collect the toner from the first cleaning roller 41, the brush 45 having the least stress on the toner is preferably used.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A plurality of image carriers, charging and exposure means for forming an electrostatic latent image on each image carrier, and resolution by attaching toner to the electrostatic latent image formed by the charging and exposure means Developing means, a transfer means for transferring the toner adhered to the electrostatic latent image by the developing means to the intermediate transfer member, and a cleaning means for removing toner and the like adhered to the image carrier after passing the transfer means. In the image forming apparatus, the cleaning unit has a plurality of cleaning members acting on the deposits on the image carrier, and a plurality of transport paths for toner and the like collected by the cleaning members. One or more is a recycle toner supply path to the developing means, and since a path is selected for each cleaning member, it is considered that good cleaning is performed by a combination of cleaning members. , Good images by recycling only recovered toner suitable means to recover recycle there is an effect of obtaining.

The cleaning means has a blade-shaped cleaning member, and the toner and the like recovered from the blade-shaped cleaning member are not supplied to the recycled toner supply path. This has the effect of improving the certainty of the toner image and obtaining a good image by not recycling the toner aggregated by the collection by the blade.

Further, a voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the cleaning member is provided, and a bias having a polarity capable of recovering the normally charged toner is applied to the cleaning member.
By supplying the toner collected from the cleaning member to the recycled toner supply path,
At the time of cleaning, there is an effect that a good image can be obtained without collecting and recycling only the toner having the regular chargeability and returning the neutral paper powder, the reverse-transferred mixed-color reversely-charged toner and the like to the developing unit again. .

Further, a voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the cleaning member is provided. The bias is applied to the cleaning member with a polarity capable of recovering toner and the like charged in the opposite polarity to the normally charged toner, and the voltage is recovered from the cleaning member. By not supplying the recycled toner to the recycled toner supply path, it is possible to prevent the toner whose charging characteristics are no longer good or the mixed color toner reversely transferred to the image carrier due to the reverse charging from being recycled, thereby improving the image quality. Is obtained.

The cleaning means comprises a brush as a first cleaning member and a blade as a second cleaning member from the upstream side in the rotation direction of the image carrier, and only the toner collected by the brush is recycled. By supplying the toner to the toner supply path, good cleaning and low-stress toner collection with a brush are possible, and there is an effect that a good image can be obtained when recycled toner is used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view schematically showing an overall configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view schematically showing a first embodiment of the cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view schematically showing a configuration example of a transfer unit.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view schematically showing a second embodiment of the cleaning device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view schematically showing a third embodiment of the cleaning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming part 1a-1d Image carrier 2 Developing means 3 Cleaning means 4 Charging means 5 Writing means 6 Intermediate transfer body 7 Transfer means 8 Fixing means 10 Image carrier 11 Cleaning blade 12 First cleaning brush 13 Toner supply means Reference Signs List 14 Toner discharge means 15 Second cleaning brush 30 Image carrier 31 Cleaning roller 32 Blade 33 Cleaning brush 34 Brush handling shaft 35 Toner discharge means 36 Toner supply means 37 First power supply means 38 Second power supply means

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H030 AA04 AB02 AD03 BB02 BB23 BB38 BB42 2H134 GA01 GB02 HA01 HA02 HA03 HA04 HA11 HA13 HA17 HB01 HB03 HB09 HB13 HB16 HB19 HD01 HD04 HD16 HD19 JA12 JB01 KD04 KD05 K03 KD07 K01 KG08

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of image carriers, charging and exposure means for forming an electrostatic latent image on each image carrier, and resolution by attaching toner to the formed electrostatic latent image An image forming apparatus comprising: a developing unit that transfers the adhered toner to the intermediate transfer body; and a cleaning unit that removes the toner and the like adhered to the image carrier after passing through the transfer unit. It has a plurality of cleaning members acting on the deposits on the carrier, and a plurality of transport paths for toner and the like collected by the cleaning members, and at least one of the transport paths is recycled to the developing unit. An image forming apparatus, wherein a toner supply path is selected for each cleaning member. 2. A cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein said cleaning means includes a blade-shaped cleaning member, and toner collected from said blade-shaped cleaning member is not supplied to a recycled toner supply path. 2. The image forming apparatus according to 1. And a voltage supply unit for supplying a voltage to the cleaning member, applying a bias having a polarity capable of recovering the normally charged toner to the cleaning member, and supplying the toner recovered from the cleaning member to a recycled toner path. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1. 4. A cleaning device, comprising: a voltage supply means for supplying a voltage to the cleaning member; applying a bias to the cleaning member with a polarity capable of recovering toner and the like charged to a polarity opposite to that of the normally-charged toner; The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the toner is not supplied to the recycled toner path. 5. A cleaning means comprising a brush as a first cleaning member and a blade as a second cleaning member from the upstream side in the rotation direction of the image carrier, and only the toner collected by the brush is removed. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the toner is supplied to a toner recycling path.