JP2008152047A - Residual toner stirring roller and image forming apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a transfer residual toner stirring roller for an image forming apparatus capable of securely removing residual toner, so-called spherical toner by sufficiently weakening adhesion between the spherical toner remaining on the image carrier, such as a photoreceptor drum, and the surface of the image carrier, and to provide an image forming apparatus using the roller. <P>SOLUTION: A residual toner stirring roller for the image forming apparatus is disposed so as to rotate in a state being brought into contact with the surface of the image carrier, stirs toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier, thereby weakening the adhesion between the residual toner and the surface of the image carrier and removing the residual toner. In the residual toner stirring roller, at least two blade-like members made of a flexible material are spirally disposed on the surface of the residual stirring roller along the axial direction of this roller. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a residual toner disturbance roller used in an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine employing an electrophotographic system, and an image forming apparatus using the same.

JP 2004-70100 A JP 2004-70100 A

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine that employs this type of electrophotographic method, a toner image corresponding to image information is formed on a photosensitive drum, and the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is formed. Is transferred onto a recording sheet directly or via an intermediate transfer member, and then heated and pressed by a fixing device to fix an unfixed toner image on the recording sheet to form an image. .

  By the way, in the image forming apparatus, when the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is transferred onto the recording paper directly or via the intermediate transfer member, the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is 100%. Transfer is impossible, and transfer residual toner remains on the photosensitive drum. In this way, if there is transfer residual toner on the surface of the photosensitive drum, the transfer residual toner adheres to the surface of the contact-type charging device and causes charging failure, or on the recording paper during the next image formation. Therefore, it is necessary to remove it from the surface of the photosensitive drum.

  Therefore, in the image forming apparatus, a cleaning device including a cleaning blade, a cleaning brush, or the like that is in pressure contact with the surface of the photoconductive drum is provided on the downstream side of the transfer process in order to remove the transfer residual toner remaining on the photoconductive drum. It is used.

  Further, in the image forming apparatus, the transfer efficiency of the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is improved, and the transfer residual toner on the photosensitive drum is made as close to zero as possible. Thus, a so-called “spherical toner” having a shape close to a spherical shape has been used.

  However, when the spherical toner is removed from the photosensitive drum by a cleaning device equipped with a cleaning blade or the like, the cleaning ability of the cleaning blade is remarkably insufficient, and a chronic cleaning failure of the transfer residual toner occurs. Has a point.

  More specifically, when the spherical toner remaining on the photosensitive drum is scraped off by the cleaning blade, since the spherical toner has a shape close to a spherical shape, the spherical toner comes into contact with the edge of the cleaning blade. As shown in the figure, the edge portion of the blade presses the spherical toner, and the spherical toner rotates counterclockwise in the drawing as the photosensitive drum rotates, so that the spherical toner becomes the edge of the cleaning blade. The force F that pushes up the portion acts, and the spherical toner rubs through the cleaning blade, causing a problem that chronic transfer failure of the transfer residual toner occurs.

  Therefore, for such problems, the amount of biting of the cleaning blade is specified, it is brought into contact with an angle that is not parallel to the axial direction of the photosensitive drum, or the shape of the cleaning blade is changed to obtain an optimal stress state. For cleaning spherical toner, such as defining the contact angle of the cleaning blade, applying lubricant to the contact surface, and inserting a member that prevents toner particles from entering the contact surface of the cleaning blade Various attempts have been made.

  However, the conventional technique has the following problems. In other words, even the techniques related to these various proposals still have the problem that satisfactory and sufficient cleaning performance of the spherical toner cannot be obtained.

  In addition, the configuration of the cleaning blade so far has been to perform cleaning by pressing one or two cleaning blades against the photosensitive drum.

  However, with this method, it is impossible to recover the cleaning performance when a chronic cleaning failure occurs due to scratches on the photosensitive drum or abrasion / deletion of the cleaning blade that occurs frequently during the cleaning of the spherical toner. Also, the ability to maintain the cleaning performance was weak.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and the object of the present invention is so-called spherical toner remaining on the image carrier such as a photosensitive drum and the surface of the image carrier. To provide a transfer residual toner disturbing roller for an image forming apparatus and an image forming apparatus using the same, which can sufficiently remove the remaining so-called spherical toner. is there.

That is, the invention described in claim 1 is arranged so as to rotate while being in contact with the surface of the image carrier, disturbs the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier, and the residual toner and the image. In the residual toner disturbing roller of the image forming apparatus for removing the residual toner by weakening the adhesion with the surface of the carrier,
On the surface of the residual toner disturbing roller, at least two or more blade members made of a flexible material are spirally provided along the axial direction of the residual toner disturbing roller. 2 is a residual toner disturbance roller of an image forming apparatus.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the residual toner disturbance roller is rotationally driven in a direction opposite to the rotational direction of the image carrier. This is a residual toner disturbance roller.

  Furthermore, the invention described in claim 3 is characterized in that the blade-like member of the residual toner disturbing roller is formed so that the cross-sectional shape of the tip thereof is an acute angle. It is a roller for residual toner disturbance of the image forming apparatus described.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the blade-like member of the residual toner disturbing roller is formed in a shape in which the transfer residual toner from which the cross-sectional shape of the tip is removed is easily discharged. A residual toner disturbance roller of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1.

  Furthermore, in the invention described in claim 5, the residual toner disturbance roller has a concave holding space for holding the residual toner removed from the image carrier between the blade-like members. The residual toner disturbing roller of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

  The invention described in claim 6 is characterized in that a brush-like member is disposed in contact with the surface of the residual toner disturbance roller. It is a roller for residual toner disturbance of the image forming apparatus described.

  The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein a cleaning blade is disposed downstream of the residual toner disturbing roller. It is a roller for residual toner disturbance of the apparatus.

  The invention described in claim 8 is characterized in that the blade-like member of the residual toner disturbance roller is formed of a conductive material. 2 is a residual toner disturbance roller of an image forming apparatus.

Furthermore, the invention described in claim 9 includes an image carrier on which a toner image is formed on the surface;
It is arranged so as to rotate while being in contact with the surface of the image carrier, and disturbs the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier, thereby weakening the adhesion between the residual toner and the surface of the image carrier. In the image forming apparatus comprising the residual toner disturbing roller for removing the residual toner,
The surface of the residual toner disturbing roller is provided with at least two blade-like members made of a flexible material in a spiral shape along the axial direction of the residual toner disturbing roller. An image forming apparatus.

  According to the present invention, the adhesion between the so-called spherical toner remaining on the image carrier such as the photosensitive drum and the surface of the image carrier is sufficiently weakened, and the remaining so-called spherical toner is surely removed. Therefore, it is possible to provide a transfer residual toner disturbing roller for an image forming apparatus capable of performing the above and an image forming apparatus using the same.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  Embodiment 1

  FIG. 2 shows a tandem type full-color printer as an image forming apparatus to which the transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention is applied. Note that the image forming apparatus is not limited to a printer, and may be a copying machine or a facsimile provided with an image reading device, or a multifunction machine having these functions.

  The tandem type full-color printer 1 includes an image forming unit 2 as shown in FIG. 2 corresponding to, for example, yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K). FIG. 2 shows only the image forming unit 2Y corresponding to the yellow (Y) color among the four image forming units 2. In FIG. The image forming unit 2 corresponding to each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) is configured in the same manner except for the color of the toner image to be formed.

  The image forming unit 2Y corresponding to the yellow (Y) color will be described below. The image forming unit 2Y includes a photosensitive drum 3Y as an image carrier, and the photosensitive drum 3Y is a photosensitive composed of OPC or the like. It has a body layer on its surface and is driven to rotate at a predetermined speed along the direction of the arrow by a drive source (not shown). The photosensitive drum 3Y may use a photosensitive layer made of another material in addition to the photosensitive layer made of OPC or the like. The image carrier is not limited to the photosensitive drum as long as it carries a toner image.

  The surface of the photosensitive drum 3Y is primarily charged to a predetermined potential by the charging roll 4Y for primary charging, and then the surface of the photosensitive drum 3Y has a ROS (Raster Output Scanner) 5Y as image writing means. Thus, the laser beam LB is irradiated according to the image information, and an electrostatic latent image according to the image information is formed. The electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 3Y is developed by a developer magnetic brush formed on the surface of the developing roll 60 of the developing device 6Y to form a toner image. In the developing device 6Y, for example, a two-component developer including a yellow toner and a carrier is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a single-component developer may be used only from the toner. .

  In the developing device 6Y, for example, a so-called spherical toner manufactured by a polymerization method is used. The spherical toner has an outer shape that is not necessarily limited to a spherical shape, but is close to a spherical shape.

  The toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 3Y is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 8 serving as an intermediate transfer member while being superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt 8 by the primary transfer roll 7Y, and then the second intermediate transfer belt 8 (not shown). At the next transfer position, the image is transferred onto the recording paper by a secondary transfer roll (not shown). The recording sheet on which the toner image is transferred is subjected to a fixing process with heat and pressure by a fixing device (not shown) to form a color image.

  Further, the transfer residual toner can be removed or easily removed from the surface of the photosensitive drum 3Y after the toner image transfer process by the cleaning device 9 including the transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to the first embodiment. And is removed by the brush roll 10 disposed downstream in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 3Y, or is further subjected to a disturbing action, so that the adhesion force to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3Y is substantially zero. And is cleaned by being collected by the magnetic brush of the developing device 6Y.

  As described above, when the transfer residual toner is disturbed to a state where it can be removed or easily removed by the disturbance roller and collected by the magnetic brush of the developing device 6Y, the transfer residual toner is transferred from the surface of the photosensitive drum 3Y. A cleaning device for removing the toner permanently becomes unnecessary.

  In the above embodiment, the tandem type full-color printer 1 having four image forming units 2 of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) has been described. Of course, an image forming apparatus that includes only the image forming unit shown in FIG. 4 and forms a black and white toner image on the photosensitive drum 3 may be used. Of course, the present invention can be similarly applied to a so-called 4-cyclo full-color printer having a rotary developing device on the outer periphery of one photosensitive drum 3.

By the way, in this embodiment, the toner is arranged so as to rotate while being in contact with the surface of the image carrier, the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier is disturbed, and the residual toner, the surface of the image carrier, In the residual toner disturbing roller of the image forming apparatus for removing the residual toner by weakening the adhesive force of
On the surface of the residual toner disturbance roller, at least two blade members made of a flexible material are provided in a spiral shape along the axial direction of the residual toner disturbance roller. is there.

  That is, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the transfer residual toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 3 is disposed on the outer periphery of the photosensitive drum 3 on the downstream side in the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum 3 at the primary transfer position. A cleaning device 9 having a residual toner disturbing roller 20 for disturbing is disposed. The disturbance roller 20 is configured to rotate in the direction opposite to the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 3.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the disturbance roller 20 includes a rotating member 21 formed in a cylindrical shape with plastic or the like, and a blade made of a flexible material such as rubber provided on the outer periphery of the rotating member 21. And a member 22. The rotating member 21 includes a cylindrical portion 23 located on the outer periphery thereof, a shaft-like portion 24 located at the center, and a plurality of connecting portions 25 extending in the radial direction connecting the cylindrical portion 23 and the shaft-like portion 24. It consists of and. In addition, although the said rotation member 21 can reduce in weight by forming in a hollow shape like the example of illustration, it does not necessarily need to form in a hollow shape and may form it in a column shape.

  Further, the blade member 22 is provided so as to protrude in a flat plate shape along the radial direction on the outer peripheral surface of the covering portion 26 and a relatively thin cylindrical covering portion 26 covered on the outer periphery of the rotating member 21. And a plurality of blade portions 27. The blade portion 27 is provided with a plurality of at least two blades 27 at a constant interval P along the circumferential direction of the blade member 22, in the illustrated example, about 32 blades. The plurality of blade portions 27 need to be set longer as the number is smaller, but can be set shorter as the number increases. The number and length of the blade member 22 must be set so that at least the covering portion 26 does not directly contact the surface of the photosensitive drum 3. Further, the blade member 22 has a concave portion 28 between the blade portion 27 and the blade portion 27 that can temporarily hold the transfer residual toner.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the blade portion 27 is provided in a spiral shape at a predetermined inclination angle along the axial direction of the disturbance roller 20. The inclination angle of the blade portion 27 is set as appropriate. For example, the blade portion 27 is approximately half-turned from one end portion to the other end portion along the axial direction of the disturbance roller 20. Set to The amount of biting of the blade portion 27 with respect to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is set to, for example, about 0.8 mm, but may be set to other values.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the blade portion 27 is formed in a flat plate shape having a predetermined length and thickness, for example, and a tip portion thereof is formed in an arc shape, for example. However, the distal end portion of the blade portion 27 is not limited to an arc shape, but may be formed flat.

  Further, the shape of the blade portion 27 is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. 4A, the tip is formed in a knife edge shape having a symmetrical left and right angle, or FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the side surface 27a on the upstream side in the rotational direction of the disturbance roller 20 is set so that the inclination angle θ1 is smaller than the side surface 27b on the downstream side in the rotational direction (θ1 <θ2), and the tip portion 27c is formed in a shape that is obliquely cut so that the upstream side in the rotational direction of the disturbance roller 20 is higher, or the side surface 27a on the upstream side in the rotational direction of the disturbance roller 20 is inclined as shown in FIG. The angle θ1 is an acute angle, the side surface 27b on the downstream side in the rotation direction is set so that the inclination angle θ2 is an obtuse angle, and the tip 27c is cut obliquely so that the upstream side in the rotation direction of the disturbance roller 20 is higher. Shaped into shape As shown in FIG. 4 (d), the one shown in FIG. 4 (c) is used as a base, and is curved toward the upstream side in the rotational direction as a whole, and both sides are formed in a curved shape. Is used.

  Further, a brush roller 30 is arranged on the outer periphery of the disturbance roller 20 so that the brush roller 30 rotates in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the disturbance roller 20. Yes. The brush roller 30 is for scraping off the toner accumulated in the concave portion 28 of the disturbance roller 20.

  In the above configuration, in the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment, the adhesion between the so-called spherical toner remaining on the image carrier such as the photosensitive drum and the surface of the image carrier is sufficiently weakened as follows. Thus, the remaining so-called spherical toner can be reliably removed.

  That is, in the full-color printer according to this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, a toner image is formed on the photosensitive drum 3 according to the image information, and the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 3 is After being transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 8 in a multiplex manner, at the secondary transfer position, it is secondarily transferred onto the recording paper at once and subjected to a fixing process by a fixing device to form a color image.

  In the above-described full-color printer, spherical toner is used, and when the toner image formed on the photosensitive drum 3 is transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 8, the transfer efficiency is high, and the transfer remaining on the photosensitive drum 3. Although there is little residual toner, toner that has not been transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 8 remains on the surface of the photosensitive drum 3.

  The transfer residual toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 3 moves to the cleaning device 9 as the photosensitive drum 3 rotates, and is disturbed by a disturbance roller 20 provided inside the cleaning device 9. As shown in FIG. 1, the disturbance roller 20 has a plurality of blade portions 27 projecting outward in the radial direction on the outer periphery thereof, and the plurality of blade portions 17 are formed on the stirring roller 20. It is provided spirally along the axial direction.

  Therefore, the untransferred toner 40 remaining on the photosensitive drum 3 is disturbed by the blade portion 27 of the stirring roller 20 as shown in FIG. 5, and the physical adhesion force to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is reduced. Is done. A part of the transfer residual toner 40 remaining on the photosensitive drum 3 is scraped off by the blade portion 27 of the stirring roller 20 and temporarily held in the concave portion 28 between the blade portions 27 of the stirring roller 20. Is done.

  A plurality of blade portions 27 of the stirring roller 20 are provided, and the stirring roller 20 is driven to rotate in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 3. Therefore, the untransferred toner 40 remaining on the photosensitive drum 3 does not stay at the same position on the photosensitive drum 3 by the plurality of blade portions 27 of the stirring roller 20 and is disturbed by the blade portion 27. The physical adhesion force to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is gradually reduced, and finally the adhesion force to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 becomes almost zero.

  As a result, when the transfer residual toner 40 remaining on the photosensitive drum 3 passes through the cleaning device 9, the adhesion force to the photosensitive drum 3 is further reduced by the brush roll 10 provided on the downstream side of the cleaning device 9. It passes through the roll 4 and is collected in the developing device 6 by the magnetic brush of the developing roll 60 of the developing device 6.

  At that time, the stirring roller 20 has different disturbing action and removing action depending on the cross-sectional shape of the blade portion 27. As shown in FIGS. 4A to 4D, the tip of the blade portion 27 is formed so that the toner is easily discharged, the tip is an acute angle, and the base end is an obtuse angle. Disturbed toner can be easily discharged.

  Further, by providing the brush roller 30 on the outer periphery of the stirring roller 20, the toner accumulated in the recess 28 of the stirring roller 20 can be reliably discharged.

  Further, since the stirring roller 20 has a plurality of blade portions 27, even when a discharge product adheres to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3, the stirring roller 20 has a high frequency on the surface of the photosensitive drum 3. The discharge products can be effectively removed by the plurality of blade portions 27 that are in contact with each other.

  In addition, since the blade portion 27 of the stirring roller 20 is provided in a spiral shape, the toner remaining on the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is subjected to decocting force in addition to the pressing force, and remains more effectively. The toner can be removed and filming and the like can be effectively prevented.

Embodiment 2
FIG. 6 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in the first embodiment will be described with the same reference numerals. In the second embodiment, the downstream side of the stirring roller is shown in FIG. The cleaning blade is configured to be disposed on the surface.

  That is, in the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the cleaning blade 50 is disposed on the downstream side in the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum 3 of the cleaning device 9 provided with the stirring roller 20.

  The residual toner that has been disturbed by the agitation roller 20 and reattached to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 has significantly less adhesion to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 than the residual toner immediately after the transfer process is completed. It has become. Therefore, by disposing the cleaning blade 50 on the downstream side of the stirring roller 20, it becomes possible to reliably remove the residual toner whose adhesion force to the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is greatly reduced.

  However, when the cleaning blade 50 is provided, a cleaning device that permanently removes residual toner from the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 is required.

  Since other configurations and operations are the same as those of the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

Embodiment 3
In Embodiment 3 of the present invention, the blade portion 27 of the stirring roller 20 is formed of a conductive material such as conductive rubber, and a voltage having a polarity opposite to the charging polarity of the toner is applied to the blade portion 27. The residual toner is electrostatically removed.

  In the third embodiment, even if the contact pressure of the blade portion 27 of the stirring roller 20 is the same, residual toner can be efficiently removed, and fogging and the like can be reliably prevented.

  Since other configurations and operations are the same as those of the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

Experimental Example Next, in order to confirm the effect of the embodiment, the present inventor prototyped the stirring roller 20 having various shapes of the blade portion 27 as shown in FIGS. An experiment was conducted to confirm how the effect of preventing toner filming differs depending on the shape. As an experiment, an experiment was performed in which a toner image was continuously formed on an A3 size sheet and the number of prints until filming occurred was examined.

  FIG. 7 shows the results of the above experimental example.

  As is apparent from this figure, it was found that the toner mold 3 type can prevent toner filming until about 20,000 sheets are printed on A3 size paper. Also, with the tooth type 2 type, toner filming can be prevented until about 15,000 sheets are printed on A3 size paper. The toner filming occurred after printing about one sheet.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a part of a tandem type full-color printer as an image forming apparatus to which the transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a front view schematically showing a transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing blade portions of the transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a state where the toner is disturbed by the transfer residual toner disturbing roller according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a part of a tandem type full color printer as an image forming apparatus to which the transfer residual toner disturbance roller according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention is applied. FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a graph showing an experimental example and a blade portion of the transfer residual toner disturbing roller.

Explanation of symbols

  3: Photosensitive drum, 9: Cleaning device, 20: Roller for residual toner disturbance, 21: Rotating member, 22: Blade member, 27: Blade portion.

Claims (9)

It is arranged to rotate while in contact with the surface of the image carrier, disturb the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier, and weaken the adhesion between the residual toner and the surface of the image carrier, In the residual toner disturbing roller of the image forming apparatus for removing the residual toner,
On the surface of the residual toner disturbing roller, at least two or more blade members made of a flexible material are spirally provided along the axial direction of the residual toner disturbing roller. Residual toner disturbance roller of the image forming apparatus. 2. The residual toner disturbance roller of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the residual toner disturbance roller is driven to rotate in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the image carrier. 3. The residual toner disturbing roller of the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blade-like member of the residual toner disturbing roller is formed so that a cross-sectional shape of a tip thereof is an acute angle. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a blade-like member of the residual toner disturbing roller is formed in a shape in which a transfer residual toner from which a cross-sectional shape of a tip thereof is removed is easily discharged. Residual toner disturbance roller. 5. The residual toner disturbance roller has a concave holding space for holding the residual toner removed from the image carrier between the blade-like members. A residual toner disturbance roller of the image forming apparatus according to the item 1. 6. The residual toner disturbing roller for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a brush-like member is disposed on the surface of the residual toner disturbing roller. The residual toner disturbing roller of an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a cleaning blade is disposed downstream of the residual toner disturbing roller. 8. The residual toner disturbing roller for an image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a blade-like member of the residual toner disturbing roller is formed of a conductive material. An image carrier on which a toner image is formed on the surface;
It is arranged so as to rotate while being in contact with the surface of the image carrier, and disturbs the toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier, thereby weakening the adhesion between the residual toner and the surface of the image carrier. In the image forming apparatus comprising the residual toner disturbing roller for removing the residual toner,
The surface of the residual toner disturbing roller is provided with at least two blade-like members made of a flexible material in a spiral shape along the axial direction of the residual toner disturbing roller. Image forming apparatus.

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